LeMarchand Posted May 6, 2010 Posted May 6, 2010 Anyone seen the new Stella advert: "contains less glass, which means less CO2 emissions"? Surely that should be fewer CO2 emissions? Or, if they were being honest, "lower production costs and so more profit for us"?
Jamo Posted May 7, 2010 Posted May 7, 2010 According to Grammar Girl : Less Versus Fewer :: Quick and Dirty Tips You could say, contains less glass, which means fewer emissions CO2 is a mass noun so you have to use less. Less CO2. Fewer emissions.
witch Posted May 7, 2010 Posted May 7, 2010 There are lots of ads in which the grammar is suspect: remember the Burger King ad? "...you'll think you robbed us" which should at least be: "...you'll think you've robbed us" and even then it isn't good grammar
LeMarchand Posted May 7, 2010 Posted May 7, 2010 I'd argue that it's the emissions which are the main subject of the comparison (with the CO2 clarifying the type of emissions), therefore fewer is correct. Totally agree that had they not included "emissions" then less CO2 would be grammatically correct, but hard to defend as the total amount of CO2 in the world is out of their control.
srochford Posted May 8, 2010 Posted May 8, 2010 Not sure at all. "Fewer CO2 emissions" suggests that there's a puff of gas, then another puff of gas and so on and the new process means that there are fewer puffs of gas emitted. In reality, this isn't the way it works - there's some kind of industrial process which emits CO2 continuously and this process reduces the amount emitted per time unit. I think "less CO2 emission" would be better (or perhaps even "less CO2 is emitted") As a complete aside, the term "CO2 emissions" conjures up visions of horses wandering along the road producing emissions as they go - in this case, I think we would want fewer emissions!
LeMarchand Posted May 12, 2010 Posted May 12, 2010 Just had a document that (many times) asks about possible problems that the supplier may come across during the instillation of a device. If it wasn't a freebie, I'd be tempted to correct it and send it back...
elsiegee40 Posted June 16, 2010 Author Posted June 16, 2010 I did actually send one flyer from a book company back with the first paragraph corrected for spelling and grammar. It was total rubbish... but it wasn't worth spending the time correcting all of it. I got a grovelling phone call and a load of free books for the school out of it. As the flyer was aimed at Librarians and English co-ordinators, it had somewhat missed its target!
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