Sitting here listening absently to Rush while doing the paying work...and I keep hearing Ace Hardware commercials. With the old jingle, "Ace is the place with the helpful hardware man."
Except that it's now the helpful hardware folks.
I guess as I think about it, they've been using that version for some time. But it's so damned forced, you'd think they would have quickly phased out that jingle and tried something else.
I'd never say that a woman couldn't do just as good a job selling hardware as a man (although I will say, having been in the business personally for many years prior to sitting at this desk and getting fat all day, that there are many construction and handyman jobs that women are not suited for and shouldn't try to do). My problem is strictly with the stupid attempt to be PC and change the existing Ace Hardware jingle to something that doesn't work.
It sort of makes me wonder how long their agency worked to come up with the inoffensive "folks". What would have been wrong with "guys" (ok, too male) or "dudes" (ok, also too male) or...well, you get the point.
The problem is that they made it plural. And what's worse, they made it plural incorrectly; "the helpful hardware folk" would have worked.
Stupid.
