Misperceptions

[tealin]

There's a local mall that runs advertising campaigns on bus ads. While I was stopped briefly at a bus shelter, I saw the text at the top of one ad that read 'You have spats, You have makeups, We Have Everything'. This puzzled me ... I knew what spats were (the coverings typically of men's shoes, popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth century) and I knew what makeup was, but why did they pluralise it? Seemed a weird or possibly ESL thing to do. It wasn't until the bus pulled further forward and I saw the picture on the ad, of a young couple apparently enjoying themselves, that it dawned on me I had gotten it all wrong. If I had gotten that advertising copy, I would have done a poster like the one you see above, clearly demonstrating my romantic illiteracy. (But it's a lot funnier ... especially because they probably don't have that kind of spats at the mall.)

I am a costuming geek. Or would be if I knew more about it.

Comments

[deepfishy.livejournal.com]

Spats and makeup: two great tastes that go together!

If I'd seen that text, I'd have assumed they were pluralising deliberately. You know, you have the internets, you have makeups...

[(Anonymous)]

what does OTP stand for (sorry, i'm such a newbie!)

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

'One True Pairing' ... I had to be told too. It's practically impossible to figure out from context.