Bad English in ads: sloppiness or marketing?

[wasisname]

If I want charm in a girl, I'll find one with an overbite, or quicky awkward movement. Spelling efforts in ad copy is just plain sloppy for something as important as your business.

Well, that was the (joking) point of the post...which I guess didn't work well.

Another, second, joke in my post, was that I too mis-spelled the movie title...(I used the work "too," instead of "to."

But I guess if you have to explain a joke....

I thought it might have been. Deadpan humour in particular doesn't always work well over them thar internets thing.

 

[Reboot]

J'ai offert au moins deux fois de revoir les annonces de certaines SPs que je voyais régulièrement (il n'y pas Mère Thérésa marqué sur mon front, non plus). L'une des filles m'a répondu qu'elle préfère garder l'annonce avec toutes ses erreurs parce qu'elle donne une meilleur idée d'elle. Je pense qu'elle avait raison.

Par contre une fille indépendante qui se présente comme intelligente et universitaire doit avoir des talents linguistiques impeccables, sinon son annonce ne sera pas crédible.

HFE.

Je suis daccord sur ce point. Pour une independante (desole pour le manque d' accents, j'utilise un clavier anglais), c'est probablement un mal necessaire de laisser les fautes d'ortographes si ce n'est pas sa langue maternelle. L'annonce represente une personne seulement et ca demontre aux clients potentiels qu' elle peut dialoguer en anglais mais qu'ils ne s'attendent pas a la perfection. En fait, c'est plutot intelligent et c'est, selon moi, du bon marketing.

Ce qui me derange beaucoup plus, ce sont les agences. Je sais tres bien que ce qu'ils vendent n'a rien a voir avec la langue (dans le sens de language, bien sur ). Mais pour moi, une entreprise se doit de demontrer qu'elle est minutieuse et desire se faire prendre au serieux. Si je vais au restaurant et que le menu est bourre de fautes, est-ce que ca veut dire que la bouffe ne sera pas bonne? Certainement pas. Mais ca me dit que le proprietaire se fout de bien parraitre ou non et demontre peut-etre un certain manque d'education.

Meme chose pour les agences. Ca ne m'empechera pas de faire affaire avec elles, bien sur, mais j'aime mieux faire affaire avec des gens qui ont le soucis de bien faire les choses. Si je vois des fautes a tour de bras, ca me fait dire, et peut-etre a tord je l'avous, que ca ne doit pas etre la seule place ou il tourne un peu les coins rond.

Hello all,



You do extremely well.

As I'm sure it is in any language there are good, bad, and haven't quite got it. I see native English speakers making mistakes all of the time. One of the most common being when to use "then" and "than". English can be very tricky. Change one word or make a mistake in the meaning of a word and it can become a mess. I often change how I want to express something while writing and need to recheck so much. It's really not difficult to get right if you recognize what you are doing, but you need to be careful. But there are some French speakers writing English better than some English speakers.

Still, I have to agree mostly with Vercingentorix. I enjoy the charm of some cute mistakes. It is endearing and I can still hear the way Miss Jessy told me who was available and setting the meeting, then signing off with her quaint..."nite nite". Yet, professionalism does speak for itself in showing QUALITY. Many of us are satisfied with the charm of innocent mistakes, but some may not be and who knows what little things might affect people's decisions. It's better to make sure it looks and reads professionally because it communicates attention to detail that can make the difference for some, even though it might seem trivial to most.

As for spell checker, it catches 99.9% of spelling mistakes, but it does not recognize proper language use. It will get "then" and "than" spelled correctly, but it will not know which belongs according to what was meant and how it was used...and I've still caught it spelling some words wrong.



Yeah, sometimes even I can see that. My native French speaking friends have mentioned it also. As I said, ability can vary a lot within any language.

Cheers,

Merlot

I absolutely agree with everything you said.

I know not everybody has the ability to easily learn to write languages, be it their own or another. I totally understand that. But if I had a business, I'd want to show my customers how professional I am and show them I pay attention to every detail. It all starts with the image you're projecting. If you don't care about writing the right words or write them correctly in your ads, chances are you won't care as much about the other details of your business.

