Unwronged
There’s an ad campaign in DC, which, although it fails in that I don’t actually remember the name of the product being advertised, produces such discomfort, a sort of buzzing in my orthographical ears, that it sticks in my head for ages. I worry at it, trying to figure out what exactly it is that catches in my linguistical craw. “UN finding-your-phone-can’t-leave-DC ‘d” reads one, “UN hidden-fee ‘d” reads another. I have no problem with the compound word, it’s perfectly legible and comprehensible in the layout of the advertisement; it’s even clever. My problems all stem from the line at the bottom of the poster, which I assume to the tagline of the whole campaign. “NAME OF PRODUCT” it reads. “UNWRONGED.”
First, the apostrophe-d construction, being distinctive and somewhat quaint, leads one to expect it as a feature of the campaign’s name. When it’s not there, one starts wondering why it’s in the various slogans. To indicate that one should not pronounce “ed” as a syllable? No one does that these days anyway. Probably because it just looks sexier to have “‘d” than “ed” sitting there in different type on a sign. But they should have carried it through, made the campaign “unwrong’d”
And now we come to it, the core of the dissonance! I assume they must be using “unwronged” by analogy to their slogans, “un - bad thing - ‘d” (Are there any English words that actually follow this pattern?) But unwronged is an existing word, and has quite a different meaning. It does not mean “having had bad things removed from it”. It means “not having had bad things done to it”. They are trying to conjure up the image of a system that has been improved. They wind up invoking a high and holy innocence, a cell phone company that has suffered neither injustice nor humiliation.
Oh that thou could by thy ships be sitting
Unwronged, and with no cause for tears couldst dwell
Beside thy ships, since thou must die so soon!
They have the same campaign in Boston too, and it drives me nuts. The fake words confuse me too much.
Also, I like my Sprint plan.
April 26th, 2009 at 1:31 pmIn the New York campaign, at least, most of the posters have a picture in place of the phrase in “un-whatever-’d”, which, to me, makes a little more sense to use ‘d? So the poster has “Un-(screw-picture)’d”, which maybe makes it flow more. We say, as we read it, “un-screw’d” rather than un-screw-ed“. Or maybe not.
Long way of saying, I saw these ads in New York.
April 26th, 2009 at 3:36 pmThere is a bus with the UNhidden fee’D on its side that picks up outside the building I have my afternoon classes in. It always takes me a while to decipher the meaning, as I never see the middle bits until long after the UN and ‘D. Bad design, not clever, and I have to spend too much time with it every time I see it.
That said, perhaps the unwronged ad is referring to the customer. Upon using this service, the customer would remain in this state of innocence. The customer would never have to worry about being wronged at hands of the now-benevolent faceless corporation, and thus they may sleep soundly knowing their communication will always be safe and unmolested.
April 26th, 2009 at 4:10 pmThat ad took me a good 15 seconds to work out when it showed up outside the bus station here. Extremely irritating. I am furiously maintaining my ignorance of their source. Curious what you think of the Quaker Go Humans Go ads, if you’ve seen them. I think they are in a similar vein, get the consumer to go huh? and scratch their head long enough for the ad to penetrate it.
April 26th, 2009 at 8:59 pmAck ack ack here is another thing wrong with this ad. I have seen “UN limit ‘d”. This is not a word! This cannot in fact be pronounced! You have to sound the final syllable!
That aside. Yes, I have seen the “Go humans go” ads, and was indeed considering posting on them as well. The immediate suggestion (at least for the ones that I’ve seen - the unnaturally complacent, smiling face of the eponymous Quaker) is that the utterer of the ad is not in fact human, which gives the whole thing a sinister quality that sticks in the mind. And by virtue of its sticking in the mind, it does actually make me want some oatmeal now. Hm.
April 27th, 2009 at 9:53 pmMy recent transit ad craw sticker is the Snickers ads that say things like “File for Workman’s Chompensation” and “Take night classes at the Chewniversity”. Now, those are just lazy puns. Whatever. But there’s one ad that they put on the sides of buses that says “Chewmute”. It took me ten damn minutes to figure out what they were going for. First I thought they were doing a “don’t talk when there’s a Snickers in your mouth” imperative thing, then I thought maybe they were doing some sort of weird Malamute/St. Bernard-with-brandy/rescue/sled dog thing. Then I finally realized they were going for “commute”, except with “chew” instead of “com”. WHICH MAKES NO SENSE. Not like the other two did either, but glargh! Dreadful.
April 27th, 2009 at 10:00 pmUgh, now that’s just plain bad poetry. Neither consonance nor assonance! WTF?! I have not seen these ads, but already I am enraged by them.
Though I do begin to wonder if, as Erika suggests, there might be something intentional about the maladroitness of the phrasing. A clever pun flashes through the mind and is gone, an incompetent one stays with you, bothering you, demanding to be rectified - all the while holding the image of the product to be sold before your protesting mind.
I had an idea for some viral marketing once - that is, to get companies to actually sponsor viruses. Imagine if it weren’t “swine flu” on everyone’s lips, but “Verizon flu”. Or if you had poxes that would cause you to break out in little red corporate logos.
April 27th, 2009 at 11:22 pmI really hate both the Snickers and cell phone ad campaigns. Yesterday I passed a bus stop poster that said, “UN contract’d.” Just NO. My first thought was that it is contracted since it has an apostrophe. Then of course I realized it wasn’t talking about the word itself. And then… Yeah, how do you even pronounce that? And how is it clever?
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July 14th, 2009 at 3:58 pm