Advertising

Originally posted May 6, 2009.

Let�s face it; there are all kinds of ridiculousnesses in advertising these days. In an attempt to be witty, clever, shocking, and/or attention grabbing, companies come up with some of the dumbest abbreviations, slogans, and catch phrases ever to be conceived by man. Let�s take a few moments to explore this world of advertising with some real world examples�

01. BOGO � Originally this term was coined �Buy One Get One Free� which is simple and not hard to say. Yet, someone thought it would be cute to abbreviate this into an acronym that doesn�t even include the entire term. BOGO stands for �Buy One Get One� the obvious clipping of the little detail of �free� means that BOGO could refer to little else than �You get what you pay for�if you buy one, you only get one.� Thus, the term should be BOGOF yet people in marketing are apparently not good at English and BOGO is used flippantly and incorrectly on newspaper inserts across the US.

02. Not understanding the difference between a Sequel and a Prequel � This one has come to my attention just recently with the upcoming release of the film �Angels and Demons.� This film is based on a book written by Dan Brown that was written 3 years before his book �The Da Vinci Code.� Yet, the trailer for the film adaptation of Angels and Demons states that it is a sequel to The Da Vinci Code when it is in fact a prequel. You�d think that a film studio�s marketing department would have done at least a little bit of research on their own movie�s source material before making such an obvious mistake�but they apparently didn�t.

03. HDD � if you go to any electronics store and take a look at their digital video cameras you will notice many times that they have the letters HDD in large text in an extremely visible location on the camera itself. In this case it is marketing genius on the part of the manufacturer and buyer retardation on the part of the consumer. HDD does not mean High Definition Display�.it means Hard Disk Drive meaning the video files are stored on an internal hard drive and are likely not in anywhere close to an HD resolution. Yet, marketers sell tons of cameras by jumping on the HD bandwagon and making people think they�re getting something they�re not.

These are just a few examples (3 to be exact) of how advertising can be lame. Comment if you know of any more.