I don't mind as much if they make a mistake writing "sophisticated" or some other bigger words. I can put the blame on typos. Although with all the technology at our disposal, typos shouldn't really exist in ads and web sites. (I am not including forum posts and more personal writings. Just in case I make some too ) But what makes me cringe the most, are very easy words being typed wrongly again and again on the same web site. Words like "but" instead of "butt" or "ful" instead of "full". Most mistakes could be found by anyone with basic English understanding. Of course, "then" and "than" and other words like that requires more knowledge. But I am sure agencies can find at least one person to help them with that. Heck, I'd do it for free! I am not the best, but for most of them, it can't be worse.

Although, as I said in french in the first part of this post, if it is an indie advertising herself and making spelling errors, I think that IS great marketing. It shows their potential clients that she can speak English, not just perfectly. I think it is the only acceptable instance of spelling errors in ads I can think of.

And yes, their french is often not that great either. So that means my point about marketing is pretty moot, isn't it?

 

[mauricevachon]

And is using "work" instead of "word" a part of the joke or am I missing un bout?

Actually no....that was a real mistake...good catch...maybe we need a new thread: "Bad English in review boards: sloppiness or stupidity?"

 

[HornyForEver]

Actually no....that was a real mistake...good catch...maybe we need a new thread: "Bad English in review boards: sloppiness or stupidity?"

Please no, I will never call fellow merbites stupid :nono:

 

[Merlot]

Hmmm,

Please no, I will never call fellow merbites stupid :nono:

Good call. One might ask in the manner of mauricevachon: calling people stupid, sloppiness or trash??? Poor English, French, or whatever is bad enough. Add in bad manners and attitude...peeeeeuuuuuuuuu.

... if I had a business, I'd want to show my customers how professional I am and show them I pay attention to every detail. It all starts with the image you're projecting. If you don't care about writing the right words or write them correctly in your ads, chances are you won't care as much about the other details of your business.

There are brands that have succeeded fantastically using common language misspelling for specific effect. Two of the first that come to mind are "Playskool" and "ToysRUs" with the R backwards. But that's a purposeful marketing technique that effectively uses a playfulness that attracts the target audience. I don't see how that psychology could work with escorts, especially where reliability and perfect fantasy are a major keys. So we agree that caring about how you represent yourself in this business will translate to most about how you care about maintaining quality service for your clients.



Merlot

 

[tiannas]

I pay attention to how I write, and try to do so well. I take pride in the way I express myself. I actually am a little shy when I write in French because I know that my written French isn't perfect, and I hate to make mistakes!

There is definitely a sense of professionalism that is projected by writing well, in my opinion.

 

[Reboot]

Tiannas, I am like that too. I go with the principle of "If you do something, do it right". So when I right, I try to use the right words, make my thoughts clear and to not make too many mistakes. When I speak, I have a very hard time being concise and clear and people tend to not like when I say something in 5 minutes which I could have said in 30 seconds lol I tend to over-explain things. So, when I write, I do the same thing, but at least I can try to make it seem much better than originally written lol But sometimes (ok, most of the times!) I still don't succeed in being concise

So, I guess as someone who tries to write properly even if it's just a text or forum post, I find it quite hard to understand that some business owners don't pay as much attention to their actual advertisement as I do to a simple useless forum post!

And, like you, I prefer writing in English, I think it is much easier than French, even though I am good enough in French. The biggest problem for me is that I own an English keyboard and I cringe every time I write a word without accents, but am too lazy to learn which keys to press for them to appear

There are brands that have succeeded fantastically using common language misspelling for specific effect. Two of the first that come to mind are "Playskool" and "ToysRUs" with the R backwards. But that's a purposeful marketing technique that effectively uses a playfulness that attracts the target audience. I don't see how that psychology could work with escorts, especially where reliability and perfect fantasy are a major keys. So we agree that caring about how you represent yourself in this business will translate to most about how you care about maintaining quality service for your clients.



Merlot

There is a big difference between the name of a company and the way they write their ads. I think ToysRUs is a great name and, as you said, shows a playfulness that is clearly in direct relation to what they are selling. But if they wrote their flyers with a typo in every word to show that most kids don't write well, I don't think I'd like it that much lol And even then, that would have been a concept, and not because they can't do it right. And the latter is what I think of agencies when I see their ads and it is not that great.

