ghd - A New Ignorance For Hair
Thu 12th July 2007, 9.12 pm
Have you come across those adverts for ghd - "A New Religion For Hair"? Some sort of overpriced-hair-styling-equipment manufacturer, I believe.
Their advertising campaign carries the tagline "The Gospel According to ghd" and a 'witty' commandment, such as:
Thou shalt not use yours to make the whole world jealous.
Thou shalt not use yours to make wealthy, old men with weak hearts fall in love with you.
Thou shalt not borrow your sister's without asking.
I needn't go on.
Come on! Thou shalt not use thine to make the whole world jealous! Thou shalt not borrow thy sister's without asking!
Does no one in the entire company or the advertising agency they hired to invent this campaign know what the word thou means?! Perhaps thou shalt means "hey, I'm introducing a commandment".
I'm more concerned about the alternative (and probably more likely) explanation, that they really believe people wouldn't understand the correct version as easily. That using a more well-known pronoun that doesn't agree is somehow "easier on the ears".
Just grr.
Tagged as:
english
advertising
brand
Operating at caffeine mark 6
I'm feeling lazy
I'm singing Spiritualized - Lord Let It Rain On Me
PigleT
on Thu 12th July 2007, 11.45 pm
Fine by me. Whatever happened to not pandering to the ignorance of the masses and actually improve knowledge or matters?
Pete
on Fri 13th July 2007, 12.09 pm
I think the problem is just that people don't know how to conjugate verbs with "thou" any more, since it's been functionally obsolete for hundreds of years. About as many people will say "thou maketh" as "thou makest", which is just wrong.
They need to hire more marketers from Yorkshire who still use the old pronouns 
