6- , Sunday, ‘August 18, 1985 - North Shore News

Editorial Page

ews Viewpoin t.

aye good manners been lost in a haze

a
Hazy issue
of cigarette smoke? If not, why is it

H necessary to regulate the wheres and

whens of a habit that is increasingly losing
popularity? |
‘There was a. time when no one would think
/ ‘of lighting a cigarette at a dinner table, turn-
“ ing a companion’s succulent roast pheasant
to ashes in his mouth; there are those still
-who. ask before. smoking in someone else’s
home. or. car; who follow requests by stores
“and individual v

erent ( Smoker, the one who
-his-eye.as: he’ ee a foul-

“nose: like a. Tire-breathing @ dragon ‘daring you:
: “to. protest ‘so be can grind: ‘you underfoot like.
<a used: cigarette butt - - Who causes the trou-

: ‘He‘smokes:in offices: ‘and waiting rooms,
‘ean ash, and an aroma of old. smoke. He -

These “are he people who « “should be:
egislated-out: of ‘society, not: the polite
sod tata who follow the most basic rules of

“einen get sick more often than men.

Af least ‘that’s the decision of a

British, court in ruling. for an in

a surance company that charges womien more for

“health: ‘coverage. But women also live longer, |

so life i insurance costs are less. The phenomena

te Perhaps. women get sick more .

ften'putting up. with the’ men ‘in their lives, but

en: ‘die younger putting up. with women in,
‘theirs

- Display Advertising
° Classifled Advertising ‘986-6222
. Newsroom 985-2131
Circulation 986-1337
- Subscriptions - 985-2131
i139 Lonsdale Ave. ‘North Vancouver, B. C. V7M 2H4

‘Publisher Peter Speck

: “General Manager Roger McAlee
‘ : |. * Operations Manager Berni Hilliard

Marketing Director Advertising Director - Sales
Bob Graham . Linda Stewart

Clreulation Director Advertising Director - Admin.
2. Bill McGown Mike Goodsell

Praduction Director Editor-in-Chief

_ Chris Johnson. ; Noel Wright

Photography Manager — Classitied Manager

wt Terry, Peters , vel Val Stephenson

., North Shore News, founded in 1969 as-an independent suburban
_ newspaper and qualified under Schedule fil, Part tll, Paragraph It of the
Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by
. North Shore. Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North
. Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3685. Entire contents
;-® 1985 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved.
: Subscriptions, North and West Vancouver, $25. per year. Mailing rates
_ available on request.
No responsibility accepted for unsolicited material including
:,Manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped,
“addressed envelope.

‘Member of the B.C. Press Council

fccab | 56, 245 average, Wednesday

SOA DIVISION Friday & Sunday}

THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE

- misuse of

"980-0511 |

DO YOU CRINGE when the. anonymous an-

nouncer cries out. from the depths of your televi-
sion set that his brand of soft drink ‘‘goes down

good’’?

Do you bristle at the sight; that these people are highly

_of print advertisements ex-
tolling the virtues of ‘‘quik’’
: products producing: ‘“‘brite’’

results?

Most of us barely bat an
-eyelid because advertising’s
the English
language has become com-

. Monplace.in our age of mass -
* communication. i

But Bob Wyckham is con-
cerned and. his research as a

: professor. of. marketing!: in-
Simon Fraser , University’s :
-faculty :of 2 business!/'ad~.
“ministration, has increasingly’.

. focussed on_ advertising -

argot aad its. impact.

7 Wyckham~ and” colteagues
’. have measured the extent of.:
grammatical. goofs in televi-.
sion and. print ‘advertising.
They have also surveyed the’

creative professionals in Ca-

nadian : and British advertis-

i

‘ing agencies.

When all is said and done, *

the research reveals that

advertising practitioners .

tinker and twist the language
because they believe they

must do so to fashion adver-

tisements that sell;
“The imeresting thing is

knowledgeable about the
language,’’ notes’: Wyckham.
“They
professional wordsmiths and
they’re very serious about
the language as something to

- be abused just for the fun of ©

it. :

“But they are perfectly
willing to. use . colloquial
English or slang — whatever

appears to be the best use of .-
. related

the. language to communi-
cate clearly. and power-
fully.”

