Episode 116: More Bad Grammar than We Knoweth what to Do With

I understand that during their "Castle" advertisement that "Flo" and "Jamie are attempting to speak their lines using Ye Olde King's English. The problem is that the voice-over at the end of the commercial says "More savings than we knoweth what to do with."

It may be more interesting to say "More discounts than knights at the round table."

How about "We can shield you from unforeseen accidents and expenses." This would play nicely on the sword and shield theme of the commercial. I think that their "RV Bundling" commercial for the way that it visualizes all the items that a consumer may want to insure.

Ending a sentence with a preposition forsakeths the proper rules of grammar.

I wonder if I will have found ten grammatically incorrect Progressive commercial beforeth the endeth of the year?

Episode 115: A range of Progressive-ly bad grammar to choose from. Name Your Preposition. (7th example)

Progressive is such an easy target for me. Almost anytime there is a Progressive commercial on television my ears perk up to hear the next sentence that ends a preposition with. It is that painful for me.

Sunday, November 10th, during the football games I found an 'ending a sentence with a preposition" double-header.

The first example I highlighted  during Episode 113: The Castle and  "More savings than we knoweth what to do with."

Today's example of ending a sentence with a preposition is the "Superhouse" commercial where the actress is discussing the Name Your Price Tool offered by Progressive with her 'husband.' She says  "I guess you can tell them how much you want to pay and it gives you a a range of options to choose from." The "Name Your Price Tool" does not appear to work for choosing proper grammar. Would it be so bad to say "You tell them how much you want to pay and it gives you a range of options from which to choose?" How about "You tell them how much you want to spend and it gives you a range of coverage options."

"The Name You Price Tool" allows you to tell them how much you want to pay for insurance and they tell you what plans they can offer you.

If you want to see how many times that there have been examples of bad grammar during Progressive commercials, check out these previous examples:

"A smarter way to shop around."
"How's that atom splitting thing going?"
"We crunch the numbers so you don't have to."
"Progressive gives you lots of choices to choose from."
and the infamous "Them are here"

Episode 92: There's examples of bad grammar in Progressive commercials

I started this blog when one ad caught my attention. It was after seeing a commercial from Progressive where a 'shopper' was talking about "Them are Here" that I started paying close attention to Progressive commercials.

I have written five previous columns regarding Progressive.
"A smarter way to shop around."
"How's that atom splitting thing going?"
"We crunch the numbers so you don't have to."
"Progressive gives you lots of choices to choose from."
and the infamous "Them are here" I have even caught more examples on bad grammar in that commercial. I was so distracted by the "them are here" statement that I missed other examples of terrible grammar.

This time it is the "Mission Impossible" scene where Flo drops from the ceiling to deliver an insurance package she says "There's doughnuts in the break room." Either there is one last, lonely doughnut in the break room, or there ARE doughnuts in the break room. Or is it donuts?

The ARE plenty of examples of bad grammar in Progressive commercials. I am on the look-out for my next example of Progressively worse grammar.

Something to Write About (Part 2) Ending with a Preposition (21-30)

I have written over forty columns regarding advertising on television where the sentences end with prepositions. Yesterday I listed the first ten that I discovered. Here are another ten:

"Reviews you can count on"
"It gives you what you are looking for."
"Where the cancer is at."
"So they have something to write in."
"Flavors this good are worth searching for."
"We crunch the numbers so you don't have to."
"Having what you want on the network you rely on."
"The house next door was broken into."
"It is the best we are made of."
"In Alaska you vacation goes further. And Higher."

Can you guess which grammatical goof-up belongs to which company? Follow the links if you want to find out who made the goof-ups.

Episode 57: Another Week, Another Progressive Grammar Faux Pas

Last week it was Episode 55 and the "atom splitting" episode. This is the fifth time that I have have caught bad grammar coming from Progressive. They are claiming that they are "a smarter way to shop around." Are you shopping around town? Are you shopping around the Internet? Are you shopping around in circles?

There has to be a better way to generate revenue.

