Image via WikipediaOK, we preach spellchecking in all your papers, assignments, tests in college (and as I joke with my students, Microsoft Word isn't kidding with those red and green squiggly lines!). Here's a real-life advertising story from CNN - made all the more embarrassing because of who's the client. Watch:
So, what's your worst spellcheck fail - in school or at work? What's the worst you've seen (if you have a link, post it!).
Look forward to the conversation here on the blog!
David
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267 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 267 of 267Everyone makes mistakes! I know that a mistake like this can put a lot of embarrassment on the business, but they should not have taken the actions that they took. I believe that someone should be the blame, but there was more than one person who looked over it.
A mistake like this is acceptable in school, but it is outrageous for a business billboard. If there was a reasonable party in charge of proofreading, this would not have happened. People need to be more professional when they are doing tedious thing of this sort.
I know people get comfortable with their daily task at their jobs but I would think that if I were doing something that would be shown in public, I would at least double check and read over to make sure this would not happen. One letter made all the difference in that statement and could be very costly for the business.
As amusing as I think this is, it's sad and embarrassing. Spelling errors are so easy to spot. Not only is it embarrassing for the individual who wrote it, but for the public schools in that area. I understand everyone makes mistakes, but the fact that four people didn't even catch the mistake is mind bottling.
That's funny. I think the majority of spelling errors occur when people are in a hurry. It's important to be able to slow down and actually think about what you're telling your audience.
I can honestly say that at first I read public. I believe there are instances where your brain will think what it is supposed to be. Mistakes like this do happen, I just feel bad for the people that have to suffer because of it. Yes, they should have noticed it, but they could have all just read the wrong thing. If this wouldn't have been a profanitive word no one would have made a big deal. Who knew one word missing and L could create such and uproar.
I do understand that sometimes incorrect spelling of a word is overlooked. How do four people overlook the same misspelling though. I mean come on it is a little ridiculous. You would think that since this ad was going to be on a public street that they would have placed closer attention.
This is awesome! Yes, it sucks and is VERY embarrassing but still funny. It is especially funny to me because I am Dyslexic and constantly worry about if I'm misspelling words. I constantly have to double check myself or change the wording I use to relay a message because I'm not sure if I'm spelling a specific word correctly or not. And it is nice to know that I'm not the only one on the planet that makes mistakes! Hooray!
In haste to get a point across we sometimes kill the point with misspelled words. I find myself doing that a lot on Facebook and twitter. The thing that trips me up is the spell check on my phone, because I want to say one thing and the phone spell check chooses what it thinks. Like now I have 4 words with red lines, I am correcting now.
Come on it’s an honest mistake. I wouldn’t have gotten all bent out of shape over it. How many people read that same sign that day and had no idea that there was a misspelled word. I have done the same thing before. The only difference though is that very few people were exposed to my typographical error. I do not believe it was the same in this case.
He should hire elementary children, for they should have better spelling and I'm sure they would work for less!
Aghh, what can you say everyone at some point makes a mistake.
With four people and technology everywhere, they should never had miss that misspelling error. I can't believe that happened. I know it must have been so embarrassing to the president that his employees miss that. It might also cause people doing business with this company due to the lack of proofreading.
It is critical to make sure things are spelt right especially in advertisements. There is no reason why this mistake wasn't caught by someone before it was seen by the public.
This reminds me of an article that was posted on the yahoo home page awhile back. A city repaved a road next to a school and it included a school cross walk and they spelled "shcool crossing" on the cement. If a message is advertised or in public view you must use spell-check, I know everyone makes mistakes, but just proof read.
12. Spelling and grammar errors happen all the time when I write papers. I find myself looking to WORD too much for the correct spelling and grammar. I find it hard to critic myself and I sometimes need another set of eyes to look over my work. This is were the problem is in this situation. The other people didn’t care about the spelling because it basically was not their responsibility. In the end they will find out that even though it wasn’t their responsibility , there will be a effect for their inability or critic properly.
