How do you announce something not nice so that it sounds quite nice? I put it anther way. You have some unhappy news but you don't want it to have an unhappy effect on the people you tell the unhappy news to. What do you do? Well, you can lie. But you don't want to. So you sugar coat.

Sugar coat is to make unhappy, sad, unpleasant information and turn it into something quite pleasant and acceptable. No you're not lying. Put simply you take something bitter, coat it with sugar so that it tastes, well, sweet. But it's not as easy as it sounds. Sugar coating is an art. Not doing it well could lead to falling flat on your face. Worst still you be accused of, God forbid, lying.

A situation which warrants sugar coating would be this. Your company, (let's call it ( Company XYZ ) have not been doing well. But at the end of the financial year you still need to make a media announcement. How would you word your press statement?

However bear in mind this should not be confused with the declaration you have to make to Bursa Malaysia or Securities Commission. That you have tell it straight. No two ways about it. No sugar coating. But media announcement, you can sugar coat for PR purposes. Remember, this is not lying. Your conscience must be clear.

So your press release could sound like this: In view of the current global financial crisis we, Company XYZ, are consolidating our position and are in the midst of reviewing and restructuring our reserves and financial standing. We would be out-sourcing certain sections of our services while off-loading some. We are confident we will meet the challenges ahead.

What all that means is your company, XYZ, will refinance certain things, restructure debts, close down some departments and selling off some assets. Perhaps there's a thin line here between not telling the truth and telling half truths. Maybe this is not a good example of sugar coating.

Hence I put forth this. With many people being superstitious, Level 13 in a high rise building is named and proclaimed (by the developers) as Level 12A. Now this is classic sugar coating don't you agree?

And in the food business, it's "non-halal" instead of "haram." Although "haram" or forbidden is the opposite of "halal" (loosely translated -something allowed for Muslims), ‘non-halal' sound, well, friendly as opposed to "haram."

Recently I read an AFP report which said a large minority of male condom users complain that ill fitting prophylactics are liable to split and break during intercourse and be a sexual turnoff. That statement was attributed to researchers. Apparently US investigators analysed questionnaires completed by more than 400 volunteers, all male between the ages of 18 and 67.

The volunteers had used condoms for vaginal intercourse. Then they spoke of problems encountered. I won't go into specifics here but suffice to say the problems prompted many users to remove condom before intercourse ended.

And the study also showed the need for "public health messages" to enjoin men to get the right size of condom. On this point the report said, men and condom manufacturers will have to deal with the "delicate" question of penis size.

"For one thing, widespread pornography may have distorted the male self image, making it harder for some men to accept that they have a less than gigantic member," the report went on to say.

Therefore, it is suggested that condom makers start calling their smallest size "large" and then move on to "extra large" for medium size and so on.

Brilliant. Upsize instead of down size. Now isn't that a very classic example of sugar coating? (By MOHSIN ABDULLAH/MySinchew)