east village idiot

I have a problem with the bottom…shouldn’t the text be arranged like this?

Roasted fresh,
ground fresh,
and brewed fresh.
Our smoothest coffee ever.

Who designs these cups?

By Annie in MN on Apr 22, 2008

I agree with Annie. There’s something about the statement on the bottom which is visually disturbing.

By LJ on Apr 22, 2008

Thank you for keeping up the good fight.

Also, the third comma in the bottom slogan is unnecessary, too.

By John Barleycorn on Apr 22, 2008

I’m not sure that comma is really wrong. It’s for emphasis. I think it falls within acceptable style variation.

By Sarah on Apr 22, 2008

Is it me or is there an ‘l’ after the d in ground fresh?

By jofusthaniel on Apr 22, 2008

fuck starbucks.

By brooke on Apr 22, 2008

I’m w/ sarah. It makes the reader use the cadence the writer wants you to use.

By tammy on Apr 22, 2008

Hmm. Although I don’t necessarily agree with the decisions the text designers made, there is no incorrect punctuation here. Although I would hyphenate “fresh-roasted.” And is there an “l” after “ground”?

By StuyGirl on Apr 22, 2008

yeah man, you’re really reaching here. it’s an ad, not copy in the new york times.

By lozo on Apr 22, 2008

I have to disagree with Sarah and Tammy. Just because they want the reader to pause after reading the word “coffee” doesn’t mean the comma is correct. While most people do pause when there is a comma, pauses do not actually equal commas.

By brooklyn gal on Apr 22, 2008

Even more offensive is the the fact that they’re using this new marketing campaign to get out of having to use the more expensive green in printing the cups!

By paul on Apr 22, 2008

Just because they want the reader to pause after reading the word “coffee” doesn’t mean the comma is correct.

Wait, you mean, I shouldn’t write, how I talk?

By Todd on Apr 23, 2008

Advertising copy is typically conversational and even those of us who do it for a living and know the ins and outs of grammar are not slaves to it. Having said that the comma after “coffee” is just plain idiotic. If anything it undermines the message because it almost makes it read as a categorical promotion of coffee as opposed to a brand specific one.

By Googie on Apr 23, 2008

JB wrote:
Also, the third comma in the bottom slogan
is unnecessary, too.

You must be a newspaper writer (or regular reader of msn.com). It’s known as a serial comma or Oxford comma, and most American English style guidelines mandate its usage. Newspapers, I presume to conserve space, almost never use it. I find it maddeningly frustrating. It’s not that big of a deal in this sentence, since the series is obvious, but causes a helluva lot of confusion in some cases.

If you want to talk about unnecessary parts of a sentence, however, you shouldn’t use ‘also’ and ‘too’ in the same sentence. That’s double redundant.

By Nate on Apr 23, 2008

Punctuation’s a tool, not an end in itself, Chris.

By Sarah on Apr 23, 2008