A Handwritten Job Ad

Advertising agency Solve has a new-and old-way of inviting interns to apply for jobs. In a handwritten letter posted around college campuses, Solve asks interns to submit a traditional cover letter and resume by mail. Emphasizing "genuine connections" and a "personal, straightforward" approach, the agency describes its rationale:

"Valuing substance over silliness, Solve refuses to ask candidates to condense resumes into 140 characters, present themselves via fake campaign or funny videos, or answer irrelevant nonsensical questions. Rather, Solve is simply asking for a resume and cover letter…to be sent (via mail) to the agency."

Discussion Starters:

• What's your view of the agency's campaign: refreshing, as gimmicky as a tweet, or something else?
• I'm having trouble reading the letter. Is it just me?
• The letter asks prospective interns to mail in their cover letter and resume. Would you submit something typed or handwritten?
• The letter has a fairly major grammatical error. Can you find it?

Error in "12 Years a Slave" Story

The New York Times has just corrected an error in spelling the name of the man featured in the Academy Award winning movie 12 Years a Slave. The 1853 article about the free African American man who was sold into slavery spelled his name Solomon Northrop and, in the headline, Northrup, rather than the correct spelling, Northup.

The New York Times correction acknowledges a tweet for pointing out the error:

An article on Jan. 20, 1853, recounting the story of Solomon Northup, whose memoir '12 Years a Slave' became a movie 160 years later that won the best picture Oscar at the 86th Academy Awards on Sunday night, misspelled his surname as Northrop. And the headline misspelled it as Northrup. The errors came to light on Monday after a Twitter user pointed out the article in The Times archives. (The errors notwithstanding, The Times described the article as 'a more complete and authentic record than has yet appeared.')

Rebecca Skloot's tweets revealed the error but also included a typo:

In a later tweet, Skloot admitted, "The irony, of course, is that I'm a terrible speller and proofreader."

Discussion Starters:

• How could an error like this happen? What technologies and processes may be in place today that might have caught the error before going to press?
• Does it surprise you that the error was revealed in a tweet and that The New York Times didn't catch the mistake until 161 years later?

Head of Job Bank Apologizes for Nasty Emails

The winner of the IABC (International Association for Business Communication) "Communicator of the Year" award in 2013 may want to give back the prize. Kelly Blazek runs a Cleveland-based job bank and was tired of people such as this John Carroll University graduate asking for access to her connections (her Yahoo group). But Blazek's emails are too harsh.

When her emails became public on Reddit and other sites, Blazek deleted her Twitter account, LinkedIn recommendations, and blog posts. She also apologized for her approach.

I am very sorry to the people I have hurt.

Creating and updating the Cleveland Job Bank listings has been my hobby for more than ten years. It started as a labor of love for the marketing industry, but somehow it also became a labor, and I vented my frustrations on the very people I set out to help.

Hundreds of people contact me every month looking for help, and as the bottom fell out of the job market, their outreach and requests demanded more of my time. I became shortsighted and impatient, and that was wrong.

My Job Bank listings were supposed to be about hope, and I failed that. In my harsh reply notes, I lost my perspective about how to help, and I also lost sight of kindness, which is why I started the Job Bank listings in the first place.

The note I sent to Diana was rude, unwelcoming, unprofessional and wrong. I am reaching out to her to apologize. Diana and her generation are the future of this city. I wish her all the best in landing a job in this great town.

Discussion Starters:

• IABC is getting pressure to rescind the award. Should the organization do so? Why or why not?
• Try to see Blazek's perspective. Why would she send such emails to job seekers?
• What's your reaction to Blazek's apology? Is it sincere? Is it enough?

Face Off or Faceoff, and Other Writing Tips for the Olympics

The AP Standards Center has provided an overview of the Winter Games and tips for writing about the Olympics at Sochi. The purpose of the guide follows, in an introduction:

"To help with spellings and usage in coverage of the Sochi Winter Olympics, The Associated Press compiled an editorial style guide of essential terms, spellings and definitions. Some terms are from the AP Stylebook: http://www.apstylebook.com/. Others are used in AP sports stories or contributed by Stephen Wilson, AP's Olympics beat writer.

In a section on "Spellings and usage," the guide offers these suggestions:

Capitalize games when attached to the host city or year: the Sochi Games and the 2014 Games.

When standing alone, spell games lowercase: The games open Feb. 7.

Olympics or Olympic Games are always capitalized: Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics. Each is staged every four years, but two years apart. The next Summer Games is 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.

