Anyone who has read any of my rants here knows that I am constantly amazed and distressed by the flagrant, continued misuse of the English language. People often do not say what they think they are saying.
My latest beef is with a TV ad that seems to pop up almost every
day. I can’t even remember what the
product is but the closing catch-phrase in the ad is:
“Just give us a call
and we will send everyone a free sample of
(whatever the heck the
product is)!”
OK…so, if I understand what they said, if I were to take it
upon myself to be the one person in the US to call the number on the screen then
the postman would promptly bring you and every other individual in the US
(presumably) a free sample of the wonder product that they are peddling. Or, to put it another way, just one call will
result in the immediate shipment of 270,000,000 (I think that is about the current
US population) samples. Now, that
would definitely put the US Postal System back on its feet in no time!
I think what they really mean is:
“We will send a free
sample of (the product) to everyone who gives us a call.”
That is, if 100 people call, those 100 folks will each
receive a sample.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s what they really mean:-).
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