When adjectives go bad. Who's ruining straplines?

Something has gone terribly wrong with the strapline. Not just a particular strapline, but straplines in general. And I don't mean they're just not much cop these days (although as American 'Realise The Potential' Express will tell you, they're not). I mean there's an appalling trend for using adjectives as nouns.

This first came to my attention when Bupa did a big old rebrand about five years ago. The whole endeavour was led with the line 'Helping You Find Healthy'. And there you have it. 'Healthy' is an adjective - that is to say it is a describing word. So one can 'feel healthy', one can 'look healthy' and one can 'be healthy'. What one cannot do is 'find healthy'. Only things with names can be found. Like socks. Or love. Or, for that matter, health. In fact, I think that's what they meant: 'Helping you find health.'

'That's some mutilation of the language, right there.'

Still, at least Bupa were almost making sense, only failing by a single superfluous consonant. What we have now is the logical extension of adjectives as nouns: a strapline that makes no sense whatsoever. And it's part of the new Olay campaign. Ready? Here it comes. 'Your best beautiful.'
Wow! That is some mutilation of language, right there. What on earth are the Olay (formerly 'Ulay') attempting to express? And who on earth thought they had succeeded?

Oh yes, I understand the creative process. It's all about breaking the rules, right? Yeah! Rules, eh? Who needs 'em? Just write what the hell you like. That's what all the cool kids are doing.

Well, good luck to them. Except the thing about breaking rules is that you really need to understand them first. Otherwise your message just comes across as horribly garbled and confused.

But what do I know? I'm just a copywriter.

Magnus Shaw is a blogger, consultant and copywriter (told you).

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