Any Point

I studied design and advertising at university, and we were taught to never to use a pun in an ad, it was considered a form of weak writing and served only to self congratulate the writer on how clever he/she is for thinking of it. So why did I like this line so much?

A well-crafted headline, like a well-titled book, catches the eye and draws you into a story. A pun can, too, but it’s more likely to mischaracterize a story’s seriousness. Of course there is a time and a place for a pun, such as on the back pages of the daily toilet papers, I particular like one’s like ‘Blue it!’ when Chelsea couldn’t close the gap on the Man Utd last weekend, and then this weekend, although I didn’t get the Sunday red tops, I am sure ‘Where Eagles Dare’ would have appeared somewhere. (as a young Utd’s Chris Eagles put pay to any chance of the current champions ever winning 3 in a row.)

So I must like this pun because ‘Tourqe of the Devil’ on this ad is the right time and the right place. The art direction works well with the line, the line doesn’t do all the work as the car sure looks like a devilish automobile. And then the line has a message, it screams out to young petrol heads about power. As the ad isn’t of a serious ilk, and the pun is such a blinder, then maybe my old uni tutors would even agree it ticks all the boxes to allow this sort of ‘route one’ wordsmith.

This pun is an even better one though ‘A dyslexic man walks into a bra….’