Hard Luck Word Choice

As part of a vodka promotion, these coozies were given out at one of our local watering holes last week.

Something about the rhyming slogan is all over the floor for me.

If a vodka is so wonderfully flavored, I would think that people would want to "swill it" not "spill it".

swill:
v.tr. 1. To drink greedily or grossly.
v.intr. To drink or eat greedily or to excess.

Okay, maybe it is bartender lingo for pouring (i.e., "spill some of that vodka into my glass, please."), but I like the sound of "swill" better anyhow; its manner isn't stopped up.

Olay's Lame Word Choice

You may have seen this ad for Olay Body Collection products in a recent weekly magazine. I was immediately struck by the odd choice of words in the copy of the advertisement.

Here is a closer view of the specific words to which I am referring.

I sure hope I feel lavishing if I am going to spend half the price of a body and bath shop on my cleansing products. I imagine a body and bath shop, even at half price, is not inexpensive.

Okay, so the fine print did specify *suggested retail price per oz vs. leading specialty store. The print was so small that it was almost a moot point to me.

Clear Blue Easy Advertising - Poor Word Choice

This is from a current print ad campaign for Clear Blue Easy Pregnancy Tests:

1 in 4 women can misread

a traditional pregnancy test.

Read this one.

Oh semantics...semantics, semantics, semantics.

Sure 1 in 4 women can misread a traditional pregnancy test but will 1 in 4 women misread a traditional pregnancy ? Give us women a little more credit.

The word can semantically implies that it is possible but not necessarily so.

A better word choice would have been:

1 in 4 women will misread
a traditional pregnancy test.

or, more simply put:

1 in 4 women misreads
a traditional pregnancy test.

By the way, if Clear Blue Easy's research does not support phrasing the statement in a more definitive way, perhaps they should consider a different approach entirely.

Crystal Light's Advertising Word Choice

The wording in this ad for Crystal Light Lemonade gave me pause.

Do I have to mix Crystal Light Lemonade AND the sweet tang from a natural lemon to attain a pitcher of magical sunshine?

Here is an idea for a better choice of wording -

Stir up a pitcher of sunshine WITH the sweet tang of natural lemon in Crystal Light Lemonade.

McDonald's Coffee Billboard - A Semantic Analysis

McDonald's billboards continue to provide data for linguistic analysis. A previous post covered the creative use of phonology on a billboard and now there is a billboard that begs for a semantic analysis. The billboard has a picture of a cup of coffee with the following text:

Rich...
so you don't have to be.

Just like yesterday, I am going to get into word choice. When I read this billboard it semantically implies to me that only the people who cannot afford expensive coffee chains should try McDonald's coffee. I think a far better choice of conjunction would have been: Rich...and you don't have to be. This choice of wording semantically implies that you could be wealthy, middle-class or poor (basically, your income has nothing to do with the supposed richness of the coffee) because everyone will like and be able to afford the coffee.