A recent Homegoods ad is a perfect illustration
of the average American’s ignorance of the metric system. The hard-shopping
character is showing off her finds. Pulling out a 12-inch-high ceramic vase,
she coos “Twenty-five grams of awesome!” Sorry, honey, but that’s less than an
ounce. The average ball of yarn weighs twice that at 50 grams. A vase that size
has got to weigh at least 20 times that, 500 grams, or about 1 pound. It might
weigh as much as a kilogram, 2.2 pounds.
While I don’t really expect copy writers to
know metric equivalents off the cuff, I think they should make some attempt to get it right. Being off
by a factor of 20 to 40 is inexcusable.
This is article 31 in a continuing series. © 2012 Christine
C. Janson
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