Last week, I went into hospital. It was only for something minor. But I almost left with a coronary when faced with the illiteracy in the NHS waiting room. ‘Patient’s should be aware that waiting times are approximate’ and ‘Every patient should be responsible for they’re own belongings’. Missed apostrophes and appalling grammar are everywhere. And it made me have less confidence in the treatment I was about to receive. Why is advertising any different?
OK, I’m a writer, so this probably bothers me more than the average person. But even the big brands keep getting it wrong and, in my view, it’s not acceptable. How can you expect someone to believe in your product or service if the message looks like it’s been written by a halfwit? Worse still, by someone who just doesn’t care. Tesco is one of the biggest culprits. It’s a shame because their above-the-line writing is spot on. But you can only bemoan some of the horrors you’ll find in their stores.
Their point of sale doesn’t get much better: ‘100’s of new lines added every week’, ‘More shopping, less bags’, ‘Whats in store’ and, possibly the best example of why every little apostrophe helps: ‘CCTV cameras’s in operation for the protection of customers, staff and stock’. Please, who’s writing this stuff? I’m guessing they’re not using the same agency for their below-the-line advertising. It shows.
Tesco isn’t alone. Big brands such as T-Mobile, Stella Artois and American lingerie brand, Victoria’s Secret, are all guilty of mistreating the humble apostrophe. What difference does it make? Probably not a lot to their sales – everyone’s always going to want premium beer, mobile phones and sexy knickers – but what’s it doing to their reputation?
While the odd slip-up on Twitter won’t cost you, major errors in ads, POS and websites will. When a proofreading software company conducted research into LinkedIn posts from Fortune 500 brands, they found the ones that made the most writing mistakes were also the ones making less money. Coke beat Pepsi. Google beat Facebook. Ford beat General Motors. All because they employ teams of people to proofread every piece of communication tied to their name.
So why isn’t everyone trying so hard to get it right?
Perhaps sloppy grammar has just become acceptable because nobody cares. In 2012, there was public outcry when Waterstone’s, the book retailer, decided to drop the apostrophe because, allegedly, Google couldn’t pick up their brand name in search. This, despite the fact the store is named after Tim Waterstone and their business is words.
But then everyone realised that Boots, Debenhams, Morrisons and Barclays had already agreed it was OK to lose the apostrophe, as long as it makes your fascia look better. Ah, that’s alright, then. That must be the same secret agreement DFS, CSL et al have about offering ‘4 years free credit’. We can only hope their maths is better than their English.
We’re lucky at The Foundry because we have a brilliant in-house
proofreader who tries to ensure silly mistakes don’t cost our clients
money. If some of these other brand guardians put such measures in
place, perhaps we wouldn’t have to suffer the daily deluge of misplaced
apostrophes, misunderstood plurals and inaccurate acronyms. And I
wouldn’t have to sit in a hospital waiting room sending my blood
pressure through the roof
