“Thursday special: All you can eat fish tacos.”
I work next door to a restaurant which has been advertising this special with a magnetic sign for months now.
Every few days, I see people, mostly teens but some adults too, stop and take cell phone photos of the sign or selfies of themselves with it.
I chuckle every time I see it happen.
I assume the owners/managers know what they are doing yet I wonder how effective the sign really is. Yes, the parking lot is consistently mostly full but I doubt the thinly veiled double entendre has anything to do with it.
Think about these tips when you are writing your advertising slogans or preparing something for publication. It could save you a potentially embarrassing photo floating across the Internet in the future.
Puns are OK, as long as you are aware of all the ways they will be taken. The slogan for my freelance journalism business could be “I have the write stuff for your PR needs.” It’s a clever pun using write/right to convey I have the correct skills to help clients.
Spell check your work for grammar and the correct use of words. If you have any doubt about a word or sentence, read it out loud and when using contractions, say both words to make sure you used the correct one. I can’t (can not) believe how many signs I see with typos on them.
Keep it professional. Unless you are running a sports bar supporting one team over another, keep your personal beliefs in your personal life. In a brilliant marketing move, many Boston Pizza outlets were temporarily rebranded in British Columbia during June 2011 when the Vancouver Canucks were battling the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Final.
