IS IT BAD GRAMMAR OR BAD MARKETING?

The Memorex tagline is: "Is it live or is it Memorex?" Apparently they have gotten away with this tagline for more than 30 years.

I can't decide whether this is bad grammar or just bad marketing ... do they SERIOUSLY mean to imply that if you buy Memorex you're choosing death?

I'm just stumped. Perhaps someone smarter than I am can explain it to me...

Here is a link to a PDF brochure with the tagline on it.

Comments

[Joe]

the writer is a product of a failed educational system.

[Gord Richardson]

My compliments to Byron Allen on a very lucid explanation that teaches by example rather than by the simple statement of abstract rules.

[Byron Alley]

I don't think that clarity in communication is unimportant, especially in marketing copy. But I agree that this use of the word "live" is just fine.

From a "usability" perspective, the fact that Memorex is selling tools for recording music gives a context that makes it clear that the word "live" is used in the sense of "music played by the musicians in the presence of the listener" as opposed to recorded music. So it's fairly clear that the message is intended to be, "when you can hear music that sounds like it's being played live, it might actually just be a Memorex recording."

If life vs. death were in question, the word "alive" would be a better choice: "is it alive or is it dead?"

I believe we tend to say "alive" when we're referring merely to whether or not something is alive, whereas "live" in the sense of "live bait" implies something that is living even though it is often employed dead. We say "live lobster" because the lobsters *could* have been killed, since they'll be killed before eating. So while in this case "live" does refer to whether or not they're living, in reality it's more of a comment on the *freshness* of a commodity than care for the being in question. That's why I find the term "live music" so appropriate--because when the music is recorded and played back, even though it's the same sounds, somehow a freshness, an inherent value of the interaction of musicians and an audience, is lost.

[Maria Ford]

Poor Gord, those drugs certainly did get you worked up, didn't they? I appreciate your passionate involvement with my humble little blog. A point of clarification: I take full responsibility for every posting on this site because any submission goes through me and I decide whether it is worthy, and I provide the commentary.

I'm afraid to say that you have still not sufficiently answered my cry for help with this slogan, however.

In fact I WAS reading the "live" with a long "i" and I still think that the slogan is horrid. The sentence structure implies two mutually exclusive states: either it is live/living/realtime or it is not live/living/realtime because it's Memorex.

How is that not a stupid slogan for anything electronic?

[Gord Richardson]

[My work is normally flawless but I am recovering from surgery and for the moment, have the use of only one hand, and cognitive function is obtundeded by analgesics. Please be patient!]

The Memorex slogan is neither "bad grammar" nor "bad marketing" and is sadly part of an increasing number of similar submissions that really don't belong here. The possible (?)interpretations expounded here defy my comprehension. What postings like this shout from the rooftops is the fact that plain old COMMON SENSE is a rapidly disappearing commodity in modern society. I have used Memorex products for decades and until now, this absurd interpretaion has NEVER occurred to me. Why? Because I apply common sense! It is intuitively obvious that the intent here is to use "live" as an adjective and not as a verb. The posters of this material are so desperate to get themselves displayed on this site that they are expending energy contriving misinterpretations and distortions of the obvious. I showed the Memorex slogan to a new friend who is a recent arrival in Canada and has less than perfect English language skills. I asked him to read the slogan to me. Without hesitation, he read "live" with long "i", the correct reading of course. Folks.....please try getting on with your lives. The energy you are exending in this silly pursuit can easily be applied to "normal" activities that will enhance your lives.