Avoid these clichés like the plague

Business Report recently ran the following teaser:
Green has become the new black at Swiss motor expo
"US motor pioneer Henry Ford once quipped that buyers could have any colour car they wanted, as long as it was black. This week at the Geneva Auto Show, all manufacturers are expected to be 'green'."

Can we please stop referring to anything and everything fashionable as "the new black"? Once, many years ago, it signalled fashion awareness, when brown was the new black. Now it's a phrase you should find only in a charity shop for second-hand clothes.

And can we please stop remembering that Henry Ford said buyers could have any colour as long as it was black whenever the subject of motor cars comes up? It's a crank-handle way of starting a story.

What does the colour of cars have to do with environmentalism any way? Just say it: Environmentally friendly cars are fashionable.

* Yes, the headline on this blog is not only intentionally ironic, it's something of cliché itself among journalists.