Grammar in advertising - is it neccessary or is it ain't?
One of the things that really stood out to me when I was going to ad school for writing was when one of my teachers said “you don’t need to be grammatically correct in advertising, you can even make words up.” Awesome. And over the years I have continued on as a copywriter happily turning my nose up at dangling participles and split infinitives along the way. However, there was a campaign in recent months that bothered me because of its grammar. Crap. So am I being a hypocrite or is it just a bad line?
Around tax time, H&R Block’s tax services used the line “You Got People” both as dialogue in the ad and as a tagline. Now, anyone who took a 7th grade English class would know the correct way to express this sentiment would be “you have people” (which still sounds kinda weird) but I understand it’s a type of slang and they were probably going for a more casual approach and let’s face it, a lot of people speak this way. But it still bugs me. It’s H&R Block. I don’t want them to be casual when I’m giving them my tax info. For me, this wording in this context does not fit the product and actually cheapens it. Now here’s where advertising gets tricky. Got Milk? was genius. Pretty much the same idea yet it works so much better. But why? Is it because milk is more fun than taxes? Was the execution more creative (I would argue yes) or was it just the right place, right time for milk? After all, how long did we have to endure “Got ___?” I don’t hear anyone saying “You Got Pizza” or “You Got Jesus.” In the end, although I personally don’t for the line “You Got People” I do like the fact that they can get away with it. I think if advertising copy was required to be grammatically correct all the time it would limit us creatively and taglines especially wouldn’t be the same. So save your grammar for journalism and give me a highly creative and poorly structured sentence anytime.
About the Author: Holly Ringerud
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2 comments so far
Sara says:
I wholeheartedly disagree (in a friendly way).
Don't get me wrong. Slang is fine in ad copy -- if it works. Incomplete sentences are fine, too -- if they work. As in, if they flow with the rest of the copy, make sense and generally read well.
But I've met a few copywriters (not you, Holly!) who think they're being creative with their copy, but when you scratch just a hair below the surface, you realize their "creative" way of writing just plain doesn't make sense.
Which is why I think grammar should never, ever be forgotten in copywriting -- no matter how creative you're being. Because it's one thing to break and bend the rules to achieve a conversational tone or give your writing a certain flair or style. But if you want to write well, you need to know -- and be aware of -- the rules you're breaking, and there should always be a good reason for breaking them.
Why? Because sloppy prose isn't creative. It's just sloppy.
Eric Reid says:
I should think the idea of ad copy is to communicate ideas to people, so if the average consumer doesn't use proper grammar, I think it make sense to use improper grammar to reach him. The point should be being effective. And if that's what it takes, so be it.
But "You've Got People" sounds like an exceedingly white attempt to riff off of Spike Lee's film, "He Got Game," which is just embarrassing.