Avoid explaining one’s actions with the phrase “it’s not you, it’s me,” but not because it’s a cliché. It certainly is a cliché, but the generally accepted meaning is “Of course it’s you! I just won’t do you the courtesy of being honest about it.”
That is the reason to avoid the phrase.
On my way to work, I drive right past Myers Cadillac Chevrolet. Car dealerships aren’t particularly noteworthy except perhaps when the new models come out. Myers, however, definitely caught my attention because of the giant stickers they have plastered on the cars on the edge of their lot. With gas prices so high they decided to appeal to the buyer’s pocketbook. An excellent tactic. The mileage numbers they claimed seemed far too large for the cars, however. Then I looked more closely.
The numbers didn’t report the number of miles per gallon, as I originally thought. No, they quoted the fuel efficiency in kilometres per gallon! The upshot is a number 60% larger. While I believe it’s deceptive, I have no doubt the number is accurate. Still, this is the kind of thing that got car salespeople such a poor reputation. I couldn’t believe they’d pull such a transparent stunt, so I thought I’d ask.
I drive by your dealership on by way to and from work every day. Recently, I noticed you have some cars out on display with some impressive mileage figures. Looking more closely I noticed they’re rated in kilometres/gallon. I don’t know where you buy your gas, but it’s sold by the litre around here. I can also understand miles/gallon if reading figures from American car reviews. But kilometres/gallon?
The only reason I can figure for using kilometres/gallon is it’s an easy way to get attention by making the figure 60% larger. Surely this isn’t the reason, so you could fill me in on what the reason really is?
I received a “we’ll have someone get right back to you” message the next day, and the General Sales Manager wrote me the day after:
In response to your e‑mail regarding our cars out front of the dealership. We had seen this at another local “IMPORT” dealer in Ottawa and we thought it was unique way of marketing fuel economy. It is a very competitive environment and so we simply want to be seen as being competitive within our marketplace.
Hope this answers your questions.
I’m not sure what the scare-quotes around ‘import’ are all about, but I can absolutely understand the need to be competitive. I’m not so tolerant of a merchant who wants to be seen as competitive, perhaps without actually being competitive. Speaking from my own point of view, I’d likely avoid a dealer who is competitive in this way. If they’re not straightforward about something so simple as fuel efficiency, I’d be nervous about more complex issues.
A grammar/punctuation rant follows. You’ve been warned!
We’ve got a new radio station in town and they’re advertising all over the place. I’ve found the campaign very amusing because they’ve either been preparing the ad copy themselves, or they’ve hired a cut-rate ad-agency. The most obvious indicator of difficulty is they don’t understand when to use an apostrophe, and when not to. The ads describe the music they play as being from the “80’s and 90’s and whatever.” Last I heard, the apostrophe indicates missing letters (as in a contraction), or possession. Neither is the case here. If anything, ’80s and ’90s is correct because the first two digits of the years were omitted.
On their website, they further show their misunderstanding of the apostrophe. Following a link leading to an open letter to everyone with the name Bob opens a pop-up window displaying a letter. The problem is revealed in the title: “An Open Letter to all BOB’s.” Even ignoring the goofed up capitalisation of the first letters of each word, and the capitalization of all of the letters in Bob, there’s no way in hell there should be an apostrophe. They mean more than one Bob, not something belonging to a single Bob, nor do they mean “Bob is” or “Bob has.” Every time they refer to more than one person named Bob, they use an apostrophe. Interestingly enough, the open letter ends with a postscript: “We’ll also give you the shirts off our backs!” Given their treatment of more than one Bob, more than one shirt and more than one back should also incorrectly get an apostrophe. Strangely, the link to the open letter correctly leaves the apostrophe out of the plural of Bob.
I find misuse of the apostrophe when adding an ‘s’ to make a word plural is extremely annoying because the misuse is so widespread, but this is worse because the usage is inconsistent.
Don’t get me started on how “80’s… 90’s… & Whatever” doesn’t even make complete sense because you’re specifying two particular decades, then including all the others with the very last word. If you’re going to do that, you need not specify any decades to begin with. The ellipses and ampersand are misused in the slogan as well.
If their programming and on-air talent are as big a disaster as their ad copy, I won’t have to worry about seeing this advertising eyesore for very long.
The Columbia disaster was all over the news, pretty much as I expected. What I didn’t expect, and what I’m so very pleased to see, is this event brought the passion a lot of people feel for space exploration into the spotlight. I’m thrilled so many people feel as I do.
And regarding the space program, lord let me never again hear an ignorant voice say, “We should spend that money here on Earth rather than up in space.”
Don’t you find it frustrating when it’s bloody freaking clear that there’s a whole lot more going on than you’re told?
Case in point is Odyssey 5. It’s a series on Showtime that earned the second highest ratings for the channel. Sounds good, right? Apparently ratings weren’t enough because Showtime decided not to renew the series and gave no reason for their decision. Certainly something’s going on there because what they’ve told us makes no sense.
Happily the series may have a second chance because the producer of the show, Sony Pictures Television, is shopping it around to other channels.
Publicity still courtesy of Sony Pictures Television.
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