Inconceivable!

Elephant in the room

noreply@blogger.com (Gertrude) — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 20:16:00 +0000

Axa Financial, an insurance/financial services company, is running a new TV campaign that presents a nice inconceivable. In it, a couple is discussing their finances or something, and at the table with them is a huge gorilla, which they are ignoring. The gorilla starts talking about Axa or whatever and then closes with a statement along the lines of, "but I'm only the 800-pound gorilla in the room."

Ouch. The term, "800-pound gorilla" refers to the industry giant in a particular area, like Microsoft in software. What the stupid Axa people actually mean is the elephant in the room. You'd think before they'd spend all that money on a TV campaign they'd look up the metaphor.

Just go to Urban Dictionary, dummies.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=800-pound+gorilla
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=elephant+in+the+room

gertrude

Creative creatives creating creative creative

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:41:00 +0000

A passage from Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris:

Jim explained that in the advertising industry, art directors and copywriters alike were called creatives… Jim also told him that the advertising product, whether it was a TV commercial, a print ad, a billboard or a radio spot, was called the creative.

…
“You folks over there,” said Max, “you say you call yourselves creatives, is that what you're telling me? And the work you do, you call that the creative, is that what you said?” Jim said that was correct. “And I suppose you think of yourselves as pretty creative over there, I bet.”

“I suppose so,” said Jim, wondering what Max was driving at.

“And the work you do, you probably think that's pretty creative work.”

“What are you asking me, Uncle Max?”

“Well, if all that's true,” said the old man, “that would make you creative creatives creating creative creative.” There was silence as Max allowed Jim to take this in. “And that right there,” he concluded, “…That's a use of the English language just too absurd to even contemplate.”

With that, Max hung up.

don't you hate it when they get metaphors wrong?

noreply@blogger.com (Gertrude) — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 14:08:00 +0000

The other day a political pundit was answering the question on NPR of whether the fairly recently appointed General David Petraeus is likely to be honest about the situation in Iraq, and he stated that Petraeus "is a square shooter."

I wonder what that would look like.

gertrude

Let's status on that

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 01:51:00 +0000

Status is not a verb. I've heard it too many times now at work, and I'm getting concerned. "Let's status on that tomorrow." Or even worse, "We need to status up on that." Status up?

acronyms

noreply@blogger.com (Gertrude) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:45:00 +0000

Oy, here's one that drives me mad. People referring to abbreviations as "acronyms." Just because it's in all capital letters does not make it an acronym! "NAACP" and "NRA" are abbreviations. "NOW" and "BART" are acronyms. Why? Cause you can say them like a word. Like "NARAL."

Oddly, "MIT" is treated as an abbreviation, even though you could technically say it like a word.

From Merriam Webster:
"acronym: a word formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term"

xox,
gertrude

I could care less

noreply@blogger.com (Gertrude) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 19:29:00 +0000

Just a quickie addition to the Inconceivables list - the well-known misuse of the dismissive, "I couldn't care less." Why some people insist on saying "I could care less" I don't know. It's shorter? Cooler? Wronger?

Irregardless, it's annoying. : )

gertrude

Congratulations, it's a Mandatory!

noreply@blogger.com (bartlebysmiles) — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:21:00 +0000

Companies all want projects done immediately. Fast-moving e-businesses (are there any other kind?), web development consulting firms, branding outlets, ad firms, etc, all want to do more than these companies want, because they have profit margins and employ self-starters who can grow their businesses. At the intersection of what the company needs, and what the contracts want to overcharge for are what both agree MUST be done (and in reality will be all that ever gets done). Some people call these must-haves, mission-critical elements, or low-hanging fruit. Lately, though, companies call them Mandatories:

Mandatory (nout)(plural: Mandatories) = an element of a project or task that must be completed or the project / task fails.

Sounds nice, but that's not what the noun "mandatory" means. From Merriam-Webster.com:

Main Entry: mandatory / Function: noun / plural man·da·to·ries / Date: 1661
: one given a mandate; especially : a nation holding a mandate from the League of Nations

And surely, companies don't want nations holding mandates from the League of Nations to approve their word, do they? That's rhetorical, dummy.

Inconceivable!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 01:37:00 +0000

Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.