IMPACT ON YOUNG ,

Should’ grammarians be
the only ones to cry foul at
the advertising indistry’s
cavalier misuse. of the

Queen’s English? Wyckham -
“thinks not; he contends that

it is everyone’s concern. .

Wyckham is particularly
concerned .about the impact
of. advertising language on
youngsters and he wonders
why teachers are silent on
the issue. .

‘We surveyed Lower
Mainland Teachers and
found they. were quite con-

see themselves as

nthe. advertising

cerned about the problem,” .
says Wyckham. ‘‘They-
reported .that.:spellings such: .
as ‘brite’. and ‘kleen’ -and “*
solecisms copied...from,
advertising were. turning up’
in the work'of students. a
**Where are. the’ teachers?
Why aren't
ing?” 7°
In searching for; some

: solutions to the problem, ,

Wyckham’s approach is a
pragmatic one. He believes:
industry
should take a’ long,. hard

- look at the issue of! language; ‘

‘include: a:
‘the .in-
While

and, perhaps,’ :
clause in
dustry’s own codes.

‘his survey of /advertising’s
. creative’ personnel. revealed
_ strong’ opposition

to’ any
kind of regulation, he feels

‘the- industry simply hasn’t
given the problem serious

enough attention.
‘FAULTY GRAMMAR

That, in fact, is the irony
to it all. Agencies are con-
stantly probing the public
psyche to determine brand

preferences, the most effec-

tive ways to advertise pro-

. ducts and the like. However,

Wyckham has not been able
to’ identify any research
which shows that an adver-

they, sefeam-

tisement t with poor, grammar.
performs: better: than “one
. with good grammai e

. Perhaps: this:
cern: evolves | fro!
that: agencies,’. ai
aware of ‘the. ‘per

‘ craft. Wyckham’s .

. showed, ‘for éxami

~ per. cent. of.--al
commercials contain at, least
one grammatical : irr

ty,: but advertisin : profes-
sionals: in. Canada’ and’ Bri-
tain estimated . that . ;
“advertising”. 0

could be faulted” for poor. :
English :

Whatever the. reason, .
Wyckham is not: out:to‘have. :
every advertising ’ ‘copywriter:
pass a grammar test before
being unleashed in''the mar-
ketplace. ‘I don’t - see. the
need for. a- set, of rigid
rules,’’ he ‘explains.
“Language evolves. as socie-
ty evolves, but: for a

language to be effective it ' -.

has to have some conven- ©
tions so that when we say or -_:
write something, - someone
else will be able to get the
whole meaning out of the
‘message.’”

SFU News Service

Walkers risky for babies

BABIES ENJOY play-:
ing in walkers, but a.
team of physicians’

from London, Ontario

has advised parents to_

discourage their use.

The physicians concluded
that the walker is a danger-
ous apparatus for discover-
ing that almost half of the
babies with -head injuries
admitted to the emergency
ward of the local hospital
had been playing in a walker
at the time of the injury.

Typically, the injury involv-
ed a fall downstairs.

The babies most ‘vulner-
able to injury in-a walker
were under one year of age.

The doctors also sent out
a questionnaire to 150 fami-
lies with babies aged 3 to 18
months in the London ‘area.
They found that in one-third
of the families the baby had
fallen and hit his head while

playing in a walker.

The doctors state ' that
walkers have no value in
enhancing a baby's muscle
coordination and therefore

-their use should not be en-
couraged. If parents do want

their child to play ina
walker, the time spent in the

-walker should be limited to

no more than 30 minutes a
day, they add.

NOEL WRIGHT on vacation

Furthermore, waikets
should be used: only in the
basement, and infants
should be supervised careful- ~.;
ly while in the walker, the :
doctors say.

Most important, -walkers
should never be used in the
vicinity of an open stairway, °
they advise.

The team included Doc-
tors John M. Stoffman,

_ Martin J. Bass and A. Mer-

vyn Fox, all of London’s
University of Western’ On-
tario.

(Canadian Science News)