The latest offender is the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which has taken out ad space on taxi cabs, phone booths, and subways with the following cryptic statements:You suck Sarah Marshall
I’m so over you Sarah Marshall
My mom always hated you Sarah Marshall
You do look fat in those jeans Sarah Marshall
The missing comma before “Sarah Marshall” makes me cringe each time I don’t see it there. I’m pretty sure we’re still supposed to use a comma before a name in a direct address, and the line break doesn’t mean you can skip it. The above sentences don’t gain in punch by lacking this comma; they just lose in readability and sense.Petty? Perhaps. But I try to hold the line on proper grammar and spelling, and this is not the only place I see the comma slipping away. I feel like I’m the only one who bothers to insert it in e-mail greetings (“Hi, Kevin,”). But I won’t be dissuaded from necessary comma insertion. You can’t take my comma away from me!
(P.S. Don’t try to be cute and point out any punctuation errors in this post. I am not a national marketing campaign.)
6 comments:
Oh my JEEBUS. This has bothered me every single effing day, as I wait for the G train and figure that there's no point even going in to work, because obviously no one gives a shit about effective written communication.
I know this probably makes us linguistic fascists, but I don't care. There are so few things that I get angry about. I can indulge in this one.
Let's start a national marketing campaign about how we hate the Hating Sarah Marshall ads. "You ARE grammatical morons, Sarah Marshall ad writers" "There IS no reason for you to be collecting a paycheck, Sarah Marshall ad campaign people".
See, I didn't even realize there was a missing comma. I just didn't understand the billboards. Are they signed by Sarah Marshall? Is Sarah Marshall a brand name of some kind?
Apparently I am incapable of functioning in society without correct punctuation.
Brian, I thought the exact same thing--that these were messages left by Sarah Marshall. Especially since her name is so much larger than the rest of the text (i.e. seemingly set apart from the preceding sentence).
When I was in Chicago last week, I saw those "Sarah Marshall" ads everywhere, and had absolutely no idea what they were referring to. I thought maybe some rich guy really, really hated his ex-girlfriend or something. (Please laugh.) But now I know. Thanks for clearing that up.
I'll totally admit to it: I'm a grammar fascist, too. There was a public service ad all over the subways a while ago that used a comma where they should have used a semicolon, and I just wanted to take a black Sharpie and add that extra dot. Why not? The graffiti artists/vandals don't give a crap about drawing on property that isn't theirs; what's holding me back?
[Note: If you start to see commas mysteriously added to these Sarah Marshall ads, remember--you did not see this post.]
I actually looked up information on the ads, because I thought maybe they aren't from Sarah Marshall, and my grammar nazi was showing. Turns out it's supposed to be a "viral" ad campaign. The ads are from the (fictional, obviously) ex-boyfriend* of Sarah Marshall, purchased by him with the money he would have spent for an engagement ring. I wonder how much the commas would have cost extra.
*He, also, has a blog.
Post a Comment