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Apple. And. Sentence Fragments.

post #1 of 15
2/24/10 at 4:37pm
Thread Starter 
Why do the writers for Apple's ad's and front page news stories always write in sentence fragments? I'm not gonna lie, I do it sometimes too, but usually in conversation. Is it supposed to emphasize or something? Also, what is the making-up of words? One of my biggest pet peeves is the word "funnest" describing the iPod's.

Examples:

Quote:
10 billions songs downloaded. And counting.

Quote:
Pro performance. IPhoto simplicity.

Quote:
Redesigned. Reengineered. Re-everythinged.

That one used a made-up word too. Ugh, this bugs me.

Quote:
Wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse. Standard.

Why couldn't you just put a comma?
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post #2 of 15
2/24/10 at 6:14pm
Ha. When they started advertising the iPod touch as the "funnest iPod ever" I had to choke back a gag reflex.
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post #3 of 15
2/25/10 at 12:54pm
They are just marketing catchphrases so I don't think it's important they are punctually accurate.

What I dislike is calling everything magical, revolutionary etc:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZS8HqOGTbA

The worst one was when the advertising about the Mac Pro said it had millions of configurations and still using years old GPUs with no upgrade options.
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post #4 of 15
2/25/10 at 7:53pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

What I dislike is calling everything magical, revolutionary etc:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZS8HqOGTbA

LOL, I love this one too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx7v815bYUw
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post #5 of 15
2/27/10 at 8:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by s!ke View Post

LOL, I love this one too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx7v815bYUw

I'm more annoyed with the Jobs-style pacing (longish pauses every few words) and mannerisms, but copiously repeated adjectives aren't helping.
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post #6 of 15
2/27/10 at 10:50am
Jobs & Co. have used up the supply of superlatives, which explains the shortage of them in the rest of the country.
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post #7 of 15
2/27/10 at 11:17am
It's. Called. Marketing.

As for Jobs' speaking style, maybe he is taking something from the Shatner Method…?!?
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post #8 of 15
2/28/10 at 2:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by s!ke View Post

Why do the writers for Apple's ad's and front page news stories always write in sentence fragments? I'm not gonna lie, I do it sometimes too, but usually in conversation. Is it supposed to emphasize or something? Also, what is the making-up of words? One of my biggest pet peeves is the word "funnest" describing the iPod's.

Examples:

That one used a made-up word too. Ugh, this bugs me.

Why couldn't you just put a comma?

It is sad to say, but folks who write ad copy need to write it to be understood by as much of the populace as they can. For this reason, they write in short sentences, or in fragments. This in turn is because the nation is not as literate as it was in the past.

Bear with me here. I'm serious. Get on-line and look up old magazine ads. Go back to the 1930s and 1940s. Even products as common as baking flour or or tires had sentences that were more than a few words long, and had words with more than two to three syllables. Listen to the vintage ads they play on XM Classic Radio. Go to YouTube and bring up vintage car ads and listen to the sound track. They speak in complete sentences, they have no slurred phrasing, or sloppy grammar.

Today, you have a lot of kids coming out of high school who cannot compose a declarative sentence without the inclusion of "like...", "yahknow...", and the ever-popular uplift vocal tone at the end of a sentence like it is a question when in fact it is not.

This is not slamming the kids. It is a slam on the (lack of) education they are receiving.
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A big heart is commendable, an enlarged heart is a medical condition.
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post #9 of 15
3/4/10 at 2:36pm
Most people won't read a full sentence. They just skim for highlights. Its a form of Newspeak!
The exciting iPad Touch
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The exciting iPad Touch
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post #10 of 15
3/9/10 at 9:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by s!ke View Post

One of my biggest pet peeves is the word "funnest" describing the iPod's.

Describing the iPod's what?
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post #11 of 15
3/12/10 at 4:42pm
Thread Starter 
Delete the apostrophe. Sorry.
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post #12 of 15
3/14/10 at 5:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Friendly Grizzly View Post

It is sad to say, but folks who write ad copy need to write it to be understood by as much of the populace as they can. For this reason, they write in short sentences, or in fragments. This in turn is because the nation is not as literate as it was in the past.

Bear with me here. I'm serious. Get on-line and look up old magazine ads. Go back to the 1930s and 1940s. Even products as common as baking flour or or tires had sentences that were more than a few words long, and had words with more than two to three syllables. Listen to the vintage ads they play on XM Classic Radio. Go to YouTube and bring up vintage car ads and listen to the sound track. They speak in complete sentences, they have no slurred phrasing, or sloppy grammar.

Today, you have a lot of kids coming out of high school who cannot compose a declarative sentence without the inclusion of "like...", "yahknow...", and the ever-popular uplift vocal tone at the end of a sentence like it is a question when in fact it is not.

This is not slamming the kids. It is a slam on the (lack of) education they are receiving.

I absolutely agree...the quality of ads published in my home country (Brazil) in the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s cannot even begin to be compared with the grammar trash and sloppiness that we see today...the funny thing is: stats say that the OVERALL level of education is higher, although they seem to forget that this is more about reaching larger groups of people instead of improving quality per se...

Another example? Check out the exemplary language standards used in Disney (and other) comics in the 50s and 60s with the widespread use of slang and careless sentences that we have today...kinda depressing, even for someone in his mid-30s like me.

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post #13 of 15
3/14/10 at 6:23am
More impact and reaction, like this thread as an. Example. lol
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Mavericks will be a free download. Trust me.
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post #14 of 15
4/2/10 at 3:14am
This is the funnest thread I've read. This year.

Serioiusly, I just checked and Apple have even added this fake work to their built-in dictionary (try it in TextEdit)! I sure as hell didn't add it!
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post #15 of 15
4/2/10 at 3:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Friendly Grizzly View Post

It is sad to say, but folks who write ad copy need to write it to be understood by as much of the populace as they can. For this reason, they write in short sentences, or in fragments. This in turn is because the nation is not as literate as it was in the past.

Bear with me here. I'm serious. Get on-line and look up old magazine ads. Go back to the 1930s and 1940s. Even products as common as baking flour or or tires had sentences that were more than a few words long, and had words with more than two to three syllables. Listen to the vintage ads they play on XM Classic Radio. Go to YouTube and bring up vintage car ads and listen to the sound track. They speak in complete sentences, they have no slurred phrasing, or sloppy grammar.

Today, you have a lot of kids coming out of high school who cannot compose a declarative sentence without the inclusion of "like...", "yahknow...", and the ever-popular uplift vocal tone at the end of a sentence like it is a question when in fact it is not.

This is not slamming the kids. It is a slam on the (lack of) education they are receiving.

I couldn't agree more. You can't really blame Apple too much for the decline in language skills, however. As you noted we live in a new digital age where we're our attention is constantly demanded from every angle and companies like Apple need to get there message across as succinctly as possible, regardless of grammatical (or spelling) correctness.

Being able to speak well and compose sentences properly are definitely some of the best skills you can have. There are lots of common grammatical and usage mistakes that are called "markers" because they highlight an inferior handling of the language. I 'm lucky because my parents were both teachers and I was always reprimanded for grammatical mistakes or mispronunciation. If it'd been left up to the school system, I don't think I would've faired quite as well.
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