Pet Peeve--Using the 50 cent word unnecessarily.

[Garga]

I saw some cell phone covers for sale the other day. The packaging they were in called them "Cover Solutions." Solutions?? Like needing a cell phone cover was such a pressing problem (sarcasm there.)

 

Other examples that irk me:

Calling a poster a print.

Calling a movie a cinematic event. (event. puh-lease.)

Calling a picture an image.

 

I'm not sure exactly why this bugs me, other than it sounds pretentious. It also makes me imagine a bunch of calculating PR people sitting around a table trying to come up with slick ways to fool us into thinking we're buying better stuff than we are. (Maybe I should say "merchandise" instead of "stuff.")

[Happy]

I think your image is not far wrong. When I owned a business I kept a copy of 'Words That Sell' on my desk to help me create marketing brochures, ads, and other 'stuff.'

 

An upscale word often means an upscale price. ;)

[Crissy]

I saw some cell phone covers for sale the other day. The packaging they were in called them "Cover Solutions." Solutions?? Like needing a cell phone cover was such a pressing problem (sarcasm there.)

 

Other examples that irk me:

Calling a poster a print.

Calling a movie a cinematic event. (event. puh-lease.)

Calling a picture an image.

 

I'm not sure exactly why this bugs me, other than it sounds pretentious. It also makes me imagine a bunch of calculating PR people sitting around a table trying to come up with slick ways to fool us into thinking we're buying better stuff than we are. (Maybe I should say "merchandise" instead of "stuff.")

 

I have worked in the photo industry for about 20 years and I use the terms photo, photograph, picture and image interchangeably.

Likewise, I interchange large-format print and poster on a regular basis.

None of these are for PR purposes, they all just happen to be synonyms for common terms in my business.