madbodger: euphemisms

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madbodger) wrote,
@ 2008-02-17 17:24:00

Current location:	Purcellville
Current mood:	skeptical
Current music:	Daytona 500
Entry tags:	ad, language

euphemisms
I've noticed an increasing trend toward using euphemisms in advertising. Sometimes, I can kind of see their point, such as referring to used cars as "pre-owned". A fairly awkward construction, actually, but "used cars" has such pejorative associations that they're pretty motivated to avoid using that phrase. I still think they could have done better than "pre-pwned". Yep, every time I see the term, I read it as "pre-pwned". It's fairly accurate, makes me smile instead of grimace, and robs their silly euphemism of its advantages. I think everybody should do this.

Worse is the nearly universal trend among realtors of referring to houses as "homes". Sorry, you chiselers, you can't sell "homes". A home is made by the people living there, and cannot be sold without invoking images of slavery I'm sure you would prefer to avoid. A house is a building, an object you can buy and sell. So when someone tells me they're selling "homes", I feel like I'm being lied to, just so they can use a cozier (but inaccurate) term. I'm unwilling to buy the most expensive thing I'm likely ever to buy from someone that I feel is lying to me.

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r_ness
2008-02-17 10:32 pm UTC (link)

I totally agree with you.

Having said that, it strikes me that the vast majority of these euphemisms are used because of marketing and public relations. Which, in turn, is driven by the unwillingness of the consuming public to call a spade a spade.

After all, if buyers all agreed with us, they'd call houses houses. But for whatever reason, a majority of potential buyers think "homes" sound better than "houses".

In any case, the real estate market is bad and has worse to go, so we can just point and laugh. :)

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gravitrue
2008-02-17 11:08 pm UTC (link)

From joelonsoftware.com:

Here's how Microsoft says, “SQL Server 2008 will be late:”

“We want to provide clarification on the roadmap for SQL Server 2008. Over the coming months, customers and partners can look forward to significant product milestones for SQL Server. Microsoft is excited to deliver a feature complete CTP during the Heroes Happen Here launch wave and a release candidate (RC) in Q2 calendar year 2008, with final Release to manufacturing (RTM) of SQL Server 2008 expected in Q3. Our goal is to deliver the highest quality product possible and we simply want to use the time to meet the high bar that you, our customers, expect.”

joelonsoftware.com also points to an excellent analysis of this: http://www.simple-talk.com/community/blogs/philfactor/archive/2008/01/27/43174.aspx

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r_ness
2008-02-18 01:14 am UTC (link)

Actually, I like the more recent post even more. (It's the one entitled "The Technically minded subclass, and the fog of misperception.")

It's quite germane given what I do nowadays. I note, however, that it's not always as bad as he says; we generally talk only to engineers or their immediate managers, even when we're talking to huge multi-national corporations. I'm not sure why we've avoided the situation he describes, but it may be because we actually sell a tool with which to make things, and thus the engineers are the ones buying it because higher management doesn't even know what our product is, or what it's used for.

Then again, it appears that the situation he describes is also about a tool manufacturer, so I really have no idea why our experience is so different.

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	dcseain 2008-02-17 11:07 pm UTC (link)
	Testify about the house/home thing! (Reply to this)

leiacat
2008-02-17 11:19 pm UTC (link)

I don't think I ever got in the habit of claiming to sell homes, but I did, in fact, think of people as buying them. I might be showing them a structure, but they aren't going to want it unless they succeed in envisioning it suited to their particular purposes.

"Houses", by the way, is inaccurate, too. If one's showing you a condo or a townhouse or any number of other real estate sellables, you're not buying a house. Even in the case of a detached single-family unit, the item in question is not the house, it's the house and the land that it's on and some more land that's around it.

To each other, realtors are likely to call'em "properties". "Houses" is to me a moral equivalent of calling WWW "the internet" - an oversimplification that I might allow myself to talk to laymen, but would likely inwardly twitch as I do.

You're fully entitled to claim distaste on any grounds you wish, but "accuracy" is, as far as I'm concerned, not a good one here.

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	chanaleh 2008-02-17 11:35 pm UTC (link)
	"Houses", by the way, is inaccurate, too. If one's showing you a condo or a townhouse or any number of other real estate sellables, you're not buying a house. That's exactly what I was thinking of. When I see "homes", I read it as "generic designator for spaces you can live in" and leave it at that. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	bikergeek 2008-02-17 11:31 pm UTC (link)
	The "home/house" thing is an effort by real estate agents[1] to (1) inject emotion into the decision to buy by (2) subtly implying that only a place you own can be "home". [1]Some real estate agents are Realtors(tm), but not all. The term Realtor(tm) is a trademark owned by the National Association of Realtors(tm), and they defend their trademark vigorously. (Reply to this)

	beaq 2008-02-18 02:09 am UTC (link)
	Mmmhm. (Reply to this)

	temima 2008-02-18 03:10 am UTC (link)
	Agreed with the house/home thing. (Reply to this)

scruffycritter
2008-02-18 04:27 am UTC (link)

Yeah, that's probably the most basic form of salesmanship: Referring to the thing in the terms you want it to be thought of.

Even in the OJ trial nobody referred to her as "Nicole Brown-Simpson". She was Nicole Simpson to the defense and Nicole Brown to the prosecution.

It's oxymoronic to sell "homes" in the plural. It implies that it's possible to buy as many of them as you want. I wonder what euphemism they use to refer to investment property.

Edited at 2008-02-18 04:29 am UTC

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