I was at an international departure gate at Los Angeles International Airport.
The gate agent was completely serious when she announced, “Is there anyone here who does not speak English and needs an interpreter?”
Hey, that was a commercial.
It was a message intended to elicit a reaction that would accomplish a specific goal — identifying anyone in the gate area who didn’t understand English.
Think about your specific goal before you craft your radio commercial message.
It was only with extreme effort that I prevented myself from jumping up, grabbing the microphone, and saying, “If you speak and understand English and do not need an interpreter, please raise your hand.”
Then the gate agent could have looked for any passengers who hadn’t raised their hands.
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“Raise your hands if you can’t hear me at the back”
Poorly phrased, perhaps. But not necessarily dumb.
The possibility exists that there were people within hearing distance who either:
1. Could understand some English — and recognize the word “interpreter” –but not speak it well or
2. Spoke English just fine, but knew of someone nearby who was going to have a problem with it.
People in either of those groups might have understood the announcement well enough to give the required reaction.
What about someone who couldn’t speak English, but saw everyone around them raise their hands, so put their hand up as well. 🙂