Pet Peeve

[richardf8]

I am tired of hearing from advertisers how I can "save up to N or more." It's either up to "N" or it's "N" or more. But the phrase as uttered does not establish "N" as either an upper or lower limit, it merely appears to. In this construction "N" is merely some arbitrary number pulled out of the marketing wonk's asshole, which, incidentally, is the orifice directly beneath his nose. (I say "his" because I am a sexist pig who refuses to believe that a woman would come up with such stupidity).

Comments

[lordrunningclam.livejournal.com]

The trick in advertising is to make something sound great, without actually making any real promises. Beware especially the word "virtually." "Virtually" is a word that, in effect, renders whatever follows entirely meaningless. A similar logic applies to phrases like "up to," "or more." and "just like."

As for stupidity originating from women, sadly, women are every bit as capable of promoting stupidity as men.

[timtylor.livejournal.com]

I hate:
"Fat-Free": 90% fat-free = 10% artery-grout
"Natural": All-Natural Hemlock Juice! As drunk by Socrates!
TV adverts in grainy black-and-white
Pretentious TV adverts that go on for subjective hours before telling you what they're pushing. (These are usually in grainy black-and-white.)