I got good grammar
“Paris got fashion. We got whiskey. Sorry Paris.” is a line from one of the Jack Daniels commercials. With “got” they could mean receiving or coming into possession, but most likely they simply mean has. Maybe they thought it would go over well with the target market, but I’m clearly not their target market, as I like my grammar correct. That’s why I’m in public relations, not advertising.
I think of it as a sign of general acceptance when Madison Avenue starts to use bad grammar. Boost Mobile’s “Where you at?” is another good example; people have used the sentence for a long time, but it seems as if its appearance in ad copy makes it more legitimate and more acceptable and ingrained in everyday speech.
On one hand I’d like my grammar correct, but on the other I know language is an evolving entity. On one hand I get annoyed with bad grammar in commercials, on the other I appreciate the movement and fluctuation of language and its creative use.
About a year (or two) ago, I read Peter Trudgill’s Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society. This book made me think twice about language and what constitutes good and bad language. There is no correct language in linguistics, but there is appropriate language. In different social and geographical settings, different uses of language are appropriate in accordance with environmental and social constraints.
In that light, “Paris got fashion” is appropriate in the eyes of Jack Daniels’ target market and might not be appropriate in the eyes of others. Since I indicated I like my grammar “correct,” I am clearly not their target market and find “incorrect” grammar not appropriate in my social and geographical environment. Should I blame my environmental and social constraints?
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