ads wrong again

New ad for 'freesat' in the uk - "us humans" instead of "we humans." AAAAHHHHH.

Human is an adjective.

Robert

Him and me is "us humans".

us human beings

Robert

4> According to the OED, "human" as a noun dates from the 16 century...

Among whom?

Robert

>1 oldstick:
Are you sure it wasn't "us humans" instead of "uk humans"?

The line in the ad is, "Us humans, eh, we do the funniest things." That could be written more simply as, "We humans do the funniest things." But if you listen to the ad, they really want the verbal pause between "humans" and "we do." And, "We humans, eh, we do the funniest things," would sound redundant. They might have said, "Humans, eh, we do the funniest things." But I think they also wanted the sense of group identification that comes from leading with the first-person plural pronoun.

It looks like the pedants have lost this one. I saw a lot of people praising the ad and I couldn't find anyone else criticizing the grammar.

Well, it sounded wrong to me-and it still does. Where did you see a lot of people praising the ad - on twitter?

>9 oldstick:
I didn't do a careful survey. It was just my impression when I googled to find the ad so I could listen to it.

I don't know the official, pedantic explanation, but I think the "us humans" intro to that sentence is related to the French way of putting "moi" or "lui" or whatever to emphasize the subject. ("Moi, je l'aime." "Lui, il ne l'aime pas." which I think is related to the construction in "Le chat, c'est noir", though it doesn't use the pronoun in the intro position.)

Ad(vertisment)s aren't wrong, they are doing just fine if they are being talked about. A judicious misspelling or unique grammar can make a brand.

Carrot's

> 13

Yep. "Winstons taste good like a cigarette should" is a famous example of how discussions of bad grammar generated more publicity for the product than the mere ads would have.

I don't think they are trying to be controversial: it's more like the calculated use of an informal construction to create a bond of confidence between the narrator and the listener. And the assonance in "us humans" probably helps to make the line memorable.

In my local dialect 'us' is used instead of 'our'. I asked a group of girls what they were doing Friday night. One said, "Going out with us chaps".

>17 darrow:
You might have to explain to our American friends that that doesn't necessarily imply that they were going to a country and western bar...

You are right. chap = boyfriend, in this instance.

I don't mind advertising freesat and I love the idea that someone has thought of the assonance angle. Enough said.
While I'm on about adverts - the dreamy man for Honda is advertising an airline , now, isn't he?

>20 oldstick: That would be Garrison Keillor.

Oh no, it wouldn't. I think it more likely to be Patrick Warburton - but that was last year!MMMM.

On a billboard for WesBanco:

"the possibilities are possibility-less."

So much that is wrong here!



Come inside and try our Breakfast cereal"s ,Our Hot breakfast sandwiches,Our breakfast Pizza.And our Doughnut"s and Pastry"s

I have seen people who don't speak English natively do things like that. The ,comma attached to the next word,with or without a space. Always makes me cringe. So my instinct is to say a non-native speaker made this. I have to say, though, that I do not recall having seen " replacing ' before.