Myer’s grammar gaffe – here are five more advertising typos to avoid

Department store giant Myer is under plenty of pressure right now, as its share price continues to drift lower and the post-Christmas sales season struggles along. But early in the New Year it has found itself under attack from a new group – the grammar police.

In-store signage promoting the chain’s latest sale has been highlighted by hundreds of eagle-eyed Twitter users for a glaring grammar error.

As Myer is now painfully aware, the word “gets” doesn’t require an apostrophe.

But at least the company has responded to the error (which has been rolled out around Australia) in good humour.

“Thanks for all your feedback on our printing error – we’re getting this fixed at the moment!” the company tweeted.

“And we’re glad you’re all so passionate about our great new Stocktake Sale creative!”

In honour of Myer – and in a bid to help those SMEs planning to launch new marketing material in the coming weeks and months – we’ve collected some classic (and common) examples of grammatical mistakes from around the internet.

Nature or nurture?

Courtesy: Illiterate Businesses

Zappos – experts in customer service, not spelling

Courtesy: Terribly Write

Everyone likes rates that are nice and affordable

Courtesy: Funny Typos

Everyone needs great secretaries

Courtesy: Illiterate Businesses

Sometimes, all you can do is smile

Courtesy: Funny Typos

The best way to prevent errors, according to the experts (including our wonderful sub editor Emma Krieger) is to keep things as simple as possible and check, check, check, check and check again.

Mistakes can happen (as every media outlet knows only too well) but robust systems and processes for copy checking should help you prevent a backlash on Twitter.