Hey, it's Sarah.
I was riding in the car today, and the street should have been named, "Dealer Road" because for about a mile, it was dealership, after dealership, after dealership... Anyway, one dealership had an enormous sign that read, "PRE-OWNED." Car salesmen, especially used car salesmen, are masters of language. They insist on calling cars "pre-owned." This is so widely known that in the media car salesmen are almost always portrayed in a negative way, so, without fully knowing it, people are aware that words can portray a certain feeling and that other people manipulate language to make sure that feeling is felt. I applaud these car salesmen; they know that "used" has negative connotations. I think of used Kleenex. How disgusting is that image! I certainly do not want to use someone else's snot-covered tissue. Maybe the media should leave car salesmen alone. After all, the media twists words around, too. Everything comes back to language... Anyway, does anyone else think what car salesmen do is just normal and that they should be left alone?
2 comments:
Hey, it's Erin. Haha, I love those signs that say pre-owned. They're so funny. I don't know if anyone's seen I Am Sam, but Sam buys an answering machine and he and his friends are trying to get the machine to work. One of them says "maybe it's because it's used" and the other one replies, "it's not used; it's pre-owned". I think that the way people use language is sometimes humorous (it made that part of the movie funny and manipulating language is the basis for many jokes).
I have to disagree with your statement of used car salesmen as "masters of language." What these people do is simply use euphemisms to make something that is not necessarily wonderful sound amazing (I'm not saying there is anything wrong with used cars, just the people who sell them). I think that their language is very transparent- we know what they mean by "pre-owned" and we can laugh at their replacement of language because it doesn't seem to affect our purchasing of these cars.
Over the summer, I got a cell phone and had an "interesting" experience with a salesman. As I walked in, he asked me what type of phone I wanted, and I said that I wanted a Krzr. When my mom and I looked at them, she immediately exclaimed how obnoxiously expensive they were. The salesman seemed to get a little nervous and quickly proceeded to show us other cell phones which I did not fit my tastes. In the end, I decided to pay for half of the Krzr, but as we walked out, my mom noted how bad the salesman was. And it's true: instead of trying to sell us the phone, he realized that he had an obstacle in his way and immediately proceeded to ignore it and go for a weaker approach. But I would not find this behavior normal of salesmen (especially used car salesmen), for they usually try to run with an idea until the customer either buys it or walks away.
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