Mass and Count Nouns - brought to you by Meijer

This is one of two themed billboards that has been peppering Michigan expressways this spring.

The other looks almost identical, save for the final noun phrase which replaces fewer stops with less run-around.

I don't think it is any coincidence that the two separate billboards always seem to appear within a few miles of each other. Meijer's advertising agency copywriters certainly know the difference between mass and count nouns. Funny thing is, I am not a frequent Meijer shopper, so I can't recall whether their check-out lanes are labeled X number items or less, or X number items or fewer.

This is How They Verb Nouns

Seems to me that verbing of nouns has become one of the more popular methods of word creation these days. In linguistics this is called a functional shift. Here is an example from a billboard on I-75 in Michigan that advertises Avalanche Bay Waterpark.

THIS IS HOW WE WATERPARK!

Take a Linguistics Fish Boating

I noticed a semantically and syntactically thought-provoking billboard on I-75 North in Michigan this fall and I have been meaning to comment on it. The tagline on the billboard was "Take a fish boating".

My first thought (based on a literal interpretation) was...who the heck would take their pet goldfish out boating with them? Along the lines of "take your son boating".


Syntactically, the sentence is obviously a command with the implied subject "you".

Semantically (and phonetically), I interpreted the tagline as follows: You take a fish when out boating.

This interpretation made me think the ad was created to promote the sport fishing industry and all that goes along with it: boats, bait, lures, rods, bobbers, etc.

It wasn't until I googled the phrase and saw this image of a lure, which by the way, was not on the billboard, that I realized the billboard was advertising a type of lure that resembles a fish.

Snowclones in Media are Frequent(*er) than they Seem

Who would ever think that the following phrase would be turned into a snowclone.

Image from here.

I wouldn't have...until I saw a Taco Bell billboard on I-75 in Michigan with a large taco and the caption "Objects on billboard are closer than they appear."

I was not able to get a picture of the actual billboard so this image of tacos from Taco Bell will have to suffice.

At any rate, I will be honest and say that, pragmatically, the message on the billboard caption confuses me a bit. The image of the taco is unrealistically large, so of course it appears closer than it ever actually could be. This in turn makes me think that the location of the restaurant where I (the famished traveller) could get the taco is not that close. As far as billboard advertising goes, this seems counterproductive.

By the way, when looking for images of the actual billboard on the web, I came across this image that further reinforces the snowclone-ability of the phrase "Objects on billboard are closer than they appear."

Image from here.

Does McDonald's Need a Lesson in Semantics?

When passing this billboard on the expressway, the first thing that enters my mind is the term "trophy wife". I have to believe that a comparison of "trophy burger" to "trophy wife" is what the ad agency was aiming for when they created this ad for McDonald's. However, I am not so sure that the intended comparison is the best choice semantically for this advertising slogan.





While it is true that some people believe a trophy wife is a good thing, the term is also considered to be quite negative by others.


"To some, the term “trophy wife” connotes an enviable achievement, while to others it's an idiomatic synonym for 'idiot.'" - AskMen.com


"Trophy wife: Stupid bimbo, who sits at home all day giving out to the pool boy, while reading Hello! and OK magazine, because her own life is so pathetic." - Urban Dictionary


I don't think I would risk the chance of having people associate my burger with the negative aspects of a trophy wife.

McDonald's Advertising - Less is More

What a great way to advertise a product without even showing the product.

I have to believe that there is not a person on this planet who doesn't know that the above photo is that of a McDonald's french fries box. And the fact that the box is empty is meant to send the symbolic message that the fries were so tasty, "you didn't save me any".

Awwww. How sad.