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Letter to the Editor

Professor finds ‘Excellence’ slogan to be cliché

Published: Monday, November 16, 2009

Updated: Monday, November 16, 2009

In case you haven’t noticed, there is a new UD slogan being promulgated: “Excellence in everything we do.”  Philosophy students will recognize this as a great example of a self-falsifying statement.  It’s like the lyrics from the old Weird Al song: “This song’s just five words long.”  “Excellence in everything we do” is a clanging cliché.  It is about as far from “excellence” in the slogan-writing business as it is possible to get while remaining grammatical.  Using this slogan for University PR is like hiring a guy in a very poorly fitting suit to be the spokesman for your tailor shop.  If you want a short, punchy slogan that has the virtue of being very good advice, I recommend “Ignore slogans.”

– Fred Schueler, UD Professor of Philosophy

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4 comments

hip hip
Sat Nov 21 2009 16:52
Hooray for professors!

How about, "Excellence from the few, paid for by the many." (If you care, you get it).

Fred Schueler
Wed Nov 18 2009 14:53
Actually I think we are both wrong. The lyric is "This song is just six words long". The title is "(this song's just) six words long". I haven't been keeping up with listening to Weird Al enough obviously.
Your name
Tue Nov 17 2009 17:08
I thought we never departed from, "A drinking town with a college problem."
whoa there
Tue Nov 17 2009 02:12
actually it's "(this song's just) six words long" but yeah, i agree






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