Since commercials are in overdrive for the holidays and especially annoying this year, I have put together a little translation guide.
"Up to 90% off."
Translation: "There will be one item 90% off that was marked up 9 times what it's worth. The rest of the items will be 10% off, but you will still pay 8 times more than what it's worth, leaving us with big profits."
"Clinically proven."
Translation: "The FDA (or the manufacturer) paid us to say this."
"Buy one, get one free."
Translation: "We doubled the price of one item."
"New and improved."
Translation: "We changed the packaging."
"Improved formula."
Translation:"Our old product was crap and we only changed it to jump on a bandwagon."
"This offer won't last long."
Translation: "We say this every week. If you believe this, you are an idiot, but we'll take your money gladly."
"Buy now, pay later."
Translation: "You will die before you can pay this off."
"You asked, we listened: If we do not show up on time, we will credit $20 to your account."
Translation: "We ignored your complaints about our poor customer service for as long as we could. Now, instead of paying our staff more money and treating them better, so they stop giving you bad customer service, we take that extra money to create this big campaign and then pay you the $20 that should be spent towards giving employees raises."
By Alexandra Heep: Author. Humorist. Occasional cat translator. Currently publishing children’s books and writing like it’s 1989—only with fewer mix tapes.
About Alexandra Heep:
Alexandra Heep is a longtime writer, chronic over-thinker, and recovering content mill survivor. Her work has appeared in literary journals, anthologies, and online platforms where words are still respected. She writes children’s books, health reflections, and the occasional blog post laced with humor and hard-won honesty.
After years of illness, detours, and navigating the noise of modern wellness, she returned to writing with the firm belief that stories—like people—don’t have to be perfect to matter.
She publishes under multiple pen names and drinks more goat milk than you’d expect.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
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7 comments:
LOL Ain't that the truth. And don't forget this one "Your pets will love it" ... no they won't, but they will play with the box it came in.
OMG! This is right on the money! You have some of my absolute favorite ones on here! Consider this one plastered all over my internet presence!
Red.
LOL Red. Two strange peas in a non-green pod?
Wow, this just proves you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not Alex ever! LOL
LOL! Don't they also say that there's a sucker born every minute? Guess so!
I love this.
Don't forget the warranty, Alex, you can have a LOT of fun poking holes in warranties--almost as much fun as the kids have playing with the boxes after they break the toys in the first 20 minutes...
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