Language of advertising | Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Archive for the ‘Language of advertising’ Category

Annals of p.r. pitches

March 2, 2017

In the tradition of my 2/4 posting “Demented p.r. pitches, absurd ad copy”, I begin with an annoying initial p.r. pitch (on January 6th) for “optimizing ad space”, from a representative (JP) of a company I’ll call King Holdings to a blogger (KW):

I’ve been trying to get in touch with somebody in regards to learning about your site’s advertising strategy – specifically how you’re set up monetizing your site.

My name is [JP] and I work for [King Holdings], which is a premium ad exchange …

I’d love to talk about how you’re currently optimizing your ad space and what [King] can provide to scale it. Who is the correct person to contact regarding this opportunity?

Rather than just deleting the feeler, or replying that he was a blogger and not in need of advertising, KW chose to take the bait and throw it back with a big hook in it (a response to Nigerian Scam letters that people occasionally adopt, even understanding that they might be embarking on a major project). (more…)

Posted in Initialisms, Language of advertising, Pleonasm, Silliness | Leave a Comment »

Genuine mink jock

January 11, 2017

A preposterous vintage 70s fashion ad that’s all over the net (though, as usual, without a verifiable source):

(more…)

Posted in Fashion, Language of advertising, Underwear | Leave a Comment »

Twin Kings

December 4, 2016

Burger King has a long series of brief tv ads showing (usually) two people, mostly young people (presumably from their target audience), friends, who are enjoying BK specials while bantering and wearing their BK golden crowns. Lots of white males, some white females, and now two young black guys — who happen to be twins. Doing a black “street” style of speech and gesture (including some falsetto), playful and kind of goofy. A still:

You can watch the ad here. On iSpot.tv: 2016 Burger King 2 for $10 Whopper Meal TV Commercial, ‘Twins’.

(more…)

Posted in Language and food, Language of advertising, Names, Race and ethnicity | Leave a Comment »

The superb object of his attention

November 17, 2016

(Hunky guy in underwear, somewhat suggestive caption, nothing to frighten the horses. But in case this isn’t what you want to see …)

The Daily Jocks ad from the 14th, with a caption added by me:

By himself in the
Darkened rainbow
Sex room,
Cromo reflected on the
Secret of his
Crotch, found it was a
Flash piece of
Top-notch meat.

(more…)

Posted in Captions, Language of advertising, Slang, Underwear | Leave a Comment »

Made for you

October 26, 2016

(Underwear ad, suggestive but not explicit text.)

From Daily Jocks yesterday, featuring Andrew Christian underwear. The image, the ad copy, my caption (inspired by the extraordinarily plastic-synthetic look of the model):

(#1)

Raunchy, cheeky, and playful, Andrew Christian always pushes underwear styles to the limit. Andrew Christian has developed into a hugely popular underwear brand that’s not afraid to show off the male form with crazy designs, bright colours and attention seeking styles.

Crafted from
Cutting-edge materials,
Cristiano29 is the latest,
Most life-like
Model in the
Andrew Christian M4M
PerfoHunk line,
Guaranteed to perform all
Sexual functions to your
Satisfaction.

Enhanced model 29ST does
Pleasant small talk, 29DT
Dirty-talks to your
Personal
Specifications.

(more…)

Posted in Captions, Gender and sexuality, Language of advertising, Technology, Underwear | Leave a Comment »

Tradenaming

October 20, 2016

… choosing words as trademarks. NOAD2 on trademark:

a symbol, word, or words legally registered or established by use as representing a company or product

Such words often come with associations to existing words, or parts of words, in the language, and sometimes there are official origin stories that invoke these associations, though the official stories often just scratch the surface of the full set of associations.

Which brings me back to my posting of the 16th on the Parisian home furnishing company FLEUX’ (and its mascot, Zwicky le Chat): where does the company name come from? (and why is the cat named Zwicky?)

(more…)

Posted in Innovations, Language and animals, Language of advertising, Names, Phonology, Portmanteaus | Leave a Comment »

Workin’ Blue at the Car Wash

October 17, 2016

Clay Colwell on Facebook today:

I just saw a guy holding a sign saying “HAND JOBS $10”. He was outside a car wash, so I’m sure it was for hand-wash service, but ya never know.

We’ve visited the world of deliberately provocative hand job before, on 3/22/16 in “Annals of dubious commercial names”, referring to a spa named Hand Job (referring to manicures) on Castro St. in San Francisco. But the expression is widespread at car washes to refer provocatively to hand-washing. In both cases playing on vulgar slang hand job ‘masurbation of a man’.

(more…)

Posted in Double entendres, Language of advertising, Language of sex, Slang | 2 Comments »

On foot patrol, part 1

August 31, 2016

(Foot patrol, also food patrol.)

Yesterday morning, two expeditions involving my feet: first getting a second pair of shoes (I was edgy having only one; a backup seemed like a good idea) and a replacement pair of slippers (the previous excellent UGGs having disintegrated), and then getting a pedicure (foot care being something I can’t manage on my own).

Part 1 took me to the Palo Alto Footwear etc. store, more or less across the street from two relatively recently opened places to eat, both with remarkable names: Sushirrito (at 448 University Ave.) and Umami Burger (at 452, next door)

(more…)

Posted in Adverbs, Gender and sexuality, Language and food, Language of advertising, Names, Portmanteaus | Leave a Comment »

Advances in the fast food world

August 9, 2016

An announcement in my Facebook feed this morning, from Adverising Age yesterday:

Burger King Introduces Whopperito, a Whopper Burrito: Tex-Mex Mashup to Be Sold Nationally From Aug. 15

Burger King’s latest new item is taking a cue from Chipotle Mexican Grill, which is still reeling from a string of foodborne illness outbreaks.

The Whopperito, which puts Whopper burger ingredients like beef, tomatoes, onions, lettuce and pickles inside a flour tortilla, will be sold nationally beginning Aug. 15 [after marketing trials in Pennsylvania]. A queso sauce replaces the mayonnaise from the hamburger.

I had two reactions. One, that the Whopperito as described in AdAge is very close to my conception of an American burrito, with (possibly) only the tomatoes and pickles outside the usual list of ingredients, though with beans (or refried beans) crucially absent, so the thing hardly looks like a hybrid food (Whopper plus burrito), but more like a stunted variant of a burrito — but then this is advertising (for Burger King, home of the Whopper), not food studies. Two, that although the name could be construed as a portmanteau (Whopper + burrito, with the shared r indicated by underlining), the first interpretation I got of the name was that it was a diminutive of Whopper, in –ito, that is, as ‘little Whopper’ — an oxymoron if I ever saw one.

Then I discovered that AdAge had spelled the name wrong. It’s Whopperrito, much more clearly a portmanteau.

(more…)

Posted in Derivation, Language and food, Language in advertising, Language of advertising, Oxymoron, Portmanteaus | Leave a Comment »