Olympic (adj. without s) is always capitalized: Olympic gold medal, Olympic host city, Olympic flame, etc.

Image source.

Discussion Starters:

• Read all of the style tips for the Winter Olympics. Which, if any, surprise you?
• Faceoff vs. face off follows the same rule for other nouns and verbs. What other examples fit this rule?

School Superintendent Apologizes for Botched Delay

A school district in Leander, TX, took too long to announce a delayed opening because of icy weather, and people were upset. By the time parents heard that schools would open two hours late, many of them were already on dangerous roads. Some kids were on buses, one of which skidded off the road. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Superintendent Bret Champion sent a letter explaining the decision and addressing complaints. Download the letter.

Discussion Starters:

• Analyze Champion's letter in terms of audience analysis, structure, content, writing style, and so on. What works well, and what could be improved?
• How well does Champion's letter specifically address concerns of the community?
• What responsibility does Champion place on parents? What's your response to this approach?

New Rules for Canadian Government Press Releases

The Canadian government has created new rules for press releases. The Government Communication Service explains the change on its website: 

"The Government of Canada is retiring the traditional press release format in favour of a more digital-friendly product that makes the key messages of announcements clearer, quick facts more accessible and integrates more effectively with social media channels. . . . The old style release – which hasn't changed in over 50 years – disappeared on 31 December 2013.  Gone with it are the dense blocks of text that make it hard to read, the use of long titles in headlines and leads and the use of complex jargon."

For years, people have predicted the death of the press release, but it has lived on. This change doesn't quite kill the traditional press release, but it does shorten it, asking for just two or three paragraphs of text and the following: 

• develop catchy headlines and sub-headlines
• write concise and clear opening paragraphs that contain the 5 Ws (who, what, where, when, why)
• select key facts that capture the reader's attention
• draft quotes that are meaningful and succinct
• repurpose the quick facts and quotes for Facebook and Twitter posts, and
• offer associated links that provide additional context to help the reader better understand the issue

A sample release shows little paragraph text, several bullets, and links to more information (visit page to enlarge). 

Discussion Starters: 

• In what ways is this new format consistent with business writing principles? 
• What, if anything, could be lost with this new format? What could the reader miss? 

Coke Explains "You Retard" on Cap

Imagine looking at the bottom of a bottle cap and seeing "YOU RETARD." That's what a Canadian girl saw when she opened a bottle of Coke's Vitaminwater.

Unfortunately for Coke, the expression was particularly hurtful because the girl's younger sister has celebral palsy and autism. Their father wrote a letter to Coke explaining the family's view of the "R" word:

"You see, the "R" word is considered a swear word in out [sic] family. We don't use it. We don't tolerate others using it around us. We are over-sensitive, but you would be too if you have Fiona for a daughter."

The Coca-Cola Company responded to ABC News:

"We have spoken to the family to offer our sincerest apologies and to explain the production process to them," Shannon Denny, director of brand communications for Coca-Cola Refreshment Canada, told ABC News. "This is certainly not an excuse in any way for what has occurred. We wanted them to know that this was in no way intentional and was a mistake on our part during the review process. We also wanted to share that the promotion has since been cancelled and we are no longer producing bottles with those caps."

How did the mistake happen? Apparently, the caps were part of a promotion that randomly paired an English word with a French word. "Retard" translated to mean "late" or "delayed" in French. According to a company spokesperson, "The word's English connotation was missed during the review process." 

Discussion Starters:

• How do you assess Coke's apology and explanation?
• Read the father's letter. How it is organized? What works well, and what could be improved?

Restaurant Owner Terminates Employees but Fumbles the Explanation

Two employees of Famous Dave's barbecue restaurant in North Dakota were fired for a Facebook post implying that Native Americans are bad tippers. 

The photo was posted during United Tribes International Pow Wow, a festival attended by more 20,000 people, according to event organizers. According to The Huffington Post, the employee shown in the poto "denies creating the cardboard sign, but she doesn't deny posing for the picture." Good move!

Thinking the photo would disappear, the employee's friend shared the photo via Snapchat. Snapchat describes the app on its website, but in this case, the image was shared on Facebook:

"Snapchat is a new way to share moments with friends. Snap an ugly selfie or a video, add a caption, and send it to a friend (or maybe a few). They'll receive it, laugh, and then the snap disappears.

"The image might be a little grainy, and you may not look your best, but that's the point. It's about the moment, a connection between friends, and not just a pretty picture.

