You Know Your Business is Successful When…
…your ad campaign can change the rules of the English language.
Grammar Girl predicts the new iPod touch ad campaign may give the incorrect but often-used "funnest" (as opposed to "most fun") the credibility it needs to cross over into acceptable, albeit informal, usage within the English language. Her detailed examination of the subject and an overview of the debate on whether "fun" is acceptable as an adjective is here. (Most people born after 1970 have no problem with "fun" as an adjective, which is probably how "funner" and "funnest" snuck in to begin with.)
There are plenty of examples of companies and their products influencing our everyday language. It was two years ago that "google" joined "xerox" as a legitimate verb, recognized by both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster. Band-Aid, Kleenex, and Aspirin (among others) have all been genericised. But in the case of the iPod touch campaign, we aren't talking about the acceptance of a new word as much as the fact that Steve Jobs may have just announced the verdict in a controversial grammar debate.
And Bloomberg News thought he was dead.
What other examples of a company's impact on language come to mind?
