Advertising is very beneficial but if not done carefully, it can have a bad impact on the image of the brand. One fact about the modern audience is that people have become aware of the ads and whenever they see any mistakes, there is someone among them who makes sure that it gets shared everywhere. Smartphone cameras and screenshots are the best friends for such people. Why we are writing all this is because something similar happened with a Procter&Gamble (P & G) advertisement recently as online users were quick to find some mistakes and share on Twitter.
A recent print ad from P&G’s detergent brand Ariel had a grammatical mistake. The ad was published in The Mumbai Mirror on June 2 first and June 11. The whole incident got popular on Twitter after a cheeky post was shared by brand strategist and former adman MG Parameswaran (Ambi).
@ProcterGamble Is this correct English? ‘….from 1 wash’? @SanjeevKapoor Did you cook this headline? @SanSip @suman7 @WiseCowboy @nairsameer @AnantRangaswami @ndcnn @rameshnarayan Views? pic.twitter.com/zfvf1d3G0O
— Ambi Parameswaran (@ambimgp) June 2, 2019
Here are some replies on this tweet:
Yes, and it's plain laziness to say Grammar doesn't matter. Bad Grammar in any communication shoves the credibility of the communication and the product into a nosedive.@Grammarly
— Pavan R Chawla (@PavanRChawla) June 15, 2019
Disagree. Grammar is a shared code which, if abandoned, leads to chaos. It’s not set in stone, of course, but at any given point one adheres to its strictures.
— Sanjay Sipahimalani (@SanSip) June 2, 2019
Unfortunately, few seem to care about the quality of print ads anymore.
— Sanjay Sipahimalani (@SanSip) June 2, 2019
Later, P&G later corrected the ad and published the same creative in the Hindustan Times on June 15. This was confirmed by Karthik Srinivasan.
Thank you for listening, @ArielIndia! (and thank you, @ambimgp & @AnantRangaswami for the effort). pic.twitter.com/2TU5pOSmdz
— Karthik 🇮🇳 (@beastoftraal) June 15, 2019
Well, brands certainly need to know that Grammar and English mistakes can’t be avoided in today’s world.
