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Copy Writing Nightmare
A devastation meal experience is a nightmare while a degustation meal experience is a treasured memorable experience.
Imagine being voted Luxury Travel Magazine’s Best Boutique Hotel Australia 2009 with a feature article all about you, along with the devastation meal experience you offer. Oh my gawd!
A most inopportune error. Bad copy writing mistakes do happen but most not as blatant or (dare I say funny) than this one.
A glossy print magazine, feature article. I burst out laughing at the gross error, a direct opposite affect than the one intended.
Surely the wonderful Aussie lodge that boasts “14,000 bottle temperature controlled wine cellar offering visitos a Gourmet Retreat and Cookery School” would not be happy with the suggestion that their degustation experience was anything near devastating.
Lessons to learn about copywriting
Spell check would not have made a difference. The sad substitute was perfectly spelled. Oops.
Human editing is required. You need a thinking person with a wide enough vocabulary to know what a posh cullinary experience degustation really is.
Editing requires someone other than the author. When we are the author, we often skip over the text as we edit. As we read, errors slip past our eyes. We see what we intended to write, we don’t see our errors. Errors slip by.
Don’t worry we all know stuff happens. To the business owner who has to suffer under such a devastating error (I can’t help myself) perhaps I’ll remember you more having laughed so long and hard over the clumsy copy error written about one the world’s finest destinations.
Dare I ask for your own stories ?�
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- Update Directory Listings - April 29th, 2010
- See You in 2009 - December 16th, 2008
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- Font Wars - July 1st, 2008
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September 16th, 2009 at 4:59 am
We always recomend that another set of eyes goes over the work as a final proof - especially utilising the services of a professional writer.
It doesnt cost much to iniate the services of a good writer and it can save you lots of anguish later.
My worst experience at bad copy writing was when my faulty burglar alarm went off all night and I put an add in the paper appologising to all of the town that I lived in at the time (Wairoa).
Unfortunately the paper rather than sign off the appology with my name - ‘a mayhew’….they mis-spelt it and signed it off ‘a mayhem’!
I guess they were not too far off the mark!
September 16th, 2009 at 8:07 am
Kath… luckily it wasn’t an error on our website, as it isn’t fully live yet…but, it was in an email i sent out with flyers attached about upcoming series of events we are running… and once again, spellcheck didn’t help, and yep, I edited it and overlooked it.
i put ” please send out the attached flyer to all your motorcycle contracts” SHOULD have been contacts !!
so much for looking professional !!
once again thanks for your emails… came to see you when we were doing Hokianga Blue, but still find them usefull with our new venture…
thanks Kiri
November 17th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Hello, I found your web site when i was searching Google for pages related to this content. I must say, your site is good. I like the layout too, its nice. I don’t have the time at the moment to fully read your website but I have noted it and I also registered for your RSS feed. I will be back in a night or two. Thanks for a great web site.
December 4th, 2009 at 3:25 am
This was a great read though! Thanks..