Mirocsfot Advrets for the Dyxlesic

At last I've found it! It's only taken me 31 years, but I've found my niche, I know what I want to do with my life. And it's all thanks to Microsoft.

Skimming through the usual batch of mails this morning my eyes were drawn to a Microsoft advert. You may have seen it, the thing that originally caught my eye was a picture of a girl with her mouth wide open (left), and I wondered what she was supposed to be advertising.

She looks like a friend of mine, not that I've ever seen her doing that face.

Eyes scanned further right, ah, Microsoft. Back to the left as the banner changed and I could see she was "Fascinated" rather than what I'd originally assumed. The rest of the advert made it clear it was for Microsoft consultancy of some sort, blah. But what kept my attention, like lasers burning into the screen was this:

Anyone spotted the problem yet?

Come on Microsoft, you can afford proof readers. I can't, and I still get less than 14% of my words wrong. For those of a dyslexic nature, the problem is this word:

.

What's supposed to mean then? How many millions of people around the world are you telling that "consulting can be more expresive"? Of all the words to spell incorrectly, you had to choose one which means "getting your meaning across"!

Are you sure you mean consulting? Canoodling perhaps? Canoeing? Camels? I don't know, just as I don't know what "expresive" means. I certainly don't want to be a Microsoft Consultant if I have to be expresive.

I'm sorry, but spelling mistakes jump off the page at me, as does bad grammar to an extent. I just know I'm going to get comments telling me where I've made errors in both areas now, but the point is, whilst this blog has worldwide readership of maybe a few hundred people in my wildest dreams (I have pretty dull dreams), Microsoft ADVERTISING goes out to millions, probably half the English speaking world will see this. And I know I'm not the only one who feels this way about poor spelling.

Many people will be turned off a company because of a spelling mistake. It makes them seem cheap, or like they aren't bothered. I can't see it happening for Microsoft, but you never know. Is the way to bring down the mega-corporations from within? Perhaps the big win for the common man will come from a copywriter gone bad inside MicroGoogle? Come the revolution, Bill, yours will be the first SpellCheck we disable!

So, MS, if you need a proof reader, no need to go advertising [presumably for a "poof reamer"], I'm your nan, er, man.

*** UPDATE ***

I've followed the link (because I'm a brave security type) and whilst this appears to be to do with Microsoft, the advert has been arranged by a recruitment agency. I fully expect the agency to be grilled.