But that’s the thing - they want to convey the idea that eating one feels like unrestrained gratification. Especially because the whole point is that they are restrained gratification. It’s marketing hyperbole.
panache45 said:
Not really. That structure is a form of “consider this”. It is an attention focusing device.
“I have some things for you to think about and then I will tell you how that relates to my product.”
**Fear Itself ** said:
Geico is the one that bugs me, with “You could save up to 25% or more on your car insurance.” How can it be “up to” and “or more” at the same time? Kilmore said:
I don’t mind “clunker” for cars that are actually in bad shape, but don’t care much for calling all cars over 5 years old clunkers just because they aren’t the most modern fuel efficient hybrid.
Sam A. Robrin said:
You’re not Jewish, are you? It’s not just marketingese, it’s the whole “that feels so good it must be bad”.
Hampshire said:
ministryman said:
Can’t watch at work - isn’t that a modern geico commercial making fun of the meme?
You can’t count any commercial that is parodying the premise. Where are the movie trailers that created the basis for the parody? Two Many Cats said:
That’s not what that word means.
Alas!_Earwax! said:
That’s a totally different company. SC Johnson is not Johnson & Johnson.
Could be, but you’re not right? How hard is it to list your profile location as Springfield instead of, oh say, Argentina? Hmm…
My big complaint isn’t so much specific verbage or images advertisers use, so much as if your product may cause death by the SAME thing it’s trying to cure? You might have a bad product there. I mean Zoloft, you take it for depression, but need to let your doctor know if you now have suicidal thoughts after taking it? Isn’t that a way of saying this product may possibly work like a placebo, so let us know if you’re not falling for it? Also there’s that asthma medicine that may cause asthma related death. How does this work?
There’s a product that I love (can’t remember the name) where they actually print a disclaimer that the manufacturer isn’t sure how the product works. Ha. “Take this and stuff might happen, hopefully good stuff, but we’re not really sure what’s going on so oh well…”
I think it’s Trilipix that says you must take it with a statin or tanin or some other medication to reduce your cholesterol, but that the product isn’t proven to reduce your chelesterol more than just taking the original product alone. o_O So, I take your medicine, with medicine proven to work, and your product may help me, but at the least will work as well as if I had just taken the other medicine alone, but I get the privledge of paying you.
The other thing I question is when they say as a side effect “in certain rare cases or small percent, may cause death.” Well how are you determining rare? Can you please quantify it? To YOU, 33 deaths out of 100 may be acceptably rare, not so much to me.
Oh and I just remembered that bad tampon commercial. Where some women are on the roof of a building dressed all in white and the water tower bursts open and one of the women is able to catch all the water shooting out with her tampon, thus saving the day. I can’t recall which brand it was, but man oh man, the picture that came to mind was just ugh. If the flow of water was in any relation to the woman, if she needed that heavy duty a tampon, then white clothes are the least of her worries. That must have been several pints worth of liquid shooting out of the tower at least.
Actually, they seem to use more qualifiers, like “Currently the number one action movie of Summer,” or, “The number one comedy,” or something like that, so you can’t prove them wrong. And of course, since the movie is the only new comedy out for another week or two then they are correct.
“I’m like…”
Not words, but sounds: A doorbell (I got up from my 'puter twice this evening to answer the door, no one there);
A siren, like on a police car (when I’m driving, it bugs me).
I also find “deserve” to be one of the most annoying.
Man with large house, family, new SUV, etc. is worrying about paying his overwhelming debts. But he gets the loan “he deserves”. And proceeds to pile the family into the SUV for a nice vacation…
After I finish beating that guy with a rubber hose, tdn can lock him up and play the Empire jingle for a few days.
I know that people will disagree with me, but when I see ads for Alka Seltzer, or whatever, where it shows someone eating spicy foods or other foods that disagree with them, but if you take one of these you can eat whatever you want.
Seems to me that you’re fixing the symptom, but the reason you got heart-burn or acid-indigestion, or whatever, is that you’re body’s telling you that you shouldn’t eat spicy food or whatever kind of food in the first place.
“Grilled/cooked to perfection” - and yet, people keep eating other things afterward, even though so much of it must taste, well, flawed.
“We won’t be undersold” - if you bring us in an add that looks somewhat legit, we’ll be happy to beat the price by a few bucks, if only to stop the whining. But it won’t be a problem: we’ve probably got the same model, purchased at about the same wholesale price, maybe a few bucks less. Regardless, this one time we’ll bravely risk the chance that we’re making a few bucks less profit.
The interminable adds that seem to imply that the way to find your true love is to buy the right car, drink the right drink, or similar.
You’ll notice that the secondary definition of your cite defines “legendary” as mythical. I do know that growing up, words like legendary were not thrown around as advertising cliches. Legendary was reserved for personages like King Arthur, Robin Hood, Hiawatha, etc. In other words, people whose exploits were fictionalized, but people who might have existed in real life, but could not be precisely placed in history. This is different from being merely mythical, as say Medusa might be.
It irritates me no end when the English language is watered down into meaningless drivel by Madison Avenue.
Right up there with Free Gift. My ever so cynical mind always responds with. “Oh goody! Those are ever so much better than a gift you pay for.”
One I’m surprised not to see mentioned yet is Blowout. What the hell does that mean? Especially when it’s a sign on the corner of one of those mongo apartment complexes that promises “Rental Blowout.”
The term “classic”. In advertising, it doesn’t actually mean anything, so companies love to attach it to anything that’s not new.
A few years ago, our office car was a Malibu. We were thrilled to find out we were getting a new Malibu, because Chevy had just come out with a very improved model. But when we picked it up, it wasn’t the new style Malibu, but the “Malibu Classic” - the same car as the old crappy model, but only sold to fleets.