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Tuesday, May 09, 2006
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The Twisted Grammarian So the tv critic at Slate online is going on and on about this new Jetta commercial everyone - except UD, and you know why - is talking about, because it features a sudden scary crash. (You can watch it, as UD did, via Slate’s article.) The spot “prompted massive amounts of reader mail. Some of you are terrified, some of you are appalled, and some of you think the ads are absolutely brilliant.” The Slate writer ponders its visual appeal: “It's a brutally frank look at the physical chaos that results when an SUV enters your sedan without an invitation.” (Is a pickup truck an SUV? Because it looked like a pickup, not an SUV, to UD.) Then he returns to the intense impact the ad’s having: “[VW’s] plan, obviously, is to get us totally freaked about car crashes. And, judging by the post-traumatic e-mails I'm getting from readers, that plan appears to be working..” And what did UD make of it? Well, the only thing she took away from the commercial was what no one else seems to talk about -- the terrific conversational exchange the two guys in the Jetta are having before they get hit. One complains that he doesn’t know why a particular woman isn’t paying attention to him. The other says maybe you should try saying “like” less often. Do you remember that ski trip you described to her? “I like was like going down the mountain and like this guy like crashed into me and like this big crowd like gathered…” For UD this ad is above all a public service announcement from Literacy USA, reminding Americans to stop saying “like” so much. Bravo, VW! |