AmEx Strikes Out

Another example of deletion in advertising, this one from the American Express home page:

 

 

Here the graphic device is supported by echoing word choice: “far away” becomes “on the way.”

I’m rather pleased to see the official (“pig’s tail”) deletion symbol, which is the one I learned as a newspaper editor.

Comments

[Karen]

My kids (and husband, actually) think I'm ridiculous because the "pig's tail" is such a habit with me that I even use it on shopping lists and such.

[mike]

I was recently at a meeting at a local college in which we were discussing a technical writing/technical editing curriculum. One of the interesting changes they made not long ago is that they dropped the part of the editing class that covered proofreader marks. No one who had come through the program had reported that they'd ever needed them in their post-college jobs. Or stated another way, potential employers no longer required this. A little sad, I suppose. But then, very few of the graduates of this program will ever even see bluelines, I imagine, or get a whiff of the acrid odor of printer's ink. :-)

[CGHill]

I still mark up some incoming documents at work, and I've gotten used to people asking "What does that mean?"