On Facebook, Chris Hansen (looking forward to London Pride this weekend) reports this advert for Fortnum & Mason:
You wouldn’t expect the venerable F&M to get their apostrophes wrong (they are in fact Grocers to the Queen), and indeed this punctuational choice was entirely intentional.
From the UK Metro, Allison Lynch on the 24th, “Fortnum & Mason does something special for Gay Pride magazine”:
Luxury Piccadilly grocers, Fortnum & Mason, has pretty much won Pride Month with this cheeky ad.
The ad appeared in Gay Pride magazine ahead of Pride in London this weekend and went viral when it was shared by Twitter deity Stephen Fry.
Fortnums has played on its years of association with the Royal Family – it has held many Royal Warrants over the last 150 years – and its close relationship with the Queen.
But, as Fry points out, with the clever positioning of the apostrophe, the luxury department store has subverted its traditional image and delivered a quirky marketing message in one keystroke.
We applaud both the advertising genius and proficient use of punctuation.
Seconded from the US. (And, by the way, AmE should take up the useful adjective cheeky.)
