Limited Edition Opinion

After news erupted of a self-style ‘grammar vigilante’ changing shop signs in the dead of night in the UK, I couldn’t help but think that Bahrain could do with such an activist.

I can barely drive a kilometer without some misspelt sign making me chuckle, however, as ever, I’m thirsty for the reason behind it. Surely sign-makers (signers!?) should be able to provide such feedback to halt any further misdemeanours cluttering up Bahrain.

For instance, ‘FAMOUSE SUPERMARKET’ in Bahrain is famous for all the wrong reasons. It comes as no surprise that this has been continuously reposted throughout social media; however, do they have the last laugh and is this misspelling a clever marketing ploy? After all, I’m now party to providing some free ad space. You’re welcome!

Obviously not everyone is skilled in grammar and spelling, but most of us aren’t completely illiterate either.

For me, when someone conjures up a piece of content that they clearly haven’t read over and it is so messed up that people can’t understand it I can’t help but take it personally. I think it’s disrespectful at best. They’re telling me that they didn’t care enough to fix it in the first place.

Obviously not everyone is skilled in grammar and spelling, but, most of us aren’t completely illiterate either. You just don’t care enough to fix it. It’s not worth your time. I’m not worth your time. If that’s the case, okay, but I’ll be over here sipping on my coffee finding someone who does care about me.

ANYWAYS, whilst I’m amidst this rant, why do we feel the need to throw around such words and phrases such as ‘exclusive’, ‘first of its kind’ and ‘pioneers of…’?  This came to light whilst I was walking around the Gulf Property Expo and everyone was pitching how his or her new business venture would come equipped with a new innovative water feature or canal based transport. Obviously the increase in industry in Bahrain is nothing to be sniffed at, but (and it’s a big but)… surely these kinds of tag lines are borderline plagiarism?

Should the CEO’s battle it out over rock-paper-scissors or is that too much of a common sense approach?

As always, I look forward to your continuous feedback/comments by email.

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