Grammatical errors in adverts annoy me. In fact, adverts annoy me, but when someone has spent millions of pounds on advertising to interrupt my programme they better know how to speak English.
Now I know that slogans don’t have to be in perfect English, and you can say “Just Do It” or “I’m Lovin’ It” and that’s fine. Personally, I think you could go a little further and say “I’m Doing It And I LOVE It”, and you can read into that what you want.
But when those millions spent are upped by a VO from Donald Sutherland with a voice rich, dense and heavy as oak beams, then please BMW do not say your new car has “less emissions”. It might cost less money, it might do less damage to the environment, but it does not have less emissions, it has fewer emissions. It says “Less emissions” in the dog at the end. That’s a media term, readers. The “dog” is the little graphic on the screen. Actually it’s a “stinger” because it’s a dog that’s at the end. I’m such a wanker. I promise the next post will be less wanky. And by that I mean it will have fewer wanks.
I don’t suppose most people will car about BMW’s poor grammar. I guess when it is reviewed in What Car (Which Car, technically), the petrolheads will not mind.
But I will. I know language is an organic thing, but then so is bullshit. BMW, not content with buying up most of the British motor industry, is now setting about destroying our language and I for one say stop the madness on this homespun durge technique.
should probably stop listening to the World Service – my standards are too high. I have a digital radio and since I’ve been at the BBC I’ve become slightly evangelical about its output, because there’s a lot out there, but I think the World Service is a national treasure. I also think it should be available on FM, but there’s probably a whole wave of arguments against that which I wouldn’t be allowed to bring to light on this blog even if I understood them.
I bet the World Service doesn’t say less when they mean fewer.
