life, love, *motherhood, and then more
Did you notice this?
I'm not sure if most of you have caught the latest anti-dadah advertisement on TV. You know, the one that shows an addict who's got bubbles frothing out of his mouth, and then as he almost dies (I suspect the dude's dying in his epileptic fits lah) he gets flashbacks of what's happened prior to his downfall, the life he led, and the things he gave up for drugs.
It's a pretty heavy advertisement, it shows the main character's life being screwed up thoroughly from the day he gets addicted to the substance. The message is clear, 'You don't take drugs. You don't mess around with it. You shouldn't even start using it.'
And then the advertisement ends with two sentences.
Don't start!
Drug kills.
There is something very wrong with the second sentence. The copywriters for the ad should be shot. YOU DON'T MAKE SUCH AN OBVIOUS GRAMMATICALSEMANTIC ERROR ON NATIONAL TV DAMN IT. We're not talking about perfect English, of course, it's not necessary at all times, but when you're talking about an anti-drug advertisement, funded by the government I presume, you have to get the sentence correct and without any grammatical or semantic flaws. Saying 'Drug kills' and 'Drugs kill' just mean two different things.
| Print article | This entry was posted by minishorts on Tuesday, 24 January 2006 at 9:58 am, and is filed under Rants. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 4 years ago
lol… doesn’t anyone bother to check the words before they air the commercial or is no one in the ad agency capable of simple English?
about 4 years ago
If it’s Govt funded, chances are, it’s the same Agency that did the ‘Tak Nak’ failure… pathetic…
But copywriters are still human… mistakes are unavoidable…
Although, this does seem elementary…
about 4 years ago
Clue me in Minishorts… excuse the ‘non-grammatically sensitive’ engineer that I am. But what do both sentences imply?
Drugs kill = MANY drugs can kill?
Drug kills = Implies that drug is not inanimate/a live being, and can carry out the act of killing?
Correct?
about 4 years ago
WAH! So then how do you read The Star newspaper without having daily psychotic fits?
about 4 years ago
Vincent: Hey, thanks for pointing it out.
On a second look it wasn’t really a grammatical error… more of an error in semantic understanding. Technically you always refer to ‘drugs’ the substance that endangers lives in the plural, not in the singular. Even using a determiner before the singular form ‘drug’ will not make the sentence suitable for the context (i.e. an anti-drug advertisement).
I’ve edited the post and crossed out my errors in the post. Hope this helps.
about 4 years ago
i have no say about this since I too make alot of grammatical errors
about 4 years ago
you ought to write to the papers. really.
about 4 years ago
Good catch there. I didn’t saw the ads as I seldom watch TV.
Anyway, I presumed the semantic flaws are because they are directly translated from Bahasa? You know… they are always the other way round?
Yeah, I agreed with the other readers that you should channel your finding to right people. Don’t think they will notice unless someone point it out to them. (Duh) Just my 2 cents worth, cikgu mini oik!
about 4 years ago
yeah, but which drug kills?
about 4 years ago
Minishorts… Semantics! Just one of those posts where I’m supposed to be dumbfounded and go… “Waaaaah, chim-inology!”.
I’ll stick to grease, nuts, and bolts. lol
Great post though!
about 4 years ago
I’m on painkillers. They haven’t killed me yet.
about 4 years ago
Lim Kok Wing did the ‘Tak Nak!’ Ads… it’s a failure if you ask me. Social problems require social solutions. Preaching from a pedestal won’t solve anything.
about 4 years ago
ed has a point. drug ABUSE kills. aha.
about 4 years ago
It’s a glaring GRAMMATICAL error. “Drugs” as in referring to “dadah” is always in plural. Hearing something like “Don’t do drug” should stop you cold, if you know your English.
Vincent, “Drug kills” implies that the copywriter sucks.
about 4 years ago
It’s not the drugs that kill, it’s the choice made by that person using it that killed himself. In the same way, money is not evil, but the love of it is. Credit cards don’t put people in debt, it’s the lack of finance management that does…oh well, this advert, and even the one on radio, just doesn’t really strike the heart yet. We need real people, real testimonies, not some unrealistic scenes and some actors…
about 4 years ago
Those people who come up with the TakNak and Drug kills idea, don’t know what motivates people smokes or take drugs in the first place.
Let alone grammar.
For example, I observed that smokers usually smokes when they’re stressed. and saying TakNak is like lying to yourself that the stress doesn’t exist.
about 4 years ago
Next time they’d better hire us to come up with ‘more’ better anti-dadah campaign slogan. Best stick to Malay if they cannot get the English right. How about this for a start?
DADAH? Mana ay-sai. (DADAH? Where can one!)
or better…
Eat Dadah, you eat Shit. (if thet wanna kill English grammar, they might as well as over-kill it and do it with style!)
just an idea.
about 4 years ago
hmm no one wil see the ads anyway
about 4 years ago
Drug information: A round capsule coloured in pink is generally “PROGESTERONE: 100 MG”
about 4 years ago
This is nothing new, really
about 4 years ago
everyone know that drugs kill, but they still use it… haih…
anyway, first time here… you have a nice blog…
about 4 years ago
He’s probably a taxpayer foaming in the mouth from sheer excitement, after seeing his hard-earned cash being spent so well on public service ads that throughout the years, have been proven to be extremely effective in making political cronies rich and the average citizen take drugs in even larger quantities.
In fact, the ads are so effective, there are thousands of concerned citizens writing in right now to the ministry asking what Mr Foaming Mouth Taxpayer was taking and where to get some, and if there are any special wholesale discounts.
Of course, due to our high standards of government efficiency, I’m still waiting for a reply.
about 4 years ago
I just noticed that this post has appeared in the star’s citizen blogs page.
maybe you’ll win the 50 bucks….