Monday, June 13, 2011

Do Archaic Sentences Sell Life insurance?

Dark blue billboard with yellow letters reading WITH PROGRESS COME CHALLENGES
When you read this headline, did you wonder, even for a second, whether the noun and verb agreed? I have to admit I did, but I quickly realized "come" agrees with "challenges," and so is correct as is.

But mightn't it have read better as "Challenges come with progress"?

The inverted form used in the headline feels archaic to me, and made the billboard harder to understand; and this on a medium that you're supposed to proces in just a second as you drive by.

Come to think of it, maybe life insurance isn't the kind of thing you can sell on a billboard in the first place.

2 comments:

Michael Leddy said...

I wondered too. On a printed page, as part of a paragraph, it might go right by. On a billboard, it looks strange.

Linda Myers said...

Maybe the marketing person and the sign editor weren't at work that day.