Canadian furniture company EasyHome decided to use some edgier slang in a recent flyer, which didn’t please customers.
CTV News reports the rent-to-own company printed a flyer last week with a speech bubble “OMFG” in the top-left corner. EasyHome has used emojis and text speak in past flyers, but the acronym wasn’t well received. The slang phrase stands for “oh my f*cking god,” – a largely harmless phrase, but probably not something which should be printed in a distributed flyer prominently read by older people.
Those upset took to social media to throw heat at EasyHome for the choice of words. The company posted an apology to Facebook about the flyer. When asked by a user why they thought the ad was appropriate, EasyHome responded the acronym is commonly used in texts and they were trying to be “playful” and use “authentic text dialogue.”
Personally, as one of those damn millennials your grandfather always complains about, I don’t really have an issue with the advertisement. Printing the acronym verse the actual phrase itself is two different beasts. An older generation likely doesn’t understand how commonly OMFG is used to express excitement or shock in texts, so an instant negative connotation is put beside the phrase. We live in an instantly offended time, so anything remotely offensive will be flagged and complained about on social media. It’s unfortunate, but the way it is.
Look, EasyHome probably should have known better as a business to print the acronym. But, at the end of the day, it’s an excusable mistake. Instead of trying to appeal to a younger demographic, EasyHome should instead cater to its core audience and keep things as bland and straight-and-narrow as possible.
[CTV News]
