Which Spelling Should We Use in a Global Neighbourhood?
Lately, I have been reading various news articles on Yahoo! that have sported extra “u's” as well as “s's” instead of “z's”. I realized (or, perhaps, realised) that we are precariously perched on the edge of a global crisis.
On the shelf in my shower sits a hair conditioner that promises “Vibrant Colour.” It was purchased on a recent business trip to Miami. The patent is registered in the US, and the manufacturer is headquartered in the Chicago area and apparently has offices in suburban London as well as Toronto.
How did the company decide on the spelling of color/colour? Wouldn't prudent marketers come up with a different word altogether, just to avoid controversy? Or did they sit around a conference table for hours deliberating on which spelling to use? Were they trying to go for some Eurocentric sophistication? Or was it an oversight?
Perhaps it was a mis-shipment, an overstock or a product intended only to be dumped below the 49th parallel. Would anyone but a writer purchasing the product even care or notice?
Today, communication can travel across the globe in a nanosecond. More and more, we are all turning to the same news sources, whether we reside in Johannesburg or Dubuque. We may participate on a global knowledge exchange on the Web in the afternoon and then attend a child's football match/soccer game in the evening.
In that world, which is the proper written English: that of the Queen or that of her most loutish of offspring, America?
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Gary Shaffer is a 15-year-plus veteran of advertising and marketing firms, including J. Walter Thompson and D’Arcy Advertising. He recently received his Master of Professional Writing degree from the University of Southern California, where he taught at the Marshall School of Business. Contact him through his Web site: www.BrandFitMatrix.com.
