On 3 Jan 2009, I bogged about a Singlish advertisement on getting an UK Diploma. Last week, I saw the "Singapore Number One Tuition Centre" (see photo).
They used correct English I guess. The only thing I was not sure was the results. But the advertisement said it was 100% money back guaranteed.
I am sure the desperate parent will call and try on them as the phone number was big enough for people to see.
2 comments:
I commented in your last blog on such advertisement, wherein I said that good English in this type of advertisement, especially with space constraint, is not necessary. Take this one for example, not only it is grammatically wrong, it is in fact quite ambiguous. 100% back? - to whom? for what? The word guarantee is not there or implied. What is the use of having the tel.no being written big if the message is misleading and not appealing enough. I prefer the advertisement mentioned in the previous blog - short, precise and crisp. Potential students taking up this type of tuition should not expect any pay back guarantee should he failed the pursued course because no written agreement is made between the tuitor and the student.
In the advertisement community, one is "permitted" to make subjective claims (and claims that no one will take literally) like:
- best beer in town (subjective)
- washes whiter than white (how to be whiter than white???)
- Singapore Girl, You are a Great Way to Fly (how to fly the S'pore girls, I wonder?)
In your example, the said tuition centre lays claim to be the no. 1 (presumably the top or the best, and not the oldest) tuition centre in S'pore. This is subjective as no one knows what is their benchmark. They could very well mean No. 1 in bullshitting, or No. 1 in charging the highest tuition fees in S'pore.
In the advertisement world, creativity is key, and use of proper grammar is not necessary.
One can take leeway with the language as long as it captures the attention of the target audience, who understand the message, and more importantly, are then influenced to buy (by the ad).
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