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January 5, 2012

Power to the She Tagline Bridges the Grammar Gap

The Gap owned Athleta brand has just kicked off a new campaign with the grammatically disruptive tagline, "Power to the She."

Grammatical disruption, when used judiciously, is an effective communication technique. Moderately incorrect use of the English language can cause your audience to stop and think about what you're saying long enough to absorb your message.

The question is whether "Power to the She" qualifies as moderately incorrect usage. Granted, it's easy to forgive the missing verb, we've seen that before with "Intel Inside," "The World on Time" from FedEx, and "Let's Merry" from Starbucks.

But the missing verb, when coupled with the improper use of the third person singular pronoun, she, is jarring.

Add to that an interruptive insertion of a definite article, the, and the bounds of moderation have been mightily magnified.

Thankfully, English semantics are quite forgiving. Even with its three degree gap in regularity, the meaning of "Power to the She" is still discernable.

And better yet, it's ownable.

Other examples of grammatically disruptive taglines or slogans that successfully broke the rules of syntax:

• Think Different - Apple
• Start aging smart - Kellogg's Smart Start
• Be Stronger Connected - CenturyLink
• I coulda had a V-8!
• Better by Adobe
• Let's Do Amazing - HP
• Winstons taste good like a cigarette should

Even in a highly uninflected language like English, semantics still manage to trump syntax. Placing undue emphasis on grammar at the expense of the message is a wasted effort.

Chomsky's example, a famous MIT linguist, of a grammatically correct yet meaningless sentence (Colorless green ideas sleep furiously) says it smart.

Technorati Tags: Athleta, Power to the She, Gap, Athleta Tagline, Tagline, Branding

Posted by Diane Prange at January 5, 2012 10:11 AM
Posted to Apparel | Branding | Taglines

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