I sincerely hope some agency owners will read this thread and at least think about what we are saying here. Or at the very least give us their point of view on this subject. That would be pretty interesting to know.

 

[wasisname]

It is obvious when someone is using bad language on purpose and when they either don't know or don't care.

Well maybe not always but when a major chain does it in their name you can assume it is on purpose for a reason. You can also assume it if it isn't a normal selling error or typo and seems on purpose and the mistake makes sence in its own way.

Otherwise again, it looks like they just couldn't be bothered and you must ask yourself if that attitude will carry over to any interaction you have with said business.

 

[Lily from Montreal]

And the turn-off goes both ways...when I get a nicely phrased message I tend to look at it more favorably ,while a message full of spelling mistakes or worse the use of sentences that are not even english like ''R U free?...'' hum...nope.not for you, of course I am never free but I digress lol
Anyway most of those comes from guys who are not my cup of tea...

 

[wasisname]

And the turn-off goes both ways...when I get a nicely phrased message I tend to look at it more favorably ,while a message full of spelling mistakes or worse the use of sentences that are not even english like ''R U free?...'' hum...nope.not for you, of course I am never free but I digress lol
Anyway most of those comes from guys who are not my cup of tea...

I have a flip phone. Texting is a huge pain in the ass as each letter requires me to jump around like a retarded monkey on crack to type. I still use full words because, I donno too much pride to come across sounding like a 12 year old girl I guess. That being said I go ultra short and ultra terse in that mode.

If it is an email R U Free is kind of WTF, but in a text message maybe he is using a simpler cell phone. Not all of us chase the latest technology like it is some sort of unicorn.

 

[CharlotteSinclair]

I do make typos. I can blame my fingers on that. I so wish I had taken typing in high school. I was on the sciences track. A business one would have been a better choice. Hindsight is 20/20 after all.

I also have a simple cellphone and I just take the time it takes to communicate in full sentences.

 

[Lily from Montreal]

I am talking emails,text are different,me too on my phone I sometime do not understand myself lol...at least I finally figured how to stop my phone to change what I write ''to help me''...
my pet peeves are introductory emails where the gentlemen get in touch with me for the first time and the whole of the message is:''U horny?...'' I do need a bit more preliminary lol

 

[Reboot]

You're right Lily. I will keep that in mind for the next time I message a lady. It will be "Hello. U horny?" Much better!

I HATE when people don't seem to care about the language they are writing in when sending texts (more understandable though) or emails and even forum posts. If it is because they do not know how to write properly and make lots of mistakes, I understand and they get a pass. What I can't forgive is the abbreviations and lack of a proper sentence. I mean, I often see people clearly abbreviating a 4 letter word to make it a 3 letter word! How hard it it to type one more letter?? WTF? (yes, that one was intentional Some of these, I can give a pass too, I don't know why, if it doesn't make for the majority of the message lol)

As I said, I tend to forgive those things in texting. Even I, with a Rainbow Unicorn Samsung phone (wasisname put it), I care a bit less about typos because my fingers tend to hit the wrong letters all the time and if I change it every time I make a mistake, it will cost me 700$ to replace the phone I just threw at the wall I still make complete sentences and not many abbreviations though. I do hate it when you send a thoughtful message to someone that is a few lines long (or a few paragraphs long for an email) and all you get is "ok". lol

But all these are for conversations between two people. If a booker text me a short message or email with bad grammar, I will understand that he/she is busy and might not be good at writing. As long as there are mostly full sentences, that's fine by me. But on a website or an ad where you had a lot more than 30 seconds to think about it and write, it is a big no-no.

 

[HornyForEver]

I do hate it when you send a thoughtful message to someone that is a few lines long (or a few paragraphs long for an email) and all you get is "ok". lol

You are lucky, sometimes I only get a 'k' as a reply. Worse, you write a long answer to a question all you get is 'tks'.

Fortunately, some other members tend to add letters, instead of removing them, to show us, I guess, how maaaaaaaaaad, or how happyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy they are.

If reading a message becomes so tedious, I usually skip it.

As for texting, I sometimes use the speech to text feature on Android devices. It works perfectly.