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Kudos
Not Only A Tasty Treat, But Also Sincere Congratulationsh
by Jeff Gores

First, where in the hell did such an irritable word come from? Is the snack named after the compliment, as in "Here, you are sooo talented, have a Kudos." Or is the compliment named after the snack, as in "Because you are sooo talented, and I love Kudos bars, Kudos to you!" I wonder just how Kudos beat out the equally tasty snack, Chewy Granola for the honor of being in every ass kisser’s vocabulary.

A huge problem with the situation is people are just giving Kudos out left and right. What they do not understand is that their actions are diluting the meaning and stature that Kudos once brought. Now someone has the possibility of receiving Kudos just because they used Spell Check before sending out a press release. But I guess that is just the way evolution works. Not long from now (try yesterday) another supermarket delight will be the new hip way of awarding people of meaningless actions that must be brought to the attention of everybody in the local surroundings. When this happens, just make sure that you are not the person that says, "Kudos man" thinking that you’re all cool, but stopping everybody else in mid sentence. Trust me they are all now whispering about your uncoolness for using the wrong buzzword, and not the latest strategic B2B ecommerce client win.

I think the Kudos thing has to be a conspiracy, not by the government, but by the Buzzword Elite. I have figured this much out so far: The first rule of The Kudos Club is you do not talk about The Kudos Club. The second rule is… ahh… you can figure it out. But I have infiltrated them, and it is a closed society. Trust me when I say this, if you have not received Kudos yet, don’t expect to. That is unless you can befriend someone in the club. This is the only way.

The use of Kudos has spread quicker than the Hotmail viral campaign and a national forest fire in the summer of 2000 combined. A prime example is Craig Markus (Deutsch, Inc.) in the July/August 2000 SAM uses the Kudos word oh so dramatically. "Kudos to the creatives - and to the planner - for understanding the importance of insight, blah, blah, blah." Look at me, I’m from New York and I used "Kudos!" The only way to stop this disease, that I know of, is to carry around a box of Kudos and when you hear someone use the term, beam them in the head with one of those tasty afternoon snacks. With enough bruises this epidemic might just be stopped in its tracks.

With all of this talk about Kudos, I find myself getting hungry. These are just my opinions, and if you don’t like it, you can shove it up your… ahh… Kudos.