I think its funny. I wouldn't fire them but I give them a reprimand. How it was a mistake everyone makes mistakes. How many times have an you not proof read a paper for school and you misspelled a simple word.
I would fire these people. I don't understand how such a simple word can be so hard to spell right. I've seen workers misspell 'school zone' as 'shcool zone' before. They don't have someone that would double check or supervise while this was happening?
It is extremely hard to believe four people could miss something like that! It kind of makes me wonder what other spelling errors these "proof readers" have missed.
That shows a lot of public school system, they can not even afford to hire people who can spell check their own advertisements. As the man says in the video four people over looked that misspell, hopefully those four people lost their jobs and four people who know how to spell took their places.
I believe that is funny how four people missed that mistake with the billboard company. People do make mistakes and hopefully they learn from their mistakes. I can guarantee that it will not happen again with that company.
That is extremely embarrassing! Especially being that the billboard was put to advertise "the best things about public schools." This brings to mind how in today's time we have a tendency to shorten work and it is affecting our writing and speech skills. Spell check should be used for anything you expect others to read.
This mistake is quite embarrassing for both the company and its employees involved. Although I agree that using spell check is very important, it does not always catch all mistakes. "Pubic" is a real word and was spelled correctly, therefore spell check would not have caught the error. While technology is great, it's not always perfect. Once spell check is complete, a read through by an individual or two is necessary. I understand how something like this could happen if there was one individual, maybe two, involved in proof reading but there were four individuals who gave their final approval. There is no excuse for such a stupid mistake.
I think this is a mistake that could have been quietly fixed. I'm sure plenty of people didn't notice the mistake, so one person shouldn't be blamed. This is very typical of the media. Covering stories that are worthless and it is news that Americans could care less about. When will a real news network stand up.
(CNN, MSNBC, Fox New, etc.) - propaganda
Mistakes happen. Even if this person had used "spell check", which I'm sure they did, it wouldn't have caught it. However, the people who were responsible for proof reading it should have caught the mistake. A few weeks ago, Burger King on Wardline Rd. was advertising $4 Buger minis. Nice. I've always wanted BUGER Minis.
This is hilarious. I would think more than one person would be to blame. Someone had to come up with the idea, send it to marketing, send it to the billboard company, who then sends someone out to put it up. Surely at least one person could have caught the error. That is really sad!
This was kind of hilarious in a sad way; Proofreading and spell checking is kind of a given and so easy to do and can spare you unnecessary embarassment and the appearance that you are unprofessional, and how 4 people missed this is beyond me...
WOW!! I have to admit I did miss it the first time. But I do not see how 4 people could have missed it. The specific job of those 4 people is to prevent this from happening. This really goes to show how important spellcheck really is!
i dont think that many people should have missed that much of a mistake and should have double check their work. its just what most people do at work the don do their job to 100% and this is what happens. just dont want people getting mislead on what your trying to promote or say.
This doesn't shock me at all I think that it was done on purpose. I can not see how people could let this go without noticing that it said "pubic" and not public. If I was the billboard marketer I would think that my job may be in trouble.
I totally agree with proofreading everything you write in college and personally. The community noticed an incorrect word and publicly spread the word which I'm sure put great shame on the company that placed the ad on the billboard. Although after several individuals edited the ad, the word was overlooked and that only means no one is perfect. I have noticed a few misspelled words in my own writing at times and thanked Microsoft for Spell Check many of times. The software is very helpful and therefore people should type all their writings in Microsoft Word or some other word application and let the computer keep up with corrections.
I think this is so funny. Maybe I'm weird, but I love to proof read. I read a book the other day and I've never seen so many grammatical errors in a book in my life. It was really cheap, so maybe that's why. With something like this, it could've been an accident or on purpose. If it was an accident though, then I don't think they should make a huge deal about it. Most people would read it the way it was meant to be anyway.
I think that is so crazy how four people can miss such a easy mistake. I mean come on that is you job. On another note if I seen this billboard I would have to laugh because it is not that bad of word to get a story for the news. They have way worse things that the public should be seeing not little petty things likes this.
