Nicola Sturgeon doesn't understand what "stay alert" means, but expects the thousands of new-scots for whom English is a second language to instinctively understand #KeepTheHeid
Why has she chosen that phrase?...
Why has she chosen that phrase?...
As a public safety notice, it's less than optimal, it's ineffective; It's not in clear language that can easily be understood by the largest amount of people.
There are many guidelines, plenty of advice out there from academics, the NHS, UK government, EU advice, talking about using 'plain language' for effective communication.
This fails their tests
This fails their tests
So what is being done here? Surely if the SNP have competence in *anything* it's message. I find it hard to believe they genuinely found "stay alert" head-bobbingly incomprehensible, and #KeepTheHeid clearer.
There's a good chance they started with the UK message and desperately looked for ways to make it different and Scottish; mebbes it's a direct translation