Magazines - imprecision of language - communication failure

Hopefully someday in the future my son will read these blogs.

And hopefully, he will be able to understand them - with their lack of extreme language.

By extreme language - I mean the tendency to make everything more exciting, by putting the word extreme in front of it. Extreme boxcar racing! Extreme Pie Eating context! Extreme bingo with old people every Sunday night!

What really started this blog was a mailing I received from Popular Science magazine. A magazine that I enjoy reading whenever I get a copy and I think it is a pretty good magazine.
[Note to my son, whenever you get to read this, you may in fact not know what a magazine is - a magazine - is a grouping of large shiny pages - that has sporadic articles of interest surrounded by large advertisements for things that you probably won't buy - you pay money for the magazine, and the magazine gets money for the ads - and the magazine publisher makes money]

It states in no uncertain terms:
"Dear Mr. X:
We are contacting your because: Your POPULAR SCIENCE subscription is about to expire."
Now, I am going to ignore the your that they have instead of you in the ‘We are contacting you because.’ That is a simple error - which I only noticed when I typed out what they sent to me in this blog.
No, what I want to concentrate on is the fact that I, unlike many people that subscribe to magazines - actually know when my subscription is going to end.
My subscription is going to end - 07/01/05 . It actually has this date - not labeled - on the so-called service extension form.

Now, there are a number of deceptions in this letter.
Your POPULAR SCIENCE subscription is about to expire. [original bolding]
>>>>This is entirely untrue. It is true that most subscriptions to magazines have an end. It is a fact that my subscription will end July 1st of 2005. It is not true that my subscription is about to end. According to http://www.dictionary.com - there are several definitions of the word about. The second listed definition is: 2. Almost: The job is about done.

In the statement 'The job is about done.' You can substitute the word almost for the word about. 'The job is almost done.'
This is the definition that most fits the statement from Popular Science regarding my subscription - as the subscription is not about to reverse direction, we are not approximating a period of time and we are not wandering about in no particular direction.

The term about in this context would mean - almost - as in maybe another 5 more minutes, I could even grant them that almost might mean the subscription has only 1 more month (viewed as a percentage of the entire subscription). Even in terms of my subscription - since it was a year long subscription - we are only half-way through the subscription - and half-way does not qualify for almost done.

So, why do they do this? They want to create some urgency on my part - so that I'll feel that I will lose my subscription to Popular Science and be forced to purchase it in a store for a larger amount of money.

They further this deception by adding the following statement:
'Return your order form in the postage paid envelope provided no later than 02/13/05.' [bolding in the original document]

Oh no, I've got to hurry! Why it could be months from now and I might not get another copy of Popular Science in the mail.

And again they reinforce this idea with:
'Immediate reply ensures uninterrupted delivery of POPULAR SCIENCE.'

So, you are reading this and saying 'so what?' - I get these things too and I ignore them.

But the problem is that these marketing geniuses are altering our language. What happens when you get something in the mail - and it really is about something that is about to expire - and it is something important - like you home insurance! The question is, what is the meaning of the word about? Should people - even marketing gurus - be allowed to use words which plainly is not that words meaning.

I get things in the mail - marked urgent - is it really urgent that I open a piece of mail - to find a credit card offer? In what way was it urgent to me?

What it does do - is water down the meaning of the word urgent.

Words are constantly being used - where the meaning of the word does not fit the context.

Sure, I believe there is something called extreme sky-diving. In fact, all sky-diving might be considered extreme activity by some people.

No, I do not believe in extreme go-cart racing.

I do not believe that my POPULAR SCIENCE magazine subscription is about to expire.

I do not believe that many of the things I receive in the mail marked urgent are urgent to me in any way (and this could be dangerous, because what if my mortgage company had some urgent information for me, about my failure to pay payments?).

In fact, any mail or television show that makes claims about what I feel or what I need are definitely suspect.

I am not suggesting that in everyday language - talking between friends, relatives, co-workers and etc, that you not be allowed to use words any way you want.

What I am suggesting is that forms of mass-media should be held to a higher standard. There is little difference to me if you outright lie or use a statement in which the meaning of the words in it are not the true meaning of the sentence.

Oh, well, this blog is not going to change anything in regard to words and their meaning or their use in mass-media.

One hopes that people will still be able to communicate with eachother in the future - with all the alterations of the meanings of words performed by marketers in their trade.

Granted – perhaps to keep you on their mailing list and for production to print the appropriate number of magazines, maybe they do have to have you update your subscription a month before it ends.

Even that I doubt, with today’s technology. They should be able to have the appropriate data ready the day of printing and still get the right number of magazines – and all of the addressed to the appropriate people.

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