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The advertising business, more than most, depends on clichés. Clichés are those trite, worn out, overused expressions of an idea that were once fresh, but as Oscar Wilde observed, come to have "all the vitality of an error and all the tediousness of an old friend."
Still, clichés are favored in advertising because they quickly communicate a shared understanding of a concept. And when a good copywriter in a punny mood latches on to one it can get twisted into something sharp, hip, relevant and funny.
Don't believe it? Flip through a magazine -- we'll bet the headlines to at least half the ads you encounter are based on a cliché. And just to get you tuned up for this exercise, below are 20 old and tired, beat to death, worn to a frazzle clichés, just waiting to be paired up in record time. Par is about three minutes. Can you beat that?
| A. tempt B. run C. take up D. gild E. cap F. toe G. shoot H. gum up I. dish J. bury K. beard L. beat about M. fly N. turn O. spill P. kick Q. chew R. fill S. talk T. cut |
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1. the beans 2. the works 3. the climax 4. the gauntlet 5. the fates 6. the coop 7. the talk 8. the bucket 9. the fat 10. the lily 11. the cudgels 12. the bull 13. the mark 14. the bill 15. the mustard 16. the tables 17. the dirt 18. the hatchet 19. the lion 20. the bush |
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