I recently saw "Monty Python's Spamalot" on Broadway, a stage musical version of the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." One of many hilarious scenes has a group of robed monks walking in a line, reciting some innocuous, Latin-sounding chant while holding a huge book in their hands. In between chants, they smack themselves in the head, repeatedly.

A few days later I jetted off to the annual conference of the Insurance Marketing Communications Association in Cincinnati, where I appeared on a panel with Jack Roberts, editor-in-chief of Risk & Insurance, and Dennis Pillsbury, associate editor of Rough Notes, to discuss the relationship between the press and the industry.

I walked away convinced that when it comes to communicating with the public and the media, there are more than a few insurance company managers who act like Monty Python's monks--mouthing a message publicly that is often difficult to understand, while smacking themselves in the head repeatedly with legalese protections.

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