Copywriting is an artform. It takes practice, skill and patience. To this end, I'm starting "Copy Ban." Tentatively, this section will be devoted to improving the art copywriting through the banishment of certain words or phrases. Time to clean house!
If there is one word out there that deserves the ax, it's unique. Let's take a moment to examine. (Please note, that I pulled the following information from my little built-in iMac dictionary widget.)
unique: adj. being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else
derivatives
uniquely adverb
uniqueness noun
usage
There is a set of adjectives — including unique, complete, equal and perfect — whose core meaning embraces a mathmatically absolute concept and which therefore, according to a traditional arguement, cannot be modified by adverbs such as really, quite, or very. For example, since the core meaning of unique (Latin for one) is 'being only one of its kind,' it is logically impossible, the arguement goes, to submodify it: it either is unique or it's not, and there are no stages in between... It is advisable, however, to use unique sparingly, and not modify it with (adverbs)... Often, a writer can instead make accurate use of rare, distinctive, unusual, remarkable or other nonabsolute adjectives.
In other words, there are better options in our copywriting arsenal then unique. It is a tired, overtaxed word whose perception is mere puffery. The copy ban is in place!
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