The CALM Scramble

ESPAÑOL

Every once in a while, I come across a piece of communications that’s blatantly deceiving. The communicating company, in this case AT&T, may believe they are saying the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But all communication requires of a receiver, and the value of what’s said has to be measured by that particular end, more than the emitting one. If I say something true, but it’s interpreted as something that’s not, the result is that I communicated a lie. We can examine the concrete example for this (personal information was erased):

Envelope received from AT&T

As you may see from the picture, they state on their envelope:

Cost of Living… UP.

AT&T Prices… LOW!

To start with, notice the use of ellipsis, instead of an actual verb. That’s an ultimate feat of non-commitment! The relationship between the word pairs is left completely open for reader interpretation. Even a negation of the statement would be allowed. If you ever tell them you don’t like what they imply, they can always tell you they were trying to imply the exact opposite of your interpretation.

However, the main problem lies in their choice of words. They are contrasting ‘Up’and ‘Low.’They may seem going in opposite directions, but they aren’t antonyms. It’s very likely they can’t claim their prices are going down. So they claim the prices are low. Just like the Lindt chocolate bars I can get from my school cafeteria. They are low in price, despite being on the high end relative to their product category.

By they, I mean Lindt and the chocolate bar category. Of course I would never imply that of AT&T and their services. Everybody knows their prices are low. We all also know the cost of living is going up. Costs like food… and rent… and gas… and the phone service. All going up.

I apologize if anything was left open to interpretation in this post. Seriously, it was unintended.