Anti-Tobacco Ad Mondegreen
Mondegreens, Answers.com tells us, is a "series of words that result from the mishearing or misinterpretation of a statement or song lyric. [After (Lady) Mondegreen, a misinterpretation of the line (hae laid) him on the green, from the song “The Bonny Earl of Murray”.] Children come up with some good ones when learning the Pledge of Allegiance or the Star Spangled Banner.
More on the mondegreen in a moment. Listening to advertising increasingly violates my intelligence. Yes, yes, the Mad Men are trying to cram the most into less time, now 10-second spots.
So, as I drowse through breaks in Days of Our Lives, I hear "Friskies wet indoor cat food". Two seconds later the phrase registers, stirs up all sorts of questions concerning wet cats and feeding cats outdoors. I don't hear any more of the advertising for the next 7.5 minutes because I'm trying to remember the humorous flap that made the rounds of Mensa newsletters many years ago. I think it was a campaign by 9 Lives brand cat food to collect can labels to trade for merchandise, as was once done with cigarette wrappers. But the 9 Lives people persisted in calling it the "9 Live Soft Moist Coupon Offer". Yeah, we said, but collecting those soft, moist coupons made such a mess.
Currently I listen to the latest TV spots aimed at preventing underage smoking. It's a hodge-podge of images and sounds that don't quite make sense, even when I try to think like an ad designer. The part that ties back to the beginning of this article comes as a singing voiceover at the beginning of the spot. A gentle mother's voice croons a familiar lullaby by Brahams, Lullaby and Goodnight. It has several verses, but most people know just the first:
However, the female voice sings the second line as "With pink roses bed light," The baby's bed or cradle is bedecked with lilies and roses, unlike my poor troll's baby buggy. Yes, it is insignificant, but how I spend the days of my life. Amused and sad.
More on the mondegreen in a moment. Listening to advertising increasingly violates my intelligence. Yes, yes, the Mad Men are trying to cram the most into less time, now 10-second spots.
So, as I drowse through breaks in Days of Our Lives, I hear "Friskies wet indoor cat food". Two seconds later the phrase registers, stirs up all sorts of questions concerning wet cats and feeding cats outdoors. I don't hear any more of the advertising for the next 7.5 minutes because I'm trying to remember the humorous flap that made the rounds of Mensa newsletters many years ago. I think it was a campaign by 9 Lives brand cat food to collect can labels to trade for merchandise, as was once done with cigarette wrappers. But the 9 Lives people persisted in calling it the "9 Live Soft Moist Coupon Offer". Yeah, we said, but collecting those soft, moist coupons made such a mess.
Currently I listen to the latest TV spots aimed at preventing underage smoking. It's a hodge-podge of images and sounds that don't quite make sense, even when I try to think like an ad designer. The part that ties back to the beginning of this article comes as a singing voiceover at the beginning of the spot. A gentle mother's voice croons a familiar lullaby by Brahams, Lullaby and Goodnight. It has several verses, but most people know just the first:
Lullaby, and good night,
With pink roses bedight,
With lilies o'erspread,
Is my baby's sweet head.
Lay thee down now, and rest,
May thy slumber be blessed.
Lay thee down now, and rest,
May thy slumber be blessed.
However, the female voice sings the second line as "With pink roses bed light," The baby's bed or cradle is bedecked with lilies and roses, unlike my poor troll's baby buggy. Yes, it is insignificant, but how I spend the days of my life. Amused and sad.
Labels: business, English, marketing, poetry, words
posted by Georganna Hancock M.S. | 9:52 AM
2 Comments:
The cynic in me thinks mondgreens is the purpose of ads - create that odd combination of words that stays with you. A poetic sound bite if you will.
Advertising, poetry... are they the same? Amusing... and sad... but don't get me going ;^)
Peace, Linda
Hi Linda. Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment. Oh, no, this was not a purposeful Lady Mondegreen, I don't think. It was a simple mistake. The rest of the ad was crammed with disparate visual images with the verbal message that media have glamorized smoking (under Big Tobacco's influence, of course) but it only leads to early death. A conveyor belt of skeletons drop off into a pile of bones. Brrrr!
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