Captain Mixed-Metaphorical

Another mixed metaphor, this time from the slightly oleaginous Sir Martin Sorrell, chairman of the vast advertising and market research group, WPP:

"It's been a very gruelling year and next year is going to be more of the same. You're in the trenches and it's hand-to-hand combat. Corporates are not happy bunnies at the moment."

Hmm, unhappy bunnies in the trenches...

This one comes from a BBC report about Sorrell's views on tax.

Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States, was once asked about sin; after a period of reflection he remarked that he was "agin it."  I suspect that Sorrell's views on tax are similar  to the late president's.

Until the next time.

Metaphor Problems

It is, I suppose, hardly surprising that the market for new cars in Europe is in poor shape. With Germany having to support failing economies in southern Europe to a lesser or greater extent, and with 25% unemployment in Spain and so on, the purchase of a new car is not likely to be top of the list for many people.

Late last month there was a report by the BBC about the prevailing gloom amongst the motor-manufacturers that included this splendid statement from Sergio Marchionne, FIAT's boss:  

Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of Fiat Auto agrees. "The European car market is a disaster," he says.

"It has plunged off a precipice that doesn't seem to have bottomed out yet. The prospects are anything but rosy,"

There was once some correspondence in The Times about mixed metaphors that included a superb example where a professor accused another of "Propping up the scaffolding of a collapsing hypothesis with a red herring."  Marchonne's statement runs this one quite close I think.

Until the next time