Sincerely

I was listening just now to Fresh Air on WBUR, and the non-ad ad told me that one of the underwriters or sponsors or whatever they call their, well, advertisers, is Loomis Sayles, a money management firm in Boston. The mention of Loomis Sayles said that the company is "sincerely committed" to something or other - some public good. (Evidence, of course, is that they support NPR.) I have no problem with the word committed, but I wanted to check. So I went to the Loomis Sayles web site and apparently they do have a commitment to good works, with extensive community involvement, etc. But the word sincerely. Sincerely? Doesn't the use of the word sincerely - when you're attributing it to yourself - always kinda sorta cast some doubts on someone’s sincerity?

Isn’t it much better when someone else says that you’re sincerely sincere?

It’s things like this that, as marketers, we need to watch out for. Words like “sincerely,” which sounds phony. And “genuine”, which sounds fake.

I’m sure there are other examples, and I’ll make a sincerely genuine effort to think of them.