GM employees were told not to use these 69 words when discussing recalls

In lieu of the recent General Motors recall which is costing the company a record $35 million in fines, it was discovered that in 2008 GM employees were specifically told they could not use 69 words while discussing recalls.

 
Documents released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration during the course of the investigation and settlement revealed some of how GM employees are trained. 

The presentation directs employees on how to write documents and talk to individuals about GM vehicles (which are sometime subject to investigation like in this instance). 

Here are some of the slides from the PowerPoint presentation offered to GM employees in 2008:

If you can’t make out those 69 words in the last slide, here they are for you:

always, annihilate, apocalyptic, asphyxiating, bad, Band-Aid, big time, brakes like an “X” car, cataclysmic, catastrophic, Challenger, chaotic, Cobain, condemns, Corvair-like, crippling, critical, dangerous, deathtrap, debilitating, decapitating, defect, defective, detonate, disemboweling, enfeebling, evil, eviscerated, explode, failed, flawed, genocide, ghastly, grenadelike, grisly, gruesome, Hindenburg, Hobbling, Horrific, impaling, inferno, Kevorkianesque, lacerating, life-threatening, maiming, malicious, mangling, maniacal, mutilating, never, potentially-disfiguring, powder keg, problem, rolling sarcophagus (tomb or coffin), safety, safety related, serious, spontaneous combustion, startling, suffocating, suicidal, terrifying, Titanic, unstable, widow-maker, words or phrases with a biblical connotation, you’re toast

GM also helps out its employees by offering some suggestions and alternatives.

Basically, GM employees need to choose their words carefully. So they won’t be comparing their cars to the Titanic or Hindenburg any time soon.

Download the whole report released by the NHTSA below.