Dhaliwal gets Masters

Congratulations are in order for Baljeet
Dhaliwal who was just granted her Masters
degree from SFU. Her thesis topic was "'A
Descriptive Study: Sikh Views and Opinions
in the Vancouver Region Since 1984''. The
celebrations had to be postponed, however,
as she was at home recuperating from
injuries received in a car/pedestrian
accident in West Vancouver. Baljeet teaches
in the A.R.C.

Norm SHore riews

Baby news

Staff members Michele Henderson and
Sheree Wall both had babies in July. On
July 3 Sheree had a baby boy weighing 10
Ibs, 14 oz. His name is Kevin Douglas. And
on July 23 Alicia Anne Henderson made her
appearance weighing 7 Ibs, 14 oz. Our
congratulations to all.

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Ad slang seen as harmful

DO YOU CRINGE when the anonymous an-
nouncer cries out from the depths of your televi-
sion set that his brand of soft drink ee down

good’’?

Do you bristle at the sight
of print advertisements ex-
tolling the virtues of ‘‘quik’’
products producing ‘‘brite’’
results?

Most of us barely bat an
eyelid because advertising’s
misuse of the English
language has become com-
monplace in our age of mass
communication.

But Bob Wyckham is con-
cerned and his research as a
professor of marketing in
Simon Fraser . University’s
faculty of business ad-
ministration has increasingly
focussed on advertising
argot and its impact.

Wyckham and colleagues
have measured the extent of
grammatical goofs in televi-
sion and print advertising.
They have also surveyed the
creative professionals in Ca-
nadian and British advertis-
ing agencies.

When all is said and done,
the research reveals that
advertising practitioners
tinker and twist the language
because they believe they
must do so to fashion adver-
tisements that sell.

“The interesting thing is

that these people are highly
knowledgeable about the
language,’’ notes Wyckham.
“They see themselves as
professional wordsmiths and
they’re very serious about
the language as something to
be abused just for the fun of
it.

‘But they are perfectly
willing to use colloquial
English or slang — whatever
appears to be the best use of
the language to communi-
cate clearly and power-
fully.”’

IMPACT ON YOUNG

Should grammarians be
the only ones to cry foul at
the advertising industry’s
cavalier misuse of the
Queen’s English? Wyckham
thinks not; he contends that
it is everyone’s concern.

Wyckham is particularly
concerned about the impact
of advertising language on
youngsters and he wonders
why teachers are silent on
the issue.

“‘We surveyed Lower
Mainland -Teachers and
found they were quite con-

cerned about the problem,”
says Wyckham. ‘‘They
reported that spellings such
as ‘brite’ and ‘kleen’ and
solecisms copied from
advertising were turning up
in the work of students.

‘‘Where are the teachers?
Why aren’t they scream-
ing?’’.

In searching for some
solutions to the problem,
Wyckham’s approach is a
pragmatic one. He believes
the advertising industry
should take a long, hard
look at the issue of language
and, perhaps, include a
related clause in the -in-.
dustry’s own codes. While
his survey of advertising’s
creative personnel revealed
strong opposition
kind of regulation, he feels
the industry simply hasn’t
given the problem serious
enough attention.

FAULTY GRAMMAR

That, in fact, is the irony
to it all. Agencies are con-
stantly probing the public
psyche to determine brand
preferences, the most effec-
tive ways to advertise pro-
ducts and the like. However,
Wyckham has not been able
to identify any research
which shows that an adver-

to any -

tisement with poor grammar
performs better than one
with good grammar.

Perhaps this lack of con-
cern evolves from the fact
that agencies aren’t really
aware of the pervasiveness

-of faulty English in their

craft. Wyckham’s research
showed, for example, that 75
per cent of all television
commercials contain at least
one grammatical irregulari-
ty, but advertising profes-
sionals in Canada and Bri-
tain estimated that only
‘about 30 per cent of the
advertising on television
could be faulted for poor
English.

Whatever the _ reason,
Wyckham is not out to have
every advertising copywriter
pass a grammar test before
being unleashed in the mar-

ketplace. ‘‘I don’t see the
need for a set of rigid
rules,’’ he explains.

“‘Language evolves as socie-
ty evolves, but for a
language to be effective it
has to have some conven-
tions so that when we say or
write something, someone
else will be able to get the
whole meaning out of the
message.’”

SFU News Service