We Crunch the numbers so you don't have to.
Progressive "gives you lots of choices to choose from."
So "them are here."

Episode 55: How is That Grammar Thing going? It's getting Progressive-ly worse.

I thought that I was going to make it through one Progressive commercial without being annoyed by poor grammar or awkward sentences. I posted my first example of poor grammar from Progressive for the "So them are here" line. The next example was when Flo told us that she "gives us lots of choices to choose from."   Progressive's grammar continued to worsen when their commercial  aired the phrase that I referenced in my "Progressive-ly Worse Grammar" column: "We crunch the numbers so you don't have to" .

I thought that I was going to make it through another Progressive advertisement without a grammatical failure, and I was wrong.  Flo utters this sentence during the most recent commercial: "How is that atom splitting thing going?"

How is that Atom Splitting application working?

Do you have that Atom Splitting function working?

Where is Flo going with her advertising? I think that their advertising crew needs to go back to grammar school.

Episode 50 of Alarming Grammar: ADT - The house next door was broken into

I started collecting examples of bad grammar this past February. I started with weekly entries. I was concerned that I would run out of examples too quickly if I published examples every day of the week. I started with the classic Progressive commercial with "Them Are Here." My concerns were quickly eliminated as I started collecting more and more example. I am backlogged at this point in time. I was looking at some of my old draft columns when I came across an oldie and a goody.

I ran into my first example of alarmingly bad grammar from ADT this past March. They were advertising the ability to monitor package deliveries at a person's home while that person was away at work. This might have come in handy this past Christmas when various delivery companies through televisions over fences or criminals stole the merchandise off the suspect's front porch.

 Someone broke the English language for ADT a second time and I want to know whom. ADT is talking about how a burglar broke into their neighbor's home. That is all that they had to say.  The voice-over said: "The house next door was broken into." I could argue that it should be "The house next door to us (our babysitter, my parents, etc) was broken into (while they were______.)" Ending a sentence with a preposition has been the most common grammatical error that I have recorded here in this blog.

There are a number of other ways around this grammar graveyard. It could have been: "Someone was having a party in our neighbor's home. Our neighbors didn't know that they had uninvited visitors until it was too late." Create a sense of urgency. Another way to create a sense of urgency would be to say "Our new neighbors had an unpleasant welcoming committee visit their home. Their home was burglarized while they were at work." This would be another way to spur someone into action.

The best time to install a system is while you are building a home. The second best time to install a system is before you move into an existing home for the first time. It is always better to install a system before your home has a fire or a burglary.

It would also be a better advertisement if they finished by saying "We can protect you while you are asleep or awake." or "We can protect you home while you are home or while away on vacation."

One last option: Protect your home before someone steals your sense of security.

Thank you for 50 episodes of bad grammar. There will be more examples next week.

Progressive-ly Worse Grammar

I have already posted one example of Progressive Insurance having a grammatical slip of the tongue. Progressive Insurance hit me with one of those lovely cellphone ads this morning that stated: "We crunch the numbers so you don't have to." So I don't have to do what? So I don't have to think about ending a sentence with a preposition?

I want to choose good grammar.

Flo from Progressive says that Progresssive "gives you a lot of choices to chose from." This comes after the commercial starts with a woman aggressively asking "does anybody know where Flo is?" Where Flo is sitting? Where Flo is standing?

Can anyone tell me where I can find Flo? I would like the choice of good grammar in my advertisements.

We Give You a Broad Range of Bad Grammar to Choose From

Flo-Bot from Progressive needs to have her grammar circuit updated. Flo-Bot says that Progressive has 'a variety of options to choose from.' I thought that Progressive has a variety of options from which to choose.

So Them Are Here

I have accumulated a small collection of bad grammar moments from television commercials. The commercial that started this train of thought is the Progressive commercial with the confused price shopper talking to "Flo" looking at the comparison board.

The shopper says something along the line of "So, I don't have to give them a call." Fine. Then they say "So them are here." Really? Do we have to dumb down grammar to sell car insurance?

Got Grammar?