Butterfacts: [buht-er-faktz] a glamorous chart or graph that was rendered without the slightest concern for minor details like the accurate representation of facts and figures.
Why do we call them butterfacts? Because these charts make everything taste better. Why else? Because they are soft, raise your blood pressure, and can’t hold their shape at room temperature. They are the PowerPoint equivalent of walking out of the bathroom with toilet paper stuck to your Italian shoes: no one is denying the aesthetic, but they’re still laughing at you, and hard.
Butterfactery is a sin because at the end of the day, slide design, story, and speaker all serve the same master: actual, relevant, accurate information. Presenters get so wrapped up in their own bravado that they forget this simple truth—that is, that the presentation is given to transmit information, and all of the hype is about how to do just that. Without information, everyone could just stay home and have an extra bowl of Mueslix.
Before there were words, there were charts and graphs. They are the pictorial progenitors of communication, the first reliable method of moving thought out of one brain and into another. Inaccurately proportioned, incorrect, or generally jacked up charts are especially dangerous because the human brain has a tendency to accept them on the simple authority of their appearance. When U.S. sales are $1.6 billion, European sales are $23,459, and yet the bar chart shows a 1/16th inch difference between the two, you are like a caveman scratching out in equal size a man standing next to a saber-toothed tiger, asking your buddies to go hunt with you. Yes, butterfacts are bad for the heart, but it’s the tigers that often get you.
The Takeaway: Even if the audience fails to notice the disproportioned charts, the consequences remain. Actions taken on account of misrepresented data are often tremendous failures. You either acknowledge it on stage and risk the presentation, or acknowledge it after the European market collapses. In the end, it’s best to get the chart right during preparation.
