- Have you ever been burned by bacteria?
- Have you ever dug watering holes by a river?
- Has a coffee bar ever cared for morning if it didn't sleep?
Sounds familiar? If none of the above sounds familiar to you, obviously you don't stay in the same Singapore as these copywriters do.
And you'd know that that mee siam is served with cockles.
1 comment:
The text in question is from the Singapore Tourism Board's advertising copy from the unfortunately-named "Beyond Words" campaign:
Sounds familiar? You are in a new place. Surrounded by a 'United Nations' of new faces. Fueled by an infectious beat, inhibitions are shed. From legendary all-night dance clubs, to riverside watering holes, to quaint coffee bars that never sleep, the truth suddenly dawns. You are not alone. You are in Singapore. Where enchanted encounters become friendships, transcending langauges into lasting bonds that'll always be, truly "beyond words".
"Sounds familiar?" is also an interesting specimen of mixed advertising cliché. Copy that opens with "Sounds familiar?" is usually describing a problem that readers will hopefully recognise, before offering a solution to that problem. Here, however, STB is expecting first-time visitors to be familiar with an experience that is supposed to be "unique". But amnesia is not a tourism cliché ; it's more like a spy thriller or sci-fi cliché.
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