When to Avoid Clichés and When to Use Them

We were hoping this blog could make the “Blog Super Bowl” or at least “hit a home run” for me. But then again, “if it works, don’t fix it.” We really try our best to stay away from clichés — because that’s the way we were trained. One of our editors crossed out every phrase that even remotely resembled a cliché.

While we admit that clichés can be fun, they get overused, which is what made them clichés to begin with. Unless you use them for effect, and use them well, you’re evoking trite images that everyone’s seen a million times before. Clichés are much too often the province of lazy writers who can’t come up with anything original to write.

Making Headlines

Some of the best word-players, however, are headline writers who love to turn a common cliché into an eye-popping headline. And they get away with it. When a tired old cliché finds its way into a headline, it seems to draw readers’ attention and maybe even generate a guffaw or two. If it’s really good, it’ll make the rounds on social media. You’ve all seen examples, like: “Everything you wanted to know about XYZ, but were afraid to ask,” or “Taking XYZ to the next level.”

Not many readers can pass up a headline like: “Kraft: Who Cut the Cheese?” But please save us from “thinking outside the box” or any other type of container. While I give headline writers a little more leeway when it comes to creatively including a cliché in their copy, they need to keep it cool and clever to keep me from groaning. Remember: the goal of a headline is to entice people to read the article, not send them screaming in the other direction.

What Is a Cliché?

A cliché is nothing more than an expression that was unusual at one time, but has since turned into an annoying irritation. A statement loses its verve and vigor when it’s overused to the point of nausea. Can you even stand to hear one more “Where’s the beef?” even though it’s been more than 40 years since the little old lady coined the phrase for Wendy’s? And does that new car really cost an “arm and a leg?” Or is a buyer just a “fish out of water” or following the “fickle finger of fate?”

The use of clichés was so common in the early days of the printing press that printers saved sets of regularly used phrases, already prepared to drop in whenever needed (which was often). These sets were called “stereotype blocks.” A cliché is not a stereotype, but the two are so closely related that you could often use them interchangeably.

Pray for This Writer’s Soul

You could make the argument that some clichés are so old and overused that they actually can make a comeback. For example, you have: “a face that would scare a bulldog out of a butcher shop,” which may be hilarious in the right company —mainly, those who can appreciate old, antiquated humor. Then again, they might just accuse you of “flogging a dead horse” and ask you to refrain from spewing any more clichés.

But the aim of good writing is to provide a good reading experience while you learn. To further that goal, the writers at Ray Access make a pledge for 2016 to refrain from relying on clichés and overused marketing copy. Even though we recognize that “content is king,” we promise not to use clichés anymore (except in a blog about clichés). But if we must resort to clichés, we’ll try our very best to “knock it out of the park.” Find our other areas of expertise.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.