This video actually gave me a little laugh but it is very embarrassing that it actually happened. It blows my mind that this was proof read by four people and not one of them noticed that mistake. I actually have seen billboards that were misspelled and I can't help but to sit back and think who allowed that to be seen by the public. With the technology that we have today, nothing should be left misspelled and it is absolutely crazy that things like that still happen.
I think this is a hilarious mistake. People take things way too seriously, again I can't believe things like this make the news. Just take the sign down and fix it, not a big deal.
Ok. It was a mistake. Now can we move on to more important issues. I mean MOORE important issues.
WOW! This is a very careless mistake on the proofers part! If all your job entails is to proof a sign, thats what you should do. Especially something that is going to be seen by a large group of people. This is not only embarrassing to the company, but for the people it represents as well.
this is hilarious. how can you miss something like that. i guess we just take spellcheck for granted these days. I'm my opinion grammar is getting worse. sometimes when I'm doing formal writing i have to catch myself from writing as if i wee texting.
This is hilarious. It shows how a simple misspelled word can turn into such a big deal. I've misspelled some words before but never on such a grand scale. I wouldn't want to be on the team of people that didn't catch the wrong spelling.
Well, if it's any small consolation, spellchecker wouldn't have caught the word since it is a legitimate word. I think people rely far too much on spellchecker and that's how accidents like this happen. Reading something aloud usually works better.
But this is a huge embarrassment because while the company looks bad to the customer who bought the ad, the school board looks bad to the end user. They are the ones going to be remembered for the incident.
I can't think of any really memorable typos for me though. I usually just do the dyslexic thing or I use the word 'that' a lot.
Well that is definitely embarrassing for all parties involved! That is a simple mistake that should have been spotted without a doubt.
I think this is super funny, but also makes me very worried. I see how someone could make the mistake because at first glance, I read it wrong too. Although I missed it, four people should not have. I, along with many other i am sure, think that those four people need to have some sort of punishment for the simple fact that it is making both parties look bad. Who is going to want to have this billboard company do their ads after hundreds of people see it. Also, the school board should have asked to see the sign before it went public. If they missed it to, their is no help for their public schools.
This is funny, yes embarrassing, but still funny. People do make mistakes, even four of them reading the same thing. I actually saw this before on Facebook, and couldn't stop laughing, my friend sent it to me because I love spell-check and she always tells me spell-check is not always correct and this is a good example of that.
Ha, they should have left it! The sign doesn’t make sense anyway. It needs to say “THE” 15 best things about our public schools, or something. I like how they just scrapped the whole thing and didn’t bother to correct it. And FOUR people missed it! Yet another group of people that the school system has failed, what a shame.
This is so hard to believe. You mean to tell me that NOONE saw this error????? Really!!!!! I'm sure the advertising firm saw it and if they did why didn't they just pick up the phone and call the school board to ask if what the ad originally said was what they really wanted it to say? There would have been less embarrassment for the school board and the community for that matter.
This was ridiculous and a total embarassment. It wouldn't be such a big deal if just one person made the mistake because we all misspell things, but for four people to proofread it and not see the mistake is just crazy and sad.
I have read before that people do not pay near as much attention to the middle letters of a word as they do the first and last letters when reading. Many people might have seen that message (other than the 4 who proofed it) and not have recognized its error.
Spell-check is always important. When I was in high school I had to do a 15page paper and I just did not feel like typing it up. So, I paid a girl to type it for $40. I assumed that she would just do a good job, I was way wrong. I didn’t read it before I turned it in, and when I got my grade back I had a very low C. I was astounded because this was not a C paper. So, when I asked the teacher about it she showed me my paper and it was full of grammatical error. MY NAME WAS EVEN SPELLED WRONG! Never again! It is always important to check your finished copy.
It the little things in life that make you smile. I find it ironic that the billboard was say that the 15 best thing about public schools i guess spelling class is not one of those. The company should have caught the mistake.
I will be honest with you, I am not the greatest speller, but I proof read and spell check several times. Also, if you are getting other people to proof read it and go over it as well, there is really no excuse. To have 4 sets of eyes, 8 eyes going over the same thing, someone should have caught that. Even if Microsoft didn't. That is a bit ridiculous to me.
