There’s an AT&T Wireless commercial, showing a father knocking on steamy car windows at a make-out spot, looking for his daughter because he hadn’t gotten her text message about spending a night at a friend’s house. The voice-over has him saying something to the effect that, “Come Monday, you’ll be known as the girl with the annoying father that nobody wants to date.”
Well, this annoys me every time I see it. Because, of course, why would anyone want to date the poor girl’s father?
This is a classic example of a dangling modifier, which is exactly what happens when you attach a modifier to the wrong word. Clearly, in that commercial, it’s the girl that nobody will want to date, not her father. All the writers needed to do was say, “…Known as the girl that nobody wants to date with the annoying father.”
Some more examples?
- Tossing the frisbee in the air, the dog ran to catch it.
- While talking on the phone, the doorbell rang.
- Running across the floor, the rug slipped and I fell.
- He was staring at the girl by the door wearing tight jeans.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
That commercial bugs me too! I cringed the first time I saw/heard it, and Shaun asked me what as wrong. I told him, and he said, “You’re correcting the grammar of a COMMERCIAL?” Too funny…
Yes, I like this post. Thanks.
There is a colon cancer screening commercial playing in this area with wording that bugs me too. A discussion between two characters which finishes with the comment from A that he hears it’s generally curable, and B says. “Well then, I get it checked out.” As if he will only go since it’s curable, and wouldn’t go otherwise. So I guess I correct grammar in commercials too.
I cannot stand that commercial although it’s not because of the dangling modifier — because it’s just annoying.
Melissa Donovan’s last blog post..Brief Announcement
@Melissa–Well, that’s true too, of course, but doesn’t it sound more intelligent to be criticizing it because of its poor grammar? (grin) I mean, really, there are so MANY bad/stupid/annoying commercials out there….
A personal peeve is the “every (politician, e.g.) is not a (crook, e.g.)” construction. What is meant is that -not- every (politician, e.g.) is a (crook, e.g.). It sets my teeth on edge every time I hear it.
This from today’s News Telegraph (condensed version of the UK paper): “The billionaire publisher Felix Dennis has apparently admitted to killing a man by pushing him off a cliff during a drink-sodden interview with a journalist.”
Presumably, the journalist was a witness.