Errors “WearEver” You Look
Published January 30th, 2008 in English Language, Ridiculing Stupidity
I try to not be too critical of English errors, but sometimes it is hard to overlook them. I bought new baking sheets recently and glued to them was a piece of thin cardboard with generic info. Now, I’m sure 90% of people never look at this stuff, but I started to read it while I was attempting to peel the glue off (so that I could recycle the cardboard) and the very first sentence contained an error.
If the recipe calls for, spray lightly with nonstick vegetable cooking spray and wipe off excess; or if preferred, apply a light film of shortening.
Really? No one caught this error? I would understand if it was farther on, but it is the first sentence! I guess you can’t expect much in terms of language from a company that is so “witty” as to call itself “WearEver,” but can’t even be consistent with the capitalization of its own name.
I wonder if localization/translation has anything to do with it (or at least in some cases)? I, too, get frustrated when I see silly spelling errors and grammatical mistakes being made by people who shouldn’t be making them (e.g. when you see a spelling error in the ticker at the bottom of CNN’s television feed).
That’s certainly could explain the appearance of the error, but I would hope whoever looks over the text would spot something like that. Though, I just got back from the store where I had been looking at various hair gels and the like when I came across one that boldly asserted that it was “for hair that ain’t going nowhere!” or something to that effect. I can only guess that it was designed to make the product sound tough? Either that or it impregnates hair with chemicals that go all the way into the brain and melt away cells.
And I used to be surprised at how many errors major news corporations make, but now I am just saddened by it. Quality control has gone away. Several news channels, papers, etc. reported that Keith Ledger was dead a week ago…