Crying Foul

I recently received a series of e-mails promoting an online marketing course. The communications were sprinkled with curse words and foul language, for no particular reason that I could discern, except perhaps to make the text standout. It was written by 2 women supposedly experienced in marketing and online sales, but after reading through e-mail after e-mail of rapidly deteriorating "pitches," I unsubscribed and could not wait to close the window fast enough.

Several new blogs I have seen promoted also feature crass language and cursory words in the title and tag lines. I am not exactly a prude when it comes to language, but I have never seen the benefit of anyone expressing themselves this way, either in verbal or written communication, and I really just find it alienating.

Are we in such competition to garner online sales and revenue that we will stop at nothing? What happened to succint, fluent, and elegant copywriting? That's the course I want to take, and the blogger I want to follow. Let's hope this isn't what the evolution of web 3.0 will turn into.