Remember Van Halen’s “no brown M&Ms” clause? Remember how the media presented it as displaying the self-centered and excess-driven culture of rock stars but how it was actually designed to let the band and its team know when to look for safety issues at a venue? After all, if the venue didn’t read and act on this bizarre but otherwise innocuous clause, did they read the bits about how much weight the floor has to be able to support or what kind of electrical loads are needed to power the equipment?
In the same vein, if an ad campaign (in this case a national one) doesn’t understand the difference between less and fewer1, while I understand what the company is trying to communicate, I wonder what truly important things they’re screwing up.
Most of the people I might express this to will roll their eyes, but I honestly think it’s a valid point. If the company can’t be bothered to have someone who understands grammar look over the ad copy for a few seconds, where else is it cutting corners to save money at the expense of its customers and suppliers? Do they have any quality control systems in place? Do they do any customer service training? Are their purchasing channels and website secure? Really, what are they doing to show me that I can trust them with my business, whether I’m buying from them, working with them, or selling to them?
This isn’t a meme or a hastily typed comment on social media, although I’d like to see a little more grammar in those spots, too. This is their business. If they can’t treat the little things seriously, how can I trust the big ones?
Be well, everyone.
1I can’t speak for everyone, but aside from being grammatically incorrect, this feels wrong to me in the same way that the phrase “red big ball” would.
Life, Writing, Weirdness 
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