Don’t pollute great content by dumping C.R.A.P. on top

Sometimes, C.R.A.P. hurts. This one hurts a lot.

Normally, the C.R.A.P. (Corporate Rhetoric Awards Program) Awards go to the worst of the worst. The folks who don’t even try. The editors who just dump lousy photos into the publication, write terrible leads where they jam every executive’s full title into the first paragraph, gather the worst quotes possible (or write the C.R.A.P. themselves) and generally create copy geared more toward getting through the approval process than drawing in readers and teaching them something.

But this week, I’m giving a C.R.A.P. Award to one of, if not the, best employee publications out there: Walgreen World.

I’ve known the folks at Walgreens for years and have always admired how they handle employee communications. They do great work. Walgreen World is one of the publications I look forward to getting the most. I read it like it’s a consumer pub.

But C.R.A.P. is C.R.A.P., and I have to call it as I see it. (I once gave my friend and colleague, David Murray, the Page 2 columnist of Corporate Writer & Editor, a C.R.A.P. Award, and he hasn’t forgiven me yet. I have yet to give myself a C.R.A.P. Award, but I know that day is coming.)