We’ve all laughed at highway signage advertising food and gas. No truer words were ever spoken. However, when it comes to your own marketing materials, your advertising, and your PR, you can’t afford to miscommunicate even a little bit.
Even seemingly minor misuse of punctuation can have dramatic, unintended consequences. Leave out punctuation and you might get:
Grandmother of eight makes hole in one.
With a fire poker? Of course, add the needed hyphens to make a hole-in-one, and we know it is about golf, not murder.
Add punctuation where it doesn’t belong and you get a stinky result, as in this example of a sign on a store in Boston (submitted by copy editor Amy Scott):
“Fresh” Fish
Perhaps the storeowner only meant to highlight the word “fresh” in which case underlining would have been preferable. Now, he’s saying it’s not really fresh; we just call it that.
Sometimes just the proximity of sentences can infer something negative or unintentional. I saw this recently in an ad for a used boat:
Engine rebuilt. Extra parts.
Whoa! Could these be the parts you forgot to put in when you rebuilt the motor?
Even “professionals,” especially news headline writers, can mess up:
Panda mating fails; veterinarian takes over.
I’m not sure there were any pictures. Or how about:
Roger Clemens arrives for hearing on steriods.
As a newspaper reader we may find this fun and even possibly twice the truth we usually get. However if this were written by the PR guy for Roger Clemens, he’d be looking for a new job. Something to think about before you decide to be your own advertising or marketing writer.
Finally, most poor writing is the result of thoughtlessness.
12 remain dead
You know you’ve heard something like this: “12 remain dead today as rescuers continue to work into the night.” Of course, what they meant to say was that the death count remains at 12. It’s a matter of being too hasty and not precise enough. Or how about this want ad selling maid services:
Tired of cleaning yourself? Let me do it.
Like funny headlines and language gaffs? Check out the following links (which supplied me with some of my examples):
* www.InnocentEnglish.com
* http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/newsquiz.shtml
* www.engrish.com
Got some unfortunate phrases of your own? click on “comment” below and contribute!
Ah, yes: Eats, Shoots & Leaves. Last April during my family's annual trip to Chicago to see American Ballet Theatre, husband and I evidently ate something bad, which chose to manifest itself in a most unfortunate way just after we got on the interstate to head home to Knoxville. Suffice it to say, our poor teenager–who was spared the sickness–spent eight hours in the backseat of the car underneath his jacket, moaning, while his parents continually, er, well, you know. Into large cups from McDonald's. Ahem. As we were exiting the freeway for the first cleanup and change of clothing (one stop of many that unforgettable day), teenager caught sight of a Cracker Barrel billboard and absolutely could not contain his hysterical laughter: BREAKFAST YOUR WAY, read the sign, COMIN' RIGHT UP.
Disgusting but somehow satisfying!