I think everyone needs to calm the hell down.
A firestorm was unleashed on the good burghers at Subway after they suggested that the word “foot” in their famous “Footlong” sub is “not intended to be a measurement of length” and is merely a “descriptive name”.
Fair enough. Which bit of that don’t you get? Who would reasonably expect that something called a “Footlong” would actually be twelve inches in length? That’s just being pedantic.
Maybe they should also clarify that a “sub” isn’t a naval vessel designed to operate underwater.
“Subwaygate” — I’m surprised the usual adding of the prefix “gate” to any controversy hasn’t been done in this case — fired up when some smartarse Australian kid actually measured his sub and discovered that it allegedly pulled up an inch or so short. Who takes a tape measure to a sandwich shop?
It all depends on how you define the word “foot”. Surely assuming that his lunch should actually be twelve inches or thirty point something centimetres is a bit of a stretch. Maybe they were inferring a human foot size. That would give them a bit of scope — “a foot” could mean anything from an NBA size gazillion to one of those unfortunate victims of foot binding.
Do you seriously expect to believe everything that an advertiser or company tells you?
Next you’ll automatically assume that something “made in Australia” actually is, rather than in a foreign Victorian style sweatshop (the era, not the state), or a “low fat” product isn’t chockfull of sugar.
Seriously, haven’t you realised that an asterisk at the bottom of a newspaper ad or the words “conditions apply” in a radio commercial translates to “everything you just read or heard is complete bullshit?”
No onion on mine thanks…
*This article may or may not contain false indignation.
©Steve Williams 2012