Stupid TV advert wordage

There was an advert on C5 a moment ago for something called the Red Driving School, it was an advert aimed at recruiting people as driving instructors.

The voiceover guy said (and I quote):

“Over a million people a year take driving lessons, and you could be teaching them”

Wow.

Does the Red Driving School give its instructors a TARDIS? Because surely, that’s the only way an instructor could teach over a million people a year?

Let’s see…

Assuming the instructor works a notional 10 hours a day x seven days a week x 52 weeks a year = 4,368 people receiving one lesson a year.

Hmmm…

Let’s go bonkers and assume the instructor works a notional 24 hours a day x seven days a week x 52 weeks a year, what do we get?

8,736 obv.

So the advert assumed that the viewing public wouldn’t be able to do simple maths?

Or it lied.

You choose.

B.

10 thoughts on “Stupid TV advert wordage

  1. Erm yeah. I’m blaming finger strayage because if my sums were out the calc for the second supposition would have been awry too. Thanks though! 🙂

  2. Basic grammar is the least of our worries; our esteemed ladies and gentlemen of advertising can’t even spell FUCK properly.

    But seriously- I have a number of friends in the advertising community and apparently the last ten years or so have virtually seen the complete demise of the copywriter. The assumption is that we are bombarded by so much media now that messages can only be sold in bursts of imagery (blipverts). Consequently the only copy permitted is the headline and whilst this was conventionally seen as crucial in order to hook joe publc nowadays even this copy it has been sidelined in favour of pictures. I blame Benneton but hey ho.

    Talking of copywriters, my favourite anecdote relates to one of the more famous wordsmiths in Soho in the seventies. This particular ‘creative’ was known for his ability to spin a pun – a tried and tested ad tool. Well apparently a young account exec approached him and said ‘what this ad really needs is a pun’ to which our man replies ‘what would you like, an old pun or a current pun?’. – Brilliant!

  3. Don’t think advertisers expect us to listen much, we are all so bombarded by rubbish from every direction.

    Harry are you joking??? Lol!!
    Scribble

  4. Harry, lol is shorthand for describing that the reader/responder is laughing out loud. I think Scribble was being very mischievous with her response. 🙂

  5. The thing about that advert is that a lot of people do get sucked in, especially when they hear you could earn £30,000 a year in the current credit crunch.

    All they want is your £3000 to train you and then they offer you a franchise costing over £200 a week!

  6. Hello Driving Instructor, thanks for stopping by. It seems a bit steep to me – £3,000 to train as a DI? And it’s interesting to read your blog. I write as someone who has never taken a basic driving test in the UK. 🙂 I have had many rants about driving standards on this blog.

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