Monday, April 9, 2012

A Part of Speech That Can Be Inflected for Number...

are a verb. Oops, I meant to say," is a verb."


Am I the only one whose prescriptive side is bothered by this advertising campaign?

I think I might go to the KFC next door instead (assuming they know how to conjugate a verb).

Please pass me a Dorito while I am deciding. Though it could take a while; better pass me a handful of Doritos.

Image credit: Just A Thought

5 comments:

Nancy Friedman said...

Trademarked names are not--indeed, must not--be conjugated. The trademark is "Doritos"; there is no "Dorito."

A trademark stickler would object to the use of "Doritos" as a noun. Strictly speaking, trademarks are adjectives: Kleenex brand facial tissue; Google search engine; Doritos corn chips.

Laura Payne said...

Nancy - Thank you for the info. I guess this post shows how little I know about trademarks(or maybe I have pre-genericized "Doritos" in my mind as I equate them with a noun meaning corn chips). Either way, considering "Doritos" as the adjective with a phonetically null "corn chips" in the ad still makes the verb choice sound strange to me.

Laura said...

Sounds odd to me too, as I too refer to a single Dorito as a Dorito (and most people probably do, I think). But there's no other option for them, as Nancy says above: there isn't a logo, even, that they could use (they'd have to make one specially and then presumably that causes trouble with legal stuff). My opinion? They should have rethunk the whole campaign.

Laura Payne said...

Laura - I couldn't agree more.

Nancy Friedman said...

Playing with grammatical conventions is one way ad campaigns force you to pay attention. (Remember Apple's "Think Different"?) I guarantee you'll now be thinking about Doritos all day, or even all week. Therefore, the campaign is a success.

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