More parts of speech gone wild in ad-land:
Silk Soymilk is promoting its new Silk Plus products ("Now with Fiber and Omega-3 DHA") under the headline "Nutrition Just Got Nutritioner." Sure, they could have said "more nutritious," but it would have been boringer. (Seen in Cooking Light magazine, June 2007, page 241.)
Clif Bar, makers of candy masquerading as "sports nutrition," makes an organic fruit/nut confection called Nectar. Its tagline: "The essence of simple." That's two whole syllables simpler than "simplicity."
Then there's Booster Juice, a Canadian franchise business that instructs customers to "Feed the Crave." I poked around on the interweb to see whether "the crave" had any prior history and discovered that the usage originated at least six years ago with White Castle, the venerable burger chain with outlets throughout the East Coast and Midwest. (None here in California, which must mean I'm doomed to cravelessness, or perhaps eterna-crave.)
Here's what the Wikipedians have to say about "the crave":
White Castle's marketing campaign capitalizes on the unique qualities of its product. "The Crave" is depicted in radio and television spots as a sort of addiction to White Castle burgers. An individual afflicted by "The Crave" can only be satisfied by slyders [the trademarked nickname for White Castle burgers]. While "The Crave" marketing strategy is presented in a light hearted, tongue-in-cheek fashion, many loyal patrons of the restaurant contend they do become afflicted by "The Crave" from time to time. It is argued that the size, construction and cooking method of White Castle burgers is unique among fast food products. Therefore, it is conceivable that "The Crave", in fact, is a specific yearning for the attributes possessed only by slyders.
And also:
In concurrence with its 80th anniversary in 2001, White Castle started its Cravers' Hall of Fame. "Cravers" are inducted annually based on stories that are submitted about them, either for them by another person or by that particular Craver. Between five and ten stories have been chosen each year with a grand total of 56 stories being selected through the 2006 induction class. That is less than 1% of the total stories submitted since the inception of the Cravers' Hall of Fame.
So what we have is less a grammatical question than a legal one: Does White Castle own "the crave"? And is Booster Juice in violation? Or is it in a safe over-the-border trademark haven? Inquiring minds want--nay, crave--an answer!
(Booster Juice citation from James Harbeck on the American Dialect Society listserv; hat tip to linguist Benjamin Zimmer for pointing it out to me.)
Read my original Branding Weirds Language post.
Or read why maybe we shouldn't get so all-fired cranky about nouning and verbing after all: word maven Ben Yagoda points out that "parts of speech" are an artificial construct. After all, they say Shakespeare turned "season" into a noun and "design" into a verb, and no one complains. Not any more, anyway.
Comments