OK, it's probably pathetic to blog on a Friday night, butI'm still in the office for another half hour anyway, and I just can't get this out of my mind...

Driving down the freeway today, I saw a van for an errand-running company. And their tagline was backwards. I don't mean their copywriter thought it would be clever to write it backwards like enilgat. I mean their copywriter got it wrong.

Why do you hire an errand running service? Well, probably because you live a crazed life like mine and always have more on your to-do list than time to do it. So the point is to hire someone else to do all that stuff for you.

Here's their tagline: "Imagine...getting things done."

Oops, I don't want to imagine that, I already do in a sick way. I imagine if I just gave up, oh, sleeping, I could get lots more done. It's depressing.

What the tagline should say if their copywriter had any brains is: "Imagine...things getting done." Now you're talking! Things getting done without my having to do them! Yes, that's what I want! That's an exciting thought, like having fairies take care of tasks while I sleep.

Copywriting and marketing always have to speak to the customer's needs. If this copywriter had just spent a little more time inside the head of the customer, they would have realized their error and reversed the words.

But they didn't. And I find their tagline depressing--not exciting--as a result.