Yes, it's the season. We get it.

Dear copywriters, editors, and reporters: Do you really think you’re being clever with your “’Tis the season” line? Trust us: you are not. I refer you to that wise man John McIntyre, of the Baltimore Sun, reminding us to beware holiday clichés:

“’Tis the season”: Not in copy, not in headlines, not at all. Never, never, never, never, never. You cannot make this fresh. Do not attempt it.

And yet, and yet. So much ’tis, so little seasoning.

The evidence:

 

A mailing from West Elm that I received October 5, when ’twasn’t the season for much of anything.

 

“’Tis the season of the sweater-skirt combo,” quoth Anthropologie. Also spotted in October.

 

Missing an apostrophe at Honda of Oakland.

 

Another missing apostrophe, this time at Sur la Table. And the should be lower case, just like la.

 

Wrong-way apostrophe at Mrs. Fields.

 

 Tsk, tsk, Vancouver International Film Festival.

 

Lo, ’tis Pandora! Sent by reader Roger Julian.

 

*

Amour Vert has an important seasonal announcement. Thanks a bunch.

 

’Tis the season chez Amazon Electronics Gift Guide for a superfluous comma.

 

The next three were sent by Andrea Behr, formerly of the San Francisco Chronicle copy desk.

Barnes & Noble: “’Tis the season to get what you really want.” (“What I really want is to put those tisses out of business,” Andy wrote.)

 

“Tees the [punning] season” at Marine Layer. I do admire the Marine Layer name for a Bay Area company; here’s why.

 

 

Andy says this one, from PurGevity, is “a double treat”: a ’tis and a name that sounds like a skin emetic. I’d call it a shitmanteau.

 

And finally, some news-media ’tissing.

Other things 'tis the season for, according to Google:
* holiday-related injuries
* limited-time offers (LTOs)
* tax loss harvesting
* scams
* packages to be stolen
* burglaries
* a menorah sweater

— 'Tis the Season for Nancy Friedman (@Fritinancy) November 29, 2017

 

And because you’ve been very, very naughty, I give you … Tits the Season.

From The Inked Boys shop.

__

The ’tisses of Xmas Past.

Comments

[susan]

Am I a bad person because that last item made me laugh?

(If I ask a question like that, will the answer most always be , "No"? Oh dear, now I can't remember that question-in-a-headline rule...Is it Yes? or is it No?)