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🇸🇪 Sweden /Culture & Society

Anders Svensson explains why LinkedIn language is vague and tone-deaf

From Dagens Nyheter · () Swedish

Translated from Swedish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Opinion Named sources Context piece
  • Dagens Nyheter commentator Anders Svensson criticizes the short-line, adjective-heavy style often seen on LinkedIn and calls it “broetry” or “broesi.”
  • He argues that AI-generated writing relies on familiar formulas, vague promises and excessive punctuation rather than concrete language or original imagery.
  • The commentary traces the style’s features through examples from marketing and job advertisements, including a reported 847% rise in dashes in Swedish job postings between November 2021 and April 2026.

A sentence on every line. Three examples in every list. A downpour of adjectives and adverbs, plus a forest of dashes. This is the language style often called “broetry,” or “broesi,” writes Språktidningen’s Anders Svensson.

The style thrives on LinkedIn, especially among middle managers. Its sentences are short, its line breaks frequent and its message loosely connected. Add an emoji and a phrase such as “This is not just dinner, it is an evening to look forward to,” and ordinary pizza marketing becomes a supposed “new evening experience.”

This is not just dinner, it is an evening to look forward to

· Anders SvenssonAn example of the formulaic marketing language he associates with broetry.

Svensson argues that broesi is not new. He points to a runestone carved in the 11th century by a man named Brand, whose wording, he jokes, might have appeared on LinkedIn as a branded, anglicized version of his name. The AI-era version has recognizable habits, including an abundance of dashes, three-part lists and a heavy spray of adjectives and adverbs.

carefully selected drinks that elevate every dish

· Anders SvenssonAn example of vague promotional language that avoids concrete details.

A report from AI-pulsen, cited in the commentary, found that the use of dashes in Swedish job advertisements rose by 847 percent between November 2021 and April 2026. Svensson says the problem is not the punctuation or the three-part structure themselves. Both can be useful tools. The problem comes when formulas replace precision and imagination.

He contrasts concrete language with promises such as “carefully selected drinks that elevate every dish” and “an unforgettable dining experience where every bite tells a story.” Such phrases, he suggests, say little about what will actually be served. AI lacks imagination and repeats what others have already written, leaving broesi rich in flattery but poor in vivid language. The commentary identifies vagueness and tone-deafness as its defining traits.

an unforgettable dining experience where every bite tells a story

· Anders SvenssonA generic food-marketing phrase used to illustrate broesi’s exaggerated style.
About this summary

Originally published by Dagens Nyheter in Swedish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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