Picture Time: When Grammar Eludes Professional Grade

Corey Lewis
by Corey Lewis
picture time when grammar eludes professional grade

Browsing through Facebook, one must often sort through and endure a constant barrage of poor grammar and misspellings. Generally we accept this (or I do) as one of the pitfalls in our present digital age. Everything is instant, quantity is more important than quality, and getting a Like and a Share means a lot to some people.

But I expect more from the advertisements I’m forced to view than I do from the common man, especially when precision is part of the ad copy.

Look what I found today, when a GMC ad auto-played (an obnoxious feature for a different article) with captions, since I had my computer on mute.

See the problem? Someone at GMC’s ad company thinks the plural of conductor is conductor is. And they didn’t stop there.

Because the plural of maestro (which is not a proper noun) is Maestro is.

Now am I nitpicking? Possibly. But it matters a lot to people who rely solely on captions or the written word to receive information. I expect just a bit more precision from a company attempting to sell product on that virtue.

[Images captured via Facebook]

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  • SuperCarEnthusiast SuperCarEnthusiast on May 17, 2017

    I watch this commercial for the new Acadia many times and every time I see it, I laugh! I happen to know a conductor and he drives around in a company S Class sedan.

  • Sgeffe Sgeffe on May 17, 2017

    Sh!t like that practically leaps off the page or screen at me, even as my spelling has worsened with age. (I second-guess myself even more, and my first instinct is usually correct.) I especially go ape-feces over captions on TV news that use the incorrect spelling of a word (role/roll, and the like -- is that a "homophone," B&B)? A friend's refrigerator magnet describes me best: "I'm the grammar snob about whom your mother warned you!" ;-)

  • Wjtinfwb Instead of raising fines, why don't the authorities enforce the laws and write tickets, and have judges enforce the penalty or sentence of a crime. I live across the street from an Elementary School on a 4-lane divided state highway. every morning the cop sits in his car and when someone sails through the School Zone well above the 10 mph limit, he merely hits his siren to get their attention but that's it. I've never, in 5 years, seen them get out of the car and actually stop and driver and confront them about speeding. As a result, no one pays attention and when the School Zone light is not lit, traffic flies by at 50-60 mph in the 45 zone. Almost no enforcement occurs until the inevitable crash, last year some zoned out girl rolled her beater Elantra 3 times. On a dry, straight, 4 lane road with a 45 mph limit. I'm no Angel and have a heavy foot myself. I've received my share of speeding tickets, lots of them when younger. Traffic enforcement in most locales has become a joke these days, jacking prices because someone has a higher income in as asinine as our stupid tax policy and non-existent immigration enforcement.
  • Jeff S If AM went away I would listen to FM but since it is insignificant in the cost to the car and in an emergency broadcast it is good to have. I agree with some of the others its another way to collect money with a subscription. AM is most likely to go away in the future but I will use AM as long as its around.
  • BEPLA I think it's cool the way it is.If I had the money, time and space - I'd buy it, clean it up, and just do enough to get it running properly.Then take it to Cars and Coffee and park it next to all the newer Mustangs.
  • Dave M. I suppose Jethro’s farm report comes via AM, but there’s a ton of alternative ways to get that info. Move forward people. Progress is never easy.
  • BEPLA For anything but the base model, I'd rather have a pre-owned Polestar 2.
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