Always outnumbered. Generally overdresssed.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

GC's Grammar Bounty


I will pay £20 to any bank account or charity in exchange for the email address of the copywriter responsible for this grammatical abomination.

They will then find themselves on the wrong end of extremely pedantic email about the proper usage of the words less and fewer and their responsibility, as producers of mass media, to the English language, the language of Shakespeare and Milton, a responsibility that they should be mindful of even if they are, as I suspect, Scandinavian, and fought shoulder to shoulder with the Nazis during the war.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

CO2 emissions are measurable but not countable, meaning the use of the word 'less' is possibly correct.

william said...

Fowler's Modern English usage is perfectly clear: 'Plurals, & singulars with a or an, will naturally not take less.'

Don't fuck with me.

Ben Kay said...

I had exactly the same thought today. In fact, I have it every single time I see that fucking poster.

But beyond the grammar, who amongst Stella's target market even gives the first fuck?

Sara said...

Hear, hear.
By all means, send the errant copywriter an email... but perhaps also copy in the client, the CD, the art director and the account handling team. Does no one grasp the basics of English grammar anymore?
*sigh*

Johnny said...

If it was written by a copywriter. This has got "written by a designer" all over it. . .

Anonymous said...

who cares?

beanz meanz heinz is wrong too.

william said...

Yeah:

a) this isn't a deliberate misuse, it's a sloppy misuse by someone with a tin ear for the English language.

b) this isn't an endline.

c) it isn't good like Beanz Meanz Heinz is good.