Created "OR" Saved. Slimy Logic - Even Worse PR

The national unemployment rate just passed 10% and people are stressed out. But don't tell that to the wordsmiths in Washington who repeatedly claim they created a million jobs. Or saved them.

Wait a minute. How can one create or save a job? Either the job exists or it doesn't. Either people have a job or they don't. Oh, OK, I finally get it - this new spin really means some jobs were created and some were saved, but injecting lots of gray into what is typically a black and white argument is bad PR.

This is a practice your business needs to avoid at all costs.

The word "or" itself implies a lack of clarity. I compare using it in marketing and politics to the carnival game where the heads randomly pop up and disappear before you can pound them with a mallet.

Frustrating, isn't it?

And when no one really knows what percentage of jobs were saved versus created, whose job is being saved and whether that job is worthy of "saving", people start thinking the worst. Every time The New York Daily News reports about MTA workers sleeping in subway customer service booths on city-time and corrupt politicians with multiple no-show jobs - it's not hard to wonder if the "saved" are really them.

Consumers want honesty and clarity in sales pitches and part of the public backlash felt by Democrats in New Jersey and Virginia was no doubt due to nervous people who don't buy nebulous claims they can't see in their daily lives. At the very least, people want to hear sentences that make logical sense.

What if the "Created or Saved" logic were applied to consumer goods?

"Your washing machine's waranty will last 4 or 2 years"
"This vehicle gets 30 or 18 miles per gallon"
"This dress is size 6 or 2"

Most of us would walk right out of the store.