"The allure of fleeting messages reminds us about the beauty of friendship - we don't need a reason to stay in touch.

"Give it a try, share a moment, and enjoy the lightness of being!"

Snapchat has been criticized as an unsafe "sexting" app.

Although the owner of Famous Dave's may have done the right thing by terminating the employees, his Facebook post needs editing:

Discussion Starters:

• Assess Mike Wright's Facebook post. What works well, and what could be improved? Edit the post for accuracy.
• What's your view of Snapchat's claims? Can the site ensure that photos "disappear"? Is the company responsible for images that are shared in the interim, or do users hold this responsibility?

Tufts' "#YOLO" Question: Creative or Offensive?

Tufts is engaging the Class of 2018 by asking prospective students to include a supplementalwriting essay to the common application. Students are asked to respond to questions 1 and 2, and can select one option from question 3:

1. Which aspects of Tufts' curriculum or undergraduate experience prompt your application? In short: "Why Tufts?" (50–100 words)
2. There is a Quaker saying: "Let your life speak." Describe the environment in which you were raised – your family, home, neighborhood or community – and how it influenced the person you are today. (200–250 words) 
3. Now we'd like to know a little bit more about you.  Please respond to one of the following six questions:

   A) "If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people," Virginia Woolf.  Respond to Woolf's quote in the medium of your choice: prose, video (one minute), blog, digital portfolio, slam poetry...  For media other than writing, please share a link (video can be submitted via YouTube but we recommend using a privacy setting) that is easily accessible. .

   B) What makes you happy?

   C) Sports, science and society are filled with rules, theories and laws like the Ninth Commandment, PV=nRT, Occam's Razor, and The Law of Diminishing Returns. Three strikes and you're out. "I" before "E" except after "C." Warm air rises. Pick one and explain its significance to you. 

   D) Celebrate your nerdy side.

   E) The ancient Romans started it when they coined the phrase "Carpe diem." Jonathan Larson proclaimed "No day but today!" and most recently, Drake explained You Only Live Once (YOLO).  Have you ever seized the day? Lived like there was no tomorrow?  Or perhaps you plan to shout YOLO while jumping into something in the future. What does #YOLO mean to you?

   F) Boston is famous for its teams, its fans and its rivalries.  Whether you are goaltending or cheering from the stands, celebrate the role sports plays in your life.  

Not everyone appreciated the forward-thinking question: 

One alum of the school explains why he's offended by the question (excerpt here):

The college admissions process is the biggest freakshow of self-aggrandizement and hapless people pleasing in modern American society. On the one hand Drake is exceedingly worthy of being name-dropped in an application essay because his claim to legitimacy, at least in the early part of his career, was the fact that he did whatever it took to make people like him no matter if it made him feel hollow inside. The general internet consensus on the #YOLO question seems to be, "Drake is stupid, Tufts is stupid, kids are stupid, America is stupid." While I agree with each of these conclusions taken separately, I'm also legitimately angered by their intersection. Most people are mad at Tufts for the #YOLO question because it's a cornball "cool dad" appeal to applicants. I'm mad because Tufts isn't being criticized for admission and administrative practices that deserve scorn, practices that are a toxic mixture of profiteering and systemic racism and classism that are symptomatic of higher education as gestalt. Since we live in a country where it's pretty much legal to stalk, assault and kill a black kid walking to his dad's house, I feel a pressing need to call Tufts, my alma mater and cool dad, on its recent history.

Discussion Starters:

• Regardless of your expected graduation year, answer the prompt. What do you think would be a good response to the admissions question?
• What's your opinion of the controversy? Do you find the question creative, offensive, stupid, or something else?

Visualization of Email Sign-Offs

Here's a cute (not much else) visualization of what your email closing may mean. Although compiled in 2007, this just made it to Twitter.

 

The graphic is an interesting way of categorizing email endings. "Self-conscious" implies an insecurity, perhaps as well as a lack of familiarity, so we may see some overlap here. Maybe "formal" and "informal" would be a better continuum. To me, this language has less judgement (but, then again, I'm self-conscious).

Discussion Starters:

• What's your assessment of the visualization? Do you agree with the author's characterizations of email closings?
• Look at 25 of your most recent emails, and plot them on a similar chart. What do you find?

Embarrassing Typos in School Book List

A Long Island school district published its summer reading list riddled with typos. The Hempstead Union Free School District suggested that students read "The Great Gypsy" among other remixed classics. Written for all grade levels in the district, the list includes 30 errors according to one count.

