You may have seen the news that Sesame Street celebrated its 40^th anniversary this week.

Generations of kids have learned letters, numbers and life lessons by watching the show. If your younger years included a portion of the the last four decades, you probably credit the characters on Sesame Street for teaching you how to count in Spanish.  

I do.

Did you know the children's television series on PBS is seen in 140 countries and has been the focus of more than 1,000 studies by independent academic researchers, making it the most researched TV show ever? In fact, one study found that teens who watched Sesame Street in preschool had higher grades and spent more time reading for pleasure than those who missed the show as children.

That's good to know since my 4-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son occasionally spend TV time with the likes of Big Bird, Oscar, Grover, Bert and Ernie.

But I have to admit, there's one character on Sesame Street who is projecting ill-will toward the business community. I'll go so far as to say he may be responsible for sabotaging the marketing copy for thousands -- if not millions -- of companies worldwide.

Elmo.

For proof of his negative effect, take a close look at the copy in most companies' marketing materials. The furry red monster is famous for referring to himself in the third person -- and, unfortunately, many companies carry over this characteristic to their marketing copy.

Check out this text I recently saw on a company's home page while searching for a carpet cleaner:

Phoenix Metro Cleaning offers superior Residential & Commercial Carpet Cleaning services to the entire Phoenix Area. Phoenix Metro Cleaning is a local Family owned and insured company. We pride ourselves on being a professional carpet cleaning company committed to being the best in the industry. We invite you to call us today to see why Phoenix Metro Cleaning is a higher standard for Phoenix carpet cleaning.

We always choose the best biodegradable chemicals and shampoos that will not leave your carpet feeling sticky or with residues, odors. Carpets cleaned by Phoenix Metro Cleaning stay cleaner longer and have a long lasting fresh appearance.

Our aim at Phoenix Metro Cleaning is to assist you in maintaining your carpets.

With so many references to Phoenix Metro Cleaning, I wondered if the company or an actual person would clean my carpets. Imagine how silly someone would sound if they used the above text to introduce carpet-cleaning services in a face-to-face conversation.

Remember, people buy solutions to their problems from people ... not companies.

The first two sentences are examples of copy written in third person. If you replace "Phoenix Metro Cleaning" with "Elmo," raise your voice a couple of octaves, and then read the sentences again, you'll sound just like him.

When I critique copy, the first thing I do is skim each sentence to count the number of times "we," "our" and a company name are used. Then, I go through the copy again to add up the instances where "you" or "your" appear. (Try this exercise with the example above.)

Although there isn't a magic formula, you should see "you" and "your" much more than "we," "our" and a company name. 

When you use "you" and "your" -- or the second-person narrative -- you encourage your readers to connect your written words with situations in their lives. Your readers' minds will instinctively personalize your product or service to meet their needs.

If you want to use third-person writing, save it for your bios and press releases.

Please feel free to share this e-mail with the people in your network.

Sincerely,

Tom Trush

Get more free articles, videos and expert interviews at http://www.writewaysolutions.com/blog. Also, if you have a copywriting or marketing question you need answered, just click reply and your message will come directly to my personal inbox.

P.S. There are still some spots left for the e-mail marketing offer I mentioned on Tuesday. If you missed the e-mail, you can view it here: http://www.aweber.com/b/1FB7c.