Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Slogan Fail.

So I'm driving down the interstate and pass a billboard which appears to be black except for a malevolent red HAL-like robot eye and the slogan "The Next Generation Of Does." And I think to myself "Oh, great, cyborg frickin' deer. Maybe I'd better get that 6.8SPC set up..."

Only it turned out to be a Droid phone billboard and they meant "does" as in the past tense of "to do" and not "does" as in Bambi's tasty mom. Hey, Motorola, I guarantee that half anybody with a scrap of Mossy Oak in their closet reads it the same way I did initially.

15 comments:

Stranger said...

Cyborg deer? One of the "penetration tests" around this area is to shoot at a junked truck brake drum.

If I have to shoot a cyborg, I want something with at least the mass of a 30/06. Which would be time to get the Garand out and load Betsy with AP's.

Stranger

Peter said...

On the other hand, it may be appropriate. How many people have you seen walking down the road, talking away on their cellphones or texting like mad, lips flapping or fingers flying, ignoring everything and everyone else around them, then suddenly look up with that "deer-in-the-headlights" look when something jolts them out of their concentration?

Hence: "does". Deer in the headlights.

;-)

Drang said...

Well, I got the slogan when they trotted it out, mostly because I have a /\/\oto Droid, so I already knew the "Droid does" trope.

robnrun said...

Complete butchery of english, that is almost physically painful.

Anonymous said...

They had that billboard up (still do) on the way to O'Hare months ago. Even though I have seen it maybe 40 times, it still throws me.

I never have found the deer.

Lawyer said...

Yeah, a similar billboard here had me confused for a while. I wasn't sure why they were bringing up deer...

Crowndot said...

You're not alone. Same reaction from all in my family out here in S.F. Bay Area California.

Sendarius said...

Grammar Nazi says:
Past tense of "to do" is "did".

I think that you will find that you were looking at the present tense of "to do".

Jay G said...

Cyborg deer.

That would be SOOOOO freakin' cool.

Rabbit said...

Had those signs all over DeeEffDubya until the newest gen of phones came out. Didn't do anything good for my paranoia.

Tam said...

Sendarius,

D'oh! :o

staghounds said...

Do they use knobs, push bars, or next generation sensors?

og said...

What rifle for cyborg deer?

oldsmobile98 said...

Thought the same thing when I saw a similar billboard in Nashville that said "A Bare-Knuckled Bucket of Does".

How big is this bucket? A few hunnert gallons?

Steve Skubinna said...

Years ago when I was working in IT, I wandered through the magazine racks of a Borders scanning techie mags. Saw one titled "Hair Dos."

My first thought was to wonder why there was a special operating system for hairdressers, and my second was surprise that it was obviously widespread enough to have a magazine devoted to it.

Then I realized that I'd crossed a boundary in the special interest magazine world and was in the health and beauty section.