District spokesperson Alicia Figueras said, "I would like to announce that disciplinary action has been taken against the personnel who made the unfortunate clerical errors while compiling the list."

Although Figueras described the incident as an isolated event, the errors are part of bigger problems, according to Newsday:

"Hempstead consistently has been one of Long Island's worst-performing school systems. Its 2011-12 graduation rate of 38 percent was the lowest of the Island's 124 public school districts."

Discussion Starters:

• What action is appropriate for the employee who made the errors? Who else, if anyone, should be held responsible, and how?
• Read the entire document. How many errors do you find?

"Flordia" Road Sign

Never hire someone from Arizona to create traffic signs for Florida. That's what the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is saying in response to a sign that misspells Florida-twice. For extra embarrassment to the FDOT, the sign points to the University of Florida. 

Local news organization WOKV.com reported the story with the appropriate level of criticism. But WOKV is not flawless either. Here's an excerpt from the article:

"After posting the picture on WOKV.com and Facebook, WOKV News contacted the Florida Dept. or Transportation for comment and their spokesperson, Mike Goldman, says the FDOT had already realized the mistake when the sign was delivered and had left them by the side of the road while they awaited a replacement."

Can you find the two errors (one typo and one punctuation mark)? 

Image source. 

Assignment Ideas: 

• Spend the next couple of days looking closely at signs around town. Take photos of signs with typos or misused punctuation. 
• Try to get one of the signs fixed. Identify the owner and talk to him or her in person or try to get an email address. Report your progress to the rest of the class.

Carnival Updates Guests with "Improvement" Plans

In a letter from CEO Gerry Cahill, Carnival tries to restore guests' confidence in the brand after several technical and other issues on ships during the past few months. In addition to this letter, Carnival has posted a video on YouTube and created a News and Updates page on Facebook.

In some respects, the letter is a confusing mess. Although the $300 million is more clearly explained in the video, this letter makes it sound as though Carnival is buying hotels: "$300 million to expand the availability of hotel services." Cudos to having some of the main point upfront ("Our goal is to drive continual improvement across all aspects of our customer experience"), but isn't much of the main point at the end, where Cahill thanks guests for their loyalty?

Also, the letter seems overly jargony for typical Carnival guests. The company just wants them to book another cruise, right? The encouragement could be clearer and more direct.

Discussion and Assignment Ideas:

• Compare Carnival's guest letter, video, and Facebook page. What differences do you see, and how do you account for them; for example, what are the audiences for each?
• Rewrite the Carnival letter. How can you improve the content, organization, and tone?

Victims' Families Don't Appreciate Theater Invitation

The Century Aurora theater in Colorado, where 12 people were killed and 58 injured, reopened a few months after the horrific shooting incident. To encourage people to return, the theater sent invitations to the victims' families for a "special evening of remembrance," with a movie showing.

The families didn't appreciate the gesture. In a letter to the theater company, they called the invitation "disgusting" and "wholly offensive to the memory of our loved ones." Coming just two days after Christmas, the invitation stung even worse for some families.

To the Management of Cinemark USA, Inc.:

During the holiday we didn't think anyone or anything could make our grief worse but you, Cinemark, have managed to do just that by sending us an invitation two days after Christmas inviting us to attend the re-opening of your theater in Aurora where our loved ones were massacred.Thanks for making what is a very difficult holiday season that much more difficult. Timing is everything and yours is awful.

You (Cinemark) has shown, and continues to show, ZERO compassion to the families of the victims whose loved ones were killed in their theater. You, Cinemark, have never once reached out to the families to offer condolences.

This disgusting offer that you'd "like to invite you and a guest to a special evening of remembrance on Thursday, January 17 at 5 PM" followed by the showing of a movie and then telling us to be sure "to reserve our tickets" is wholly offensive to the memory of our loved ones.

Our family members will never be on this earth with us again and a movie ticket and some token words from people who didn't care enough to reach out to us, nor respond when we reached out to them to talk, is appalling.

You (Cinemark) refused our repeated invitations to speak parent to parent with no lawyers involved. Instead, we get invited to attend a "special evening of remembrance" at the very theater where our loved ones lay dead on the floor for over 15 hours. We would give anything to wipe the carnage of that night out of our minds' eye. Thank you for reminding us how your quest for profits has blinded your leadership and made you so callous as to be oblivious to our mental anguish.

We, the families, recognize your thinly veiled publicity ploy for what it is: A great opportunity for you to distance yourselves and divert public scrutiny from your culpability in this massacre.

