I find myself wondering when I see an advertisement on TV, or print media or hear it on the radio what people are thinking.
I know marketing companies who produce some of these ads make a lot of money but what really are they thinking?
Why don't they know the difference between every day and everyday? Or the difference between due and because of? Or imply and infer? Or even between between and among?
Or do they just not care? I was driving down the road one day and saw a homemade sign at a house. The sign read, "Pot Plants for Sale." Surely, the writer meant potted plants, don't you think? And why is that people don't seem to know the plural of their family name? How many times have you seen a family name proudly displayed on a mailbox or the front door with the singular possessive version? As in, The Smith's. What? Don't you think what is really meant is The Smiths? Or even, possibly, The Smiths'? Surely there is not just one Smith living there. Even if there is, would he or she be known as The Smith?
In my ancestral country of Scotland, the head of my family's clan is known as The MacLeod. But that's there. And besides, there's only one of him. He is The MacLeod. But in the United States, we don't recognize people that way.
I heard a radio spot advertising a company that helps people increase their vocabulary. The spot contained a grammatical error. To me, it was a glaring error. If I had heard the spot only once, I might have let it go.
Unfortunately for me, I heard that spot every day for several weeks and it simply got on my last nerve. So I searched the Internet, found the company and sent them an email.
The owner of the company emailed back, we corresponded maybe twice and his final response was, "Our editor was concerned but our marketing people love it." The result was that they were going to keep the spot the way it was.
I thought, I even explained this in my email, that because of that obvious error, created to make something rhyme or to create a catchy phrase, the company totally lost credibility with me. I wouldn't use their services and I wouldn't hire anyone who did. The president was not impressed.
So what do you think? Is it silly to care? Am I the only who does? Or we going to reach a point where English doesn't even exist as a language anymore because everyone who speaks it does so in a dramatically different way?
Is it just me?
Friday, April 13, 2007
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4 comments:
I agree. You would think a company teaching vocabulary would be careful to avoid mistakes. Certainly you wouldn't expect it to use something they know to be wrong for "marketing."
no, it's not you... but it's a river I rarely want to push... my favorite example is a sign on a bar in san diego saying: semi-live entertainment
suspect, but have never investigated, that it's semi-nude, but who really knows!
Oh Carol, I agree! It irks me no end to see such glaring errors! One was in the New Yorker about four years ago - an ad for a high-end jeweler. The tag line: "In a league of it's own." I couldn't breathe, I was laughing so hard. Does the advertising world really believe that literacy is lost on the masses?
I think it's a reflection on who's running the agencies (and the companies approving the ads) than it is on the masses. Proof yet again that even a dolt can get to the top. ;))
Lori:
A league of "it's" own? That's pretty bad but I can top it. I had forgotten all about it and it's probably one of my all-time favorites. This, too, was for a high-end jeweler. In small print, the advertisement offers resetting for rings and other items. But in huge print, and I mean like a headline, it states, "Mounted while you wait!"
I still wish I'd had the nerve to go in and ask for that special.
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