"So get your gear on London" - errr... comma?!

[plutocrap]

This ad, for some marathon or other, made it sound as though people were being encouraged to chuck all their running gear into a heap on top of poor old "London".

Grrr... Lack of commas annoys me!

[CopyAllWrite]

Can't see that a comma anywhere in that line would make much difference actually.

[plutocrap]

Surely it should be: "So get your gear on, London."

[Petrean]

Uuumm I don't think there should be a comma between on and London.

[CopyAllWrite]

What are they actually trying to say? Whatever it is, they're doing it badly.

[CountBapula]

Yes, there should be a comma there. It's called a vocative comma.

[CopyAllWrite]

Are they very clumsily, trying to "tell London" to get people out in their gear? Whatever; there is no comma.

I wonder what marketing genius came up with that line?!

[CountBapula]

They're trying to say, '[People of] London! Get your gear on!'.

Because there's no comma, it sounds like they want the reader to dress the city of London in sweatpants ('on' acting as a preposition). They need the comma to show they're speaking to London.

If you replace 'London' with 'Fred' it's easier to see the difference.

[plutocrap]

Thank you, all! I suppose very few people have any idea what a vocative is!

CountBapula, I'd never heard that term - I knew it as "apostrophe" - but I suppose that's Greek to your "vocative comma"'s Latin!

[OhChristFenton]

I was wondering whether there should be one after 'so' also, but then I am a bit extravagant with commas.

[plutocrap]

Oughtn't you to have two commas in that username of yours, OCF?

[OhChristFenton]

I, would, if, I, could

[plutocrap]

I read something recently, by a pedant, who bemoaned the fact that the lovely semicolon had been demoted to serving smilies.

Quite right to complain about that, too; I love semicolons!

[Petrean]

Oooohhh I see! It's very stupid statement. Someone probably paid an advertising executive an absolute fortune for said stupid statement.