After reading our response to your ridiculously offensive invitation, you now know why we will not be attending your re-opening celebration and will be using every social media tool at our disposal to ask the other victims to ask their friends and family to honor us by boycotting the killing field of our children.

Image source.

Discussion Starters:

• What's your view of the theater's invitation: a nice gesture, an insensitive ploy to recoup revenue, or something else?
• What could have been a better approach for the theater?
• How well does the families' letter express their perspective? What suggestions, if any, do you have for a revision?
• In the families' letter, they say that the theater has refused to meet with them. How, if at all, does this influence your perspective of the invitation?

Lego Comes Through for Little Boy

For two years, James Groccia, an 11-year-old boy with Asperger's Syndrome, saved up for his dream Lego train set, but it had been discontinued. James wrote a letter to Lego and received a nice response-and the set he wanted.

James's mother, Karen, described the boy's process for writing the letter:

"James was very concise about what he wanted to say. He planned it, and I just helped him organize his thoughts."

How about that. James hasn't even taken a Business Communication course.

Lego's response is very enthusiastic and obviously tailored to James:

Discussion Starters:

• James's letter is great-for an 11-year-old boy-but it could be improved to meet business writing principles. What could be changed? 
• Lego's letter isn't perfect either. What would you advise that Megan change in future letters?

News Corp's Reorganization Announcement

News Corp will split into two separate, public companies: one focused on entertainment and the other on publishing. The company also announced the closing of its tablet newspaper because of low readership.

In a press release, the company announced leadership changes of the publishing company (News Corporation), additional organization changes in the New York office, organizational changes in the London office, and plans for the separation of the publishing company from the entertainment company (Fox Group).

In an internal email, Chairman Rupert Murdoch explained the changes, complimented the employees' work, and shared his personal mission for the company:

"Many of you know that a belief in the power of the written word has been in my bones for my entire life. It began as I listened to my father's stories from his days as a war correspondent and, later, a successful publisher. It deepened when, starting in grammar school, I rolled up my sleeves and worked alongside fellow students to publish school journals. I witnessed the hunger people had for well-written, thoroughly observed stories ... stories that provide not just information, but insight. That hunger is alive and well today; my personal mission is to serve and satisfy the human need for insight as well as I possibly can."

Image source.

Discussion Starters:

• Read the company's press release in detail. How is it organized? What works well about the structure, and what could be improved?
• What is your reaction to Murdoch's email to employees? What are his most important messages, and how do you think employees might react?

Why We Should Stop Making Fun of Obama's Emails

During the presidential campaign, the Obama Administration was criticized for sending emails some called "creepy" and "desperate." Well, laugh no more! According to Bloomberg Businessweek, "Most of the $690 million Obama raised online came from fundraising emails."

With subject lines such as "Wow," "Hey," and "Join me for dinner?" the emails were crafted by a team of analysts experimenting with different approaches to see what garnered the most financial support. During the campaign, Obama's staff was secretive about the email strategy, but now we learn that 20 writers would draft as many as 18 variations of emails to test responses before sending out the winning version.

 

Amelia Showalter, the director of digital analytics, explains how the campaign changed emails based on results:

"We were so bad at predicting what would win that it only reinforced the need to constantly keep testing. Every time something really ugly won, it would shock me: giant-size fonts for links, plain-text links vs. pretty 'Donate' buttons. Eventually we got to thinking, 'How could we make things even less attractive?' That's how we arrived at the ugly yellow highlighting on the sections we wanted to draw people's eye to."

What can business writers learn from the analysis? Here are a few key points that may be adapted for work email:

• The most effective subject lines were similar "to what you might see in your in-box from other people," according to email director.
• Light profanity (e.g., "hell") got a strong reaction.
• Although the emails may have been "mildly irritating" to some, people did not unsubscribe, showing a lot of tolerance for a lot of messages.

Discussion Starters:

• Based on the previous criticism, are you surprised at the results of the email campaign? Why or why not?
• I'm not sure that business writers should use profanity in their email, but how could you interpret this finding and write subject lines for a professional work environment?
• Review a few of your own emails sent for business purposes. Given this analysis, what, if anything, would you change?

Fun Facts About the Emoticon

The New York Times today featured Scott Fahlman, creator of the smiley face. Fahlman invented the character, which he called a "joke marker," back in 1982 to temper flaming in online discussion forums.