If four people were assigned to look over a billboard and failed this bad, they are should be fired. I mean seriously I can see if one person missed it but four.
This is definitely the error of the four individuals who proofread this ad. It is also the responsibility of their supervisor to make sure this ad was spelled correctly. The first time I read the ad, I did not see the error until such a big stink was made about it and then I saw it. When I see things like this, it makes me giggle to see someone made a mistake, nothing more.
Wow. As much as I want to say I'd seriously consider hiring new people, this is a very easy mistake to miss. I had to look at it twice before I pressed play to see what was actually wrong with it. At the same time, this is a HUGE mistake that can potentially cost their company to lose huge accounts.
So of course being the owner of an Iphone I have had many spell check embarrassments. I do not have any links unfortunately but they are always amusing. It is highly important, especially when something will be public, to spell and grammar check EVERYTHING! Everything should be looked over by at least three different people to avoid these kind of blunders. I thought it was funny to be honest but I can see how some may be offended.
This was definitely a mistake and I don't think anyone some be punished for it but at the same time its a lesson to everyone that we should always be sure of our spelling no matter what situation we are in. I really don't think that this bill board was that big of deal but it should be a reminder to everyone that we need to be careful with spelling because this could have been a lot worse than it is. I know a lot of people that accidentally send text messages with words that they didn't mean but because of "autocorrect" it can change what you were meaning to say into another word which isn't always a nice word. Know what your texting, typing, etc. and you won't have anything to worry about.
What can I say, everyone makes mistakes. Regardless it is kind of sad that this slipped by a number of individuals. However I can't sit here and argue this in a negative way. If anything it is quite humorous. It is just to bad for the company who completed this task because now they will have to lose money to restore it the right way. However the company chooses to handle this internally is up to them. No, I don't think anyone should be fired for this little incident, but that is how I feel.
This is an unfortunate error. Spellcheck would not have caught it because it is a word, however, I wonder if grammar check would have caught it. Sometimes during proofreading we see the words as they ought to be instead of how they actually are. I saw an email go around some time ago which required that it be read several times so that you could figure out that it actually did not read the way you thought it should have. Unfortunately, I do not have it to post.
This is i big "uh oh" on the companies part. I can't believe four people missed it. If any other word would have been missing a letter then if would have been fine, but some how the one letter from that word is what got deleted.
This video made me laugh. I noticed the mistake right away, but that might have been because I was on the lookout for it. I still can not believe that four people did not catch it. They must have been doing their jobs very carelessly. I am sure this would not have made the news had they spelled "publc" instead of "pubic." People rely to heavily on spellchecker.
Wow! I am so out done. I know sometimes I don't spell check but I at least try to proofread. Sometimes spell check doesn't catch everything especially when the word actually exists. I feel that when you are hired for a job, you should go the extra mile to make sure that your work is quality work. Especially, when you're working for an advertising company.
Its crazy how your mind reads what it wants you to believe is there! An embarrassing moment for the company. There are actual illusions out there that will make you read a sentence and it will guarantee you that you will read it wrong. I didnt catch where the sign messed up until the anchor read it.
it's funny b/c we all rely on autocorrect or microsoft word to let us know when we screw up, but it's the words which aren't mispelled that become our downfall lmfao
I'm just happy that this mistake didn't happen to me. We're all human and anyone of us could have made this mistake, but what a huge mistake to make. It's important to actually read through any kind of work that you have to turn in and not simply just check for the red and green squiggle lines. I hope that this company learned their lesson in this event.
This is sad. With all of the technology (Spellcheckers) in place today, they still missed the mistake. The advertising company should have defiantly been responsible for the mistake on the billboard. That being said, the individual who created the ad should feel stupid as well.
I feel for the company. I mean I’m sure they thought having four people overlook something fro spelling would be sufficient, but obviously you can never be too safe. This spelling error was embarrassing for the company and hopefully those employees had some repercussions for their lack of doing their job.
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