Sunday, October 2, 2011

Words, words, words, Or Does anyone think about these things?

Watching TV ads I often wonder if anyone stops to think about what words they use. I assume they must, but...

I have two favourites in this area. One is from a few years back and it was for a new bra from Victoria Secret. The tag line for the ad was "A bra so well designed, so well made, it could only be called....Vapris." Ok, I don't remember what the last word was--but my point is that it was a made-up word (a nonce word, for the initiated). Any combination of letters could have followed "only be called..." It could have been "Gork", or "xyzzy", or "Fred."

My latest fave is an add for KFC which begins "Other restaurants make chicken nuggets. What part of the chicken is the nugget?" It then goes on to say that "We make popcorn chicken." OK. And what part of the chicken is the 'popcorn'? A perfect example of moving the problem around but not actually solving it.

Reading or read:

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