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ADVERTISING
- August 2001 by Gene Doyle Capalitters and
Other Orientated Aminals As my four-year old granddaughter came bounding through the door and into my living room she said, “Pops, you gots a bunch of capalitters on your front porch!” “Capalitters. How cute. Capalitters, cappa – no, wait – what the heck is that word anyway? Oh yeah – caterpillars!” After saying “capalitters” a few more times it occurred to me that I was experiencing a language phenomenon. The more I said “capalitters” the more difficult it became to think of the correct word! The strange thing is, it happens to a lot of folks these days, even when we should know better, and we may not be aware of it. Here’s an example for you. I happened to be listening to one of those national radio talk shows the other day. The topic of the hour was “The dumbing down of America.” It was a lively discussion to say the least, with callers expressing thoughtful views both pro and con. But there was one caller who particularly struck me. This young (sounding) person identified herself as a Kentucky school teacher. I always perk up when I hear someone from our fair state on national radio. She made some good points. She was articulate and insightful. When the show’s host responded with a question the teacher replied: “Yes, and that’s exspecially true when a student isn’t intellectually orientated.” Wait a minute. It’s happening again! “Exspecially, exspecially? Orientated, orienta–?” Hey, this is an adult speaking, and a highly educated one at that! Now, I may have been just an average student in English class, but aren’t the proper words “especially” and “oriented”? The interesting part about all of this is that the well-educated, high profile media host didn’t notice the error either! They say education has improved since the ’50s and ’60s, but in those days the worst transgression one could commit in elementary English class was using the “ain’t” word. The proper use of “especially” was never an issue even for the most phonetically challenged. We knew “exspecially” wasn’t in the dictionary. And “orientated” has more to do with facing east, while “oriented” is an adjective that describes how one is intellectually, emotionally, or functionally directed. The increasing frequency with which people misuse these two words is amazing to me, especially (note the correct word usage) among high-level corporate executives and media personalities. Maybe it’s like a contagious childhood disease that some of us never quite get over. Or perhaps it’s like one of those viruses that mutate over time just enough to avoid the antidote. We hear a word mispronounced, but it sounds correct. We think the person mispronouncing it must be smarter than we are, so we second-guess ourselves and start using it incorrectly as well. We catch the disease and pass it along. Since this is an advertising column, I am pleased to say that the advertising industry seems to make fewer mistakes in this regard than most other communication endeavors. The reason is simple economics. Ad people tend to make fewer pronunciation and spelling errors because they can cost an agency dearly. A client who spends thousands of dollars running a print ad, or subsidizing the distribution of an expensive brochure, will not be a happy camper if he discovers that the headline which should have read “Investors who can’t afford to lose, choose XYZ”, instead reads “Investors who can’t afford to loose, choose XYZ”. Notice that a spell-checker wouldn’t catch that little faux pas. Now, most reasonable clients understand that errors do happen. Standards of practice indicate that the client, not the agency, holds final responsibility when it comes to advertising materials that contain facts, figures, pricing, technical points, etc. Spelling errors, on the other hand, can open up another can of worms altogether. As a safeguard, I often employ one of my favorite tricks-of-the-trade when proofing ad copy—I read it backwards. This takes the cognitive side of the brain out of gear. The cognitive side of the brain tends to see written copy as correct, even when it is not, simply because it is in context. In other words, a sentence read forward is generally read as we think it should be, rather than as it may actually appear on the page. Reading backwards takes the words out of context and makes mistakes easier to spot. I wish I had known that little trick in the spring of 1967. That was when I secured my first job in advertising as the Art Director for a local television station and was daily seeking to make a good impression. My efforts were hindered by the fact that I was notorious for making spelling errors. Station management-types seemed to take particular delight in chiding me over that malady at every available opportunity (in good fun, of course.) I didn’t mind it – too much. It was the truth after all. There
was great excitement at the station. The whole staff
gathered in the conference room for the preview screening
of a brand new local news promotion scheduled to air the
following night. This animated promo had been created on
film at great expense by a Hollywood-style production
company. “Great stuff!” said one. “Outstanding!” said another. The higher-ups all began patting each other on the back. “Ahem, just a minute.” Everyone turned in my direction. “You might want to look at it again.” “And why is that, Mister Rookie (wet-behind-the-ears) Art Director?” “Because they misspelled Kentucky.” Sure enough, when the film was rolled back and played again, everyone saw what they hadn’t seen before. Kentucky had been spelled “Kentuky”. Vindication is sweet. The spelling error fever had moved on to another victim. Perhaps
if spelling and pronunciation errors were as costly in
any field as they can be in advertising, we would all be
more mindful of the language phenomenon. It’s an
affliction that can strike anyone, at any time, no matter
how smart we think we might be, and in spite of the rung
we occupy on the corporate ladder. |
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Copyright 1996-2001, by Kentucky Business Online. All rights reserved. Editorial
content is copyright 2001, Lane Communications Group The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
