Public Relations Consultant Tom Madden Urges Execs to Stop Saying 'Seamless,' 'Bubble' or How 'Excited' They Are in Financial Interviews BOCA RATON, Fla., Dec. 29, 2003 -- Still excited by growth stocks or do you see a bubble there? Public Relations consultant Tom Madden advises executives who appear on financial shows to refrain from using cliches such as "bubble," "seamless" and "absolutely," and to stop saying how "excited" they are in interviews on TV. "How many times have you heard interviewees answer 'absolutely,' then gush excitedly in whole-hearted agreement with the premise of a lobbed-over-the-plate question? Who do these sycophants think they're kidding?" Madden is the author of "Spin Man" and other books and articles about PR. He is chairman of TransMedia Group, one of Florida's largest independent PR firms, which he said he co-founded not too "seamlessly" with his wife, Angela, a former seamstress turned CFO. Madden exhorts TV talkers to stop saying that "old adage" (ever hear of a new adage?) and disapproves of anyone following in the prosaic "footsteps" of the worst offenders of all -- executives who are forever proclaiming how "excited" they are. "Interviewers are not helping matters when they slow pitch to a CEO: 'I'll bet you're excited about your increasing market share.' "'Absolutely! It's one of the most exciting things that has happened. Our shareholders are excited. So are our customers. It's all very exciting.' "Hold it, bub," says Madden. "Burst that excitement bubble. And most quarterly reports aren't very thrilling either. So what if they beat the street by a penny? Shouldn't that make one more suspicious than excited? And what's so exciting about a company's future? Half the time it's anyone's guess. Yet executives continually (not continuously) talk in a perpetual state of excitement on television. And please don't say 'new product launch' ever again, as you'd hardly launch an old product. Or would you? "Let's make it our New Year's resolution to avoid convoluted expressions like 'joblessness declines,' leave it to the Sopranos to give gory advice as averaging down is like 'catching a falling knife' and please go easy on 'seamless.' In fact, let's put the seams back in so we can tell the objective interviewers from the corporate cheerleaders. And while you're at it, guru, kindly jettison exhausted terms like 'value,' 'growth,' 'FED watcher' and 'guru.' Now that would be exciting!" # # # CONTACT: Glen Calder, +1-561-750-9800, ext. 16, or GCosen@transmediagroup.com