If you’ve been watching TV lately (the offline kind), you’ve probably seen Verizon’s new ads hyping the impending release of the Droid smartphone later this month. If you haven’t seen the ad, you can visit it here.

one of the commercials catchphrases
My immediate reaction to the ad was positive, and I still generally like it (up until the end). It does a nice job positioning itself as an iPhone competitor, and Verizon takes the battle to Apple rather than to AT&T, which is where many ads already go. Even the “iDon’t” sentences are catchy in the same way the old “Genesis does what Nintendon’t” campaign of the 90s was.
Daring Fireball writer John Gruber, however, makes an astute observation about the ads:
I think the main problem with the ad is that it doesn’t make any sense to non-nerds.
He’s completely right too. Of the eight “iDon’t” claims in Verizon’s ad, perhaps four speak to general consumers. The rest are pretty meaningless without a technology background of some sort. The message is a mixed one – the Droid is positioned against a phone highly popular with consumers while being differentiated in ways only a geek could love.
A good presentation, but…
The application to our presentations is a simple one. Who did you prepare your talk for? Now who is your audience? If you are a specialist delivering a talk before laypeople, you’re going to have to present your ideas differently than before peers. Jargon, buzzwords, acronyms, abbreviations – these should either be substituted or explained as the presentation progresses.

Too much of this stuff, and your audience will have another three-letter acronym floating in their heads.
While not talking down to an audience, we should be striving to make things as easy to understand for them as possible. Help guide them to your conclusions and/or results in a way that avoids confusion and frustration. Don’t let anyone walk away from your presentation saying, “The main problem is that it doesn’t make sense to non-[specialists].”
I picked up this strange product at the grocery store last week called 





