Infuriating Wii ad.

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
#1

Lately I am driven crazy (or maybe just slightly depressed, depending on the morning) by an ad for a Nintendo game posted on the ALRT.

It shows vaguely Einstein-y caricature, with the copy:

[quote]
What is a polyglot?[ul][li]A man with many wives.[]Speaking or knowing many languages.[]A phobia of polygons.[/ul]How strong is your vocabulary?[/li][/quote]
This ad can actually spoil my commute. I keep looking over at it to see if it’s still as offensively subliterate as the first time I saw it - and wondering what it says about the state of our culture that no one objected to this during any of the stages of the ad’s development, from conception to distribution. For a product that claims to build language skills! Argh.

Who has an example of a worse offender?

#2

Is that not for one of the “brain training” games on the DS?

#3

Years ago there was a TV ad for a toy. One of the young actors in the ad commented “That’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever saw!”

shudder

#4

I don’t get it. What’s wrong with that ad?

#5

I think the problem is asking what “a” polyglot is, which implies that it’s a specific object/person. However, the correct answer (“Speaking or knowing many languages”) isn’t a specific object/person.

#6

I think that it’s supposed to be “someone who speaks or knows many languages”, not “Speaking or Knowing many languages”.

It’s particularly embarassing that the question itself is about language. Obviously not speaking or knowing about good English.

#7

And those, “Wii would like to play” guys are disturbing on many levels…

#8

At least it wasn’t a big infuriating ad.
d&r