Bad Grammar in Advertising
Advertisements make use of communication strategies like vocabulary, grammatical features and sentence structure to pass vital information to specific target groups. In most cases, the information in the advertisements are carried from spoken mode to text type; a mode that in some cases suffer from substandard grammar together with a large number of typos that go a long way in passing the wrong information to the public.
There are a large number of adverts that can be used to institute the unfavorable impression that a mere grammatical error on a bill board, for instance, can portray to the public about a given business entity. Taking the photo below as the first example;
The grammatical problem with the advert is in the placement of the apostrophe. It is obvious that the apostrophe was intended for contraction of the phrase ‘you are’ to ‘you’re’, in which case it should have been placed where letter ‘a’ was omitted.
The second picture displays an advert with a typographical error on an advert for the history channel posted on a full page of a Sunday newspaper.
Indubitably, the advert has a remarkably conspicuous typography error with regards to the word ‘then’; an error that must have occurred during the typing process. Definitely, the intended word was ‘than’.
The third picture displays an advert for a kids’ learning software. Anecdotally, this advert was supposed to promote learning using software only to fail in meeting its mandate of promoting software for learning.
The word ‘their’ is unquestionably wrong in the context of the statement being passed by the advert. The advertiser must have confused ‘their’ with ‘they’re’.
Grammatical errors can majorly depict a company as a less serious institution with less concentric objectives if not exposing it to public ridicule. Such errors also predominantly portray negligence on the part of the advertisers who, due to the fact that they are being paid for such services, should make sure everything is typed, spelled and punctuated correctly.
References
http://mauvedinosaur.blogspot.com/2010/08/grammar-rant.html
http://www.avocado8.com/blog/archives/2006/11/advertising_bad.html
http://www.banterist.com/archivefiles/000175.html
