Inside the Mind of a Freelance Copywriter

Rent a car in just 40 easy steps!

Whether you like them or not, puns are part and parcel of the advertising world. Used wisely, they can work well to attract attention or to make a product that much more memorable. Other times they fall flat. But the worst kind of pun has to be the one that creeps in completely unnoticed to undermine the very thing that your advert is trying to promote.

I recently came across one of these little horrors while waiting for my luggage to show up on the conveyor belt at the airport. “The car you need, just 40 steps away!” announced a car rental ad running along the conveyor. It obviously meant to say, “40 paces away”, but I could not help thinking of the kind of steps of the bureaucratic persuasion.

Call me pedantic if you like, but that was the thought that sprang to my mind as a potential client – and it was the exact opposite of what the advertisers intended. What’s more, in our impatient world where the time conscious measure efficiency in mouse clicks and milliseconds, I’m sure I’m not alone!

September 6th, 2006 TrackBack URI