A linguist analyzed millions of tweets to see how emoticons were used and found that 10% of tweets had some type of character. His reasoning was that people could more accurately describe emotion in a longer paragraph, but shorter messages may require explanation.

We could debate whether and how emoticons should be used in business writing ad nauseum. Proponents see the ocassional smiley as a way to ensure accurately interpreted messages, particularly to convey tone, often misunderstood in business email.

Opponents think emoticons are silly and unprofessional. Writing instructors worry about the degradation of the language. As one communication lecturer said, "Certainly I understand the need for clarity. But language, used properly, is clear on its own." A British radio personality said, "If anybody on Facebook sends me a message with a little smiley-frowny face or a little sunshine with glasses on them, I will de-friend them. I also de-friend for OMG and LOL. They get no second chance. I find it lazy. Are your words not enough? To use a little picture with sunglasses on it to let you know how you're feeling is beyond ridiculous."

A recent CNN article offers this sound advice: use an emoticon if you must, "But nix emoticons from any initial emails with new contacts."

Image source.

Discussion Starters:

• When do you use emoticons in your writing?
• In addition to initial emails, as CNN suggests, when would you avoid using emoticons in business email?

New NYT CEO Emails Staff

Mark Thompson, new CEO of The New York Times Company, emailed staff after his first week at work. This is a great example for business communication students to study:

• Content: What are Thompson's main points? What does he want NYT employees to know, and how does he want them to feel?
• Organization: What structure does Thompson use for his message? How does he sequence paragraphs? How does he convey the main point of each paragraph?
• Tone: How would you describe Thompson's tone? What changes, if any, do you see throughout the email? How does he balance positive messages with a sense of urgency?
• Sentence variety: How does Thompson vary sentence structure throughout his email? How many different types of sentences (simple, compound, complex) does he use?
• Punctuation: As we might expect, Thompson uses impeccable puntuation. How does he use m-dashes and semi-colons effectively?

As I finish my first week at The New York Times Company, I would like to thank the many people I've already met. As you'd expect, Times employees come across as super-smart and totally committed to maintaining the values and quality that the company and its newspapers have always stood for. But I've also been struck by how friendly and welcoming you've been to me.

I've been impressed by the work that's already in motion to tackle the structural trends that our industry faces and the products and services we're developing that will drive new growth and profitability, all while securing the brilliant journalism on which everything else depends. The digital subscription story continues to be an exciting one, and we can build on it further. With Invest in the Times and similar projects at the Globe and IHT, our company is already focusing on other growth opportunities. We are looking in the right places for future success: understanding and engaging with our readers and consumers better; developing compelling propositions in video, mobile and social; and figuring out how to drive more revenue from international audiences. The work done so far is really valuable.

But I don't want to underestimate the challenges we face. As our third-quarter results showed, the company is experiencing the same advertising and economic pressures as the rest of our industry. Figuring out how best to respond to these pressures - especially the long-term downward trajectory of print advertising - is also going to be an important part of our work in the coming months.

Thank you for a productive and inspiring first week. To help us get to know each other better, we have scheduled Town Hall meetings with me for Monday, Dec. 17, and Tuesday, Dec. 18, in The Times Center and Wednesday, Dec. 19, at College Point. More details will follow soon. I plan to have Town Hall meetings in Boston and at the IHT as soon as possible.

Obama Emails: "Creepy," "Weird," and "Desperate"?

The Obama campaign is taking a hit because of emails that some consider strange and "increasingly weird" and "desperate."  Business Insider is criticizing the Democrats' fundraising emails for their strong language:

• "When you get knocked down, get up. There's no quit in America. There's nothing we can't do." (Joe Biden)
• "We've gotta close the gap and fight back before it's too late." (James Carville)
• "I don't have as much time to campaign this time as I did in 2008, so this whole thing is riding on you making it happen." (President Obama)

In an email that Business Insider calls "the creepiest yet," the campaign uses a very casual tone and invites donors to enter for a chance to meet the president and shoot some hoops. 

This isn't the first time Obama's emails have been criticized. Jon Stewart lambasted the campaign on The Daily Show, calling the tone in emails "fake familiarity." 

A recent Romney email also was criticized. Before he announced his VP running mate, Romney sent an email teasing supporters with the name of his VP pick. The subject line was "My Vice President," but the email didn't reveal Paul Ryan's name: 

Discussion Starters:

• How do you assess President Obama's emails: would you call them creepy, effective, or something else?
• How effective do you think Romney's email was in raising money? What reaction would you have to the message?