THE WALL STREET JOURNAL / CALIFORNIA
OAKLAND -- Is saving time a good excuse to skimp on spelling? The
Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District seems to think so.
As part of a campaign to promote its expanded transbay service to San
Francisco, AC Transit ran two buses emblazoned with the unusual slogan,
"I'ts About Time." The apostrophe-challenged omnibuses ambled about for four months,
cruising across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, appearing in a
Berkeley parade, even serving as props at a televised press conference
on transit service. According to AC Transit, not a single resident
complained about the spelling.
The district was consistent, at least, in its incorrectness.
Spokesman Jaimie Levin admits that before the campaign began, "I even
had little models of the bus" complete with the typo. "It just slips
through...I swear we all looked at it." (It cost AC Transit $10,000
apiece to install the errant ads, although the responsible contractor
fixed them for free last week, after Mr. Levin noticed the error himself
on the life-size buses.)
Some are treating the matter philosophically, if not grammatically.
Says Allan Wash, president of the San Diego-based company that designed
the ad, "English is a lost language in the Western U.S. anyway."
Resident's Havent' Noticed
Somethings' Amiss on Ad's
By Ryan Tate
11/24/1999
The Wall Street Journal
CA2
(Copyright (c) 1999, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
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