As I rode the Underground last week, a poster caught my eye as I left Nottinghill Gate. ‘Kiss her where?’, I thought after seeing the poster. ‘No, I couldn’t have read that correctly.’ I wondered what it had said.
Then, as the train pulled into South Kensington, I saw it again.
In case you can’t read it in the photo above (shot from within a moving train), here’s the text:
Kiss your partner somewhere they’ve never been kissed before.
Bournemouth.
Blimey! What a fantastic advert! Edgy enough to catch the eye … and yet innocent enough to make me smile. Better still, I spent the rest of the journey thinking about it after only catching the poster quickly at Nottinghill Gate.
As I spent much of the train ride wondering what the ad said – and now that I am blogging about it – I guess this is just another reminder that good advertising, like a good tagline, can get people, places and things noticed. Congratulations to the creators of this ad!
catchy indeed
But poor grammar.
@ Mom,
Of course you notice that part!
@ Mom –
In advertising, I am not convinced that ‘grammatically correct’ is an important as ensuring that the key message is understood. Whilst you are correct to note the grammar mistake, I am not sure that a grammatically correct version who have as much punch.
Apparently this ad is quite the discussion over at the BBC Radio4 message board:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbradio4/F2766781?thread=6259127&latest=1
And the debates continues … through our web stats, I noticed that another blogger commented on the discussion here as to whether or not the advert was grammatically correct.
Does anybody else want to weigh in on the matter? Is the sign correct or not? Let’s hear your views!
I will side with mom — I believe this sign to be incorrect. (your partner = singular; they’ve = plural)
sad to say perhaps it is just expected nowadays that one will have or has more than one partner, though only one at a time would be kissed
I think the use of ‘they’ is meant as a tool of gender-neutrality. Using the term partner can mean husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, etc., so the use of ‘they’ maintains that ambiguity to allow the ad to connect with as wide an audience as possible.
CMD,
This is a copy of a 1990s ad for Four Corners done by Legas Denaley.
http://is.gd/hYAP
Shameless copy.
-Nikhil
@ Nikhil:
Thanks for the visit and for the insightful comment! Both are very welcome. Please do make yourself a regular around here. Always eager for newcomers, we are.
As for the wording, I was pretty sure that it wasn’t original. Thanks for naming the source.
CMD,
Thanks. Will keep visiting.
-Nikhil
heyy, i am from switzerland and i was in london. and i saw it at the holland park station. its a really good poster, and i was searching it on the internet 🙂
thank you, now i found it 😀
@ Chanelle:
Thanks for visiting chickenmonkeydog! Welcome, welcome. I am not entirely sure, but you may just be our first Swiss visitor. Definitely the first person to claim Swiss heritage. Welcome indeed! Please do come back for regular visits!