Check out the General Mills come-on as it appeared in millions of Sunday paper advertising inserts last weekend. Notice anything?
No, I’m not on a rant about pushing junk food. I’ve never eaten a Totino’s pizza roll, so I can’t aver if this product is good or not. I do, however, hope that General Mills, which owns the Totino’s product line, pays more attention to baking than it does to hiring advertising firms. If we take this ad literally, there is just one kid in the entire world for whom Totino’s is his or her favorite. The ad very clearly states that it is a “kid’s favorites,” not “kids.’” General Mills scores twice on the illiteracy scale: once for misuse of an apostrophe and again for noun/adjective disagreement.
Sure, we’ve all made typos. It’s also true that the misuse of apostrophes has become ubiquitous and that many Americans—that teeming segment of the population we might call “dummies”—thinks it should should use apostrophes to make plurals and has no idea of how to use apostrophes to make a contraction or show possession. But not even dummies are stupid enough to spend thousands of dollars to spread their ignorance to millions (unless they do so collectively in the form of a political movement).
General Mills apparently has no such sense of shame. I don’t know if this ad was done in house or if it was subcontracted to an expensive outside agency, but any way that one rolls out the dough, General Mills paid serious money to launch a coupon campaign seen by millions of sets of eyes. Apparently none of the eyes viewing the prelaunch version was attached to a literate brain. Maybe it’s true that junk food makes you stupid, but I’d like to think that General Mills simply screwed up. Here are three simple suggestions to avoid future embarrassment:
1. Make sure that all advertising personnel has at least a high school education.
2. Ask each person working on an ad to answer the following questionnaire: “Are you a moron? Circle Yes or No." If any circle “Yes,” it would be wise to look elsewhere.
3. When launching a major campaign that costs lots of money, spend another $25 or so to hire a proofreader. (The Tostino’s ad only had eleven words, so General Mills could probably have gotten a discounted rate.)
I’ve assumed that General Mills wants its ads to read correctly. It’s possible that I’ve misinterpreted the company’s intent and that it wants its products to be consumed only by dummies. If that’s the case, congratulations!
No, I’m not on a rant about pushing junk food. I’ve never eaten a Totino’s pizza roll, so I can’t aver if this product is good or not. I do, however, hope that General Mills, which owns the Totino’s product line, pays more attention to baking than it does to hiring advertising firms. If we take this ad literally, there is just one kid in the entire world for whom Totino’s is his or her favorite. The ad very clearly states that it is a “kid’s favorites,” not “kids.’” General Mills scores twice on the illiteracy scale: once for misuse of an apostrophe and again for noun/adjective disagreement.
Sure, we’ve all made typos. It’s also true that the misuse of apostrophes has become ubiquitous and that many Americans—that teeming segment of the population we might call “dummies”—thinks it should should use apostrophes to make plurals and has no idea of how to use apostrophes to make a contraction or show possession. But not even dummies are stupid enough to spend thousands of dollars to spread their ignorance to millions (unless they do so collectively in the form of a political movement).
General Mills apparently has no such sense of shame. I don’t know if this ad was done in house or if it was subcontracted to an expensive outside agency, but any way that one rolls out the dough, General Mills paid serious money to launch a coupon campaign seen by millions of sets of eyes. Apparently none of the eyes viewing the prelaunch version was attached to a literate brain. Maybe it’s true that junk food makes you stupid, but I’d like to think that General Mills simply screwed up. Here are three simple suggestions to avoid future embarrassment:
1. Make sure that all advertising personnel has at least a high school education.
2. Ask each person working on an ad to answer the following questionnaire: “Are you a moron? Circle Yes or No." If any circle “Yes,” it would be wise to look elsewhere.
3. When launching a major campaign that costs lots of money, spend another $25 or so to hire a proofreader. (The Tostino’s ad only had eleven words, so General Mills could probably have gotten a discounted rate.)
I’ve assumed that General Mills wants its ads to read correctly. It’s possible that I’ve misinterpreted the company’s intent and that it wants its products to be consumed only by dummies. If that’s the case, congratulations!
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