Saturday, August 7, 2010

Bad ad of the year? Of the decade?


A lot's been said about the Old Spice guy. A lot of awards won. But Old Spice also perpetrates this affront above.

I know, I know...I'm not the demo.

But this just sucks.

An armpit that smells like Fiji.

Please.

George Orwell, in his great essay "Politics and the English Language" had 6 rules for decent writing. They apply to advertising--and the last one applies especially to this ad.

(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

(ii) Never us a long word where a short one will do.

(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.

(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Quoting you:

"But this just sucks."

What's with "sucks?" Aren't there better, more accurately descriptive words that you could use pejoratively in your daily posts?

I agree with George Orwell:

(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or OTHER FIGURE OF SPEECH which you are used to seeing in print.

Your posts are brilliant, but why the lazy high school language?

george tannenbaum said...

Kevin, you're right. I was lazy and running in for lunch.

The ad is banal and ugly.

Anonymous said...

I want my armpits to smell like Fiji. And my balls to smell like Brazil.