Oh, for the Love of Grammar!
Dec 01
How funny that I should stumble across this article today on Slate while eating lunch: Copy-Editing the Culture: The Holiday Horrors of Starbucks, Wendy’s, and a Foreign Film.
From the headline alone, I knew immediately what the author was referencing as far as Starbuck’s goes. I saw an ad on Facebook this morning that featured their new holiday tagline, “Let’s Merry,” and though I’m not quite as worked up about it as this guy is, I definitely winced when I saw it.
“Merry” is an adjective. “Let’s,” as in “let us,” as in “permit us to,” demands a verb. Presumably, this slogan represents some effort to make a pun. The effort fails. Would Starbucks write, “Let’s funny” or “Let’s delicious”? Apparently, Starbucks would. Customers ought to be concerned: Word play at the expense of grammar is not play at all. It’s antisocial.
I’m with ya, buddy (although you’d probably smack me for my use of “ya”).
I also second his call out of the Starbuck’s sizing terminology:
(The shop’s drink-size appellations shift, inexplicably, from general descriptions to specific numerals—and, what’s more, from English to Italian.)
I love you Starbuck’s, but seriously, what is that?