For several years, the rail companies in the UK have been running public awareness campaigns to reduce violence against their staff. A recurring approach used in these campaigns is the used of jumbled words with a strapline similar to “Doesn’t make sense?”
These particular adverts fall short because the ads are easy to understand as our brains automatically resolve the transposed letters enabling us to read the phrases with ease. Sure, we know the words are misspelt, but we completely and accurately understand the message. (In fact, there are plenty of scientific studies documenting my assertion about our brains’ abilities. Anybody care to locate a few of those studies?)
Anyhoo, take a look at this poster which was on the wall at the train station in Swindon. You decide: does it make sense to you?
I wonder what sort of behaviour by the staff makes these messages so necessary. The messages indicate a deep distrust of staff by passengers.
The sign makes sense to me (I think it is supposed to). I don’t understand the passengers’ behavior that would prompt notes like these. Why are passengers so hostile nowadays? They are being quite mean. Perhaps it is the uncomfortable seats that are always in public transportation that gets folks a bit stirred.
On a lyrical note –
“I turn my head to the east, I don’t see nobody by my side. I turn my head to the west, still nobody in sight. So I turn my head to the north, swallow that pill they call pride. That old me is dead and gone. The new me will be alright.”
I wonder why the railway companies employ people who continuously misspell words like that. Maybe that is why the customers are getting so angry at them? The companies should introduce a basic grammer and spelling class, maybe that would reduce the violence.
I have a few thoughts in response to the above three comments:
1) The trains really have a public perception of poor quality in terms of running on time. I suppose when a commuter was late for the 5th time in a week because of the train, he or she might get a bit shirty with the train company staff.
2) I have had some pretty rude service from train representatives over the years. One particular ticket clerk (who was sitting behind bullet-proof glass at the time!) told me that I should be aware of how the train systems operate as I had lived in the country for long enough — regardless of how often or not I had used them. His attitude was very rude; his tone was abrasive. Had he not been behind glass, I probably would have been tempted to debate the matter with him a bit more!