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Linguistic Peeve of the Day
My latest linguistic pet peeve: There's a Benjamin Moore paints commercial with a actress portraying a perky housewife who takes about Moore's mini paint cans, which you're supposed to use to test colors on your walls before buying a whole room's worth. This woman says "Benjamin Moore calls them 'color samples.' I call them 'color selection simplified.'"
This drives me completely insane every time I hear it, which is about five times per hour when the TV is on. You have a perfectly fine, clear notion -- color samples. But that's not good enough, so you have an "average person" translate this easy concept -- four syllables, no confusion -- into eight syllables of condescending marketing-speak.
Why in God's name would someone sitting at home suddently decide to call "color samples" "color selection simplified"? And what's the point of hiring an actress to portray a fake real person if that person is going to talk like an ad agency copywriter?
Posted by J.M. Berger || Permalink
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