Keeping pace

[vvvexation]

Sometimes, it seems, the times change so fast that language has a tough time keeping up.

For example, I see that marketers are starting to use the phrase "This is not your grandfather's X" for values of X that did not exist in any form whatsoever as little as fifteen years ago.

I imagine it's only a matter of time before "your grandfather's X" refers to anything six months or more out of date.

*sigh*

Comments

[elgecko.livejournal.com]

It's a play on a wildly successful car commercial form the 80's and 90's. Oldsmobile were trying to shed a reputation for making styles that were suited for old men. They developed the slogan "This is NOT your father's Oldsmobile". It caught on as a marketing campaign but the cars were still not the best. The phrase later on got expanded in usage and exaggerated in scope, yielding what you have now. =)

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Mm. That makes a little more sense, but it's still kind of silly to refer to things like "your grandfather's ebook reader" as if I've got an image in my head of the kind of ebook reader my grandfather would use, when he certainly wouldn't use one at all.