If you work in the creative industries (or, to be honest, even if you don’t), you’ve probably heard or said these things:
‘That’s such a killer idea.’
‘They really butchered the execution.’
‘We’ve got to get it in before the deadline.’
‘She’s really smashing it.’
‘The competition has been so cutthroat.’
‘This is a bulletproof plan.’
Us creatives like to think of ourselves as visionaries. Storytellers. The people who imagine new worlds, who shift culture, who trade in ideas.
So why does so much of our industry language sound like we’re prepping for war?
After bearing witness to conversations we’ve seen on social media recently (like this Atmos breakdown and this TikTok by Julia Fox), we’ve realised just how much of the vocabulary we default to is riddled with metaphors of violence, extraction, domination, and speed. Slick, punchy, performance-driven, and often pulled straight from military handbooks or colonial history.
It’s a strange paradox. In an industry where creative thinking defines relevance, the way we speak is often anything but. Rigid, reductive, and steeped in urgency, our language can flatten complexity and drain the empathy from the work we’re here to do. We’re not calling for a ban on these phrases, but we are curious: how much does the way we speak limit the kind of thinking, feeling, and connection our work actually demands?
The metaphors we live and work by
While you might envision the typical cringy LinkedIn finance or tech bro when you think of business speak, this type of language is part of our everyday vocabulary, no matter what industry you’re in. Western work culture is steeped in military and colonial metaphor. Don’t believe us? We’ve become so accustomed to hyper-violent language that it’s actually hard to spot. Here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of the everyday words we use that have violent connections.
- Deadline – originally a line around Civil War prison camps; crossing it meant being shot
- Trigger warning/triggered – from trauma and firearm language
- Bullet points – derived from bullets/ammunition
- Slay – part of our online slang but originally meant to kill violently
- Shoot an email/message – equates communication with gunfire
- Bombshell – used to describe shocking or attractive things, originally meant a literal explosive
- Blow up (online, in popularity) – growth framed as an explosion
- Bite the bullet – once referred to soldiers biting bullets during surgery without anaesthesia
- Take a stab at something – to try something, with reference to stabbing
- Drop a bomb/bombed something – failure or surprise, linked to warfare
- Shoot down (ideas, plans) – to reject something, with aerial combat overtones
- Take a hit – to suffer a loss; also drug-related or physically violent
- Backfire – originally referring to a gun malfunction
- Landmark – often innocent, but rooted in the practice of marking claimed territory
- Empire (i.e. ‘business empire’, ‘podcast empire’) – normalised in business, rooted in imperialism
Why it matters
Now, obviously, no one’s getting fired (there’s another one) for saying ‘target audience.’ This isn’t about linguistic purism or cancelling words. It’s about approaching language with curiosity, noticing where our language comes from, and what ideas it’s reinforcing.
As an agency working towards a future that benefits people and the planet, we’ve been reflecting on what we mean when we say something, and how we want it to come across. When our everyday vocabulary relies on metaphors of force, conquest, and control, we risk reinforcing the very dynamics we want to be dismantling — dynamics rooted in colonisation, capitalism, and patriarchal power.
This isn’t just a semantic issue. Language reflects culture, and it also reinforces it.
The creative industry is no stranger to burnout, hyper-competition, and chronic urgency. Even when unintentional, violent or extractive language feeds that culture. The stakes always feel high, the mood is always urgent, and everything becomes a battle. And it makes sense — an industry built to sell mirrors the values of extractive capitalism, and glorifies speed, scale, and domination.
But it doesn’t take much to see where that mentality has led us: a climate crisis, deep racial and gender inequity, and widespread disconnection.
So, could a gentler, more regenerative approach to language shift how we see ourselves, our work, and the world we’re helping shape?
A more grounded, generative vocabulary
Here’s a short list of gentler alternatives to some common phrases in everyday work and creative copy:
- Shoot an email > send an email
- Deadline > due date
- Bullet points > dot points
- Blow up > grew
- Drop a bomb > surprise
- Bite the bullet > accept something, get something done
- Killer idea > brilliant idea
- Take a stab at it > give it a go
- Soften the blow > make it easier
- Pull the trigger > take a leap
And for the times when there’s no obvious alternative available, we’re trialling some nature-themed replacements in the Young Folks office, ranging from a bit poetic to completely absurd. Swap out ‘marketing empires’ for ‘marketing ecosystems’. Try ‘rip tide’ instead of ‘backfire’. Or rather than ‘shooting an idea down’, why not ‘bring it down to earth’?
Too much? Maybe. But maybe these swaps will encourage more connection, collaboration, and flow state, which, in turn, might result in better work (without the panic mode).
Do your words hold attention?
If you’re still reading this, let us guess: you’re a writer, a creative, or maybe a comms professional? Regardless, someone who spends a lot of time thinking about how to say things well.
And that’s what this is really about.
Because beyond the ethical implications, the cultural history, and the way language shapes our worldview, there’s also just this: a lot of this language is tired, overused, and a bit stale.
We’re in the business of good ideas. Of saying the same thing a hundred different ways until it finally lands. So the invitation here isn’t to scrub your vocabulary clean of anything remotely aggressive, but to stretch a little. Get weirder, gentler, and more precise.
Do your words reflect who you or your brand is? And what’s the best, most accurate way to say what you mean and how do you want the people you’re speaking to feel?
Probably not like they’re at war.
