Sensational and Divergent Spelling

Remember our conversation with Andrea here in San Diego who was talking about a new restaurant called Curiosity, and she was wondering if there’s a term for that kind of intentional misspelling in advertising?

Right, those punny restaurant names or salon names. They’re so common, right?

Right.

And I forgot that another term for that is sensational spelling.

Oh, nice. Very good.

Sensational spelling or divergent spelling. That’s how you get fruit loops with two O’s in fruit.

The best example of sensational spelling that I know of was my sister-in-law. When she was 11 or 12, they got a new kitten.

And my in-laws love animals, and they always seem to have a dozen of a variety of different things.

And they got a cat, and she named it Jazzy.

But as she explained to us, it’s Jazzy with a backward Z because the backward Z is cooler.

Jazzy with the cool backward Z.

That is sensational spelling.

That is pretty spectacular.

You know, I was looking at a can of Ready Whip the other day.

I’m going through a Ready Whip phase where I put whipped cream in my coffee.

That is spelled so strangely.

R-E-D-D-I-W.

Is there an H?

No.

W-I-P with a hyphen.

But you knew about the two D’s?

We were talking.

You know, I had my phase already.

But you’re in a Ready Whip phase.

What comes next?

I don’t know.

You’re going to start getting all these coupons in the mail now.

Oh, I hope so.

I bet your Facebook ads are real fun.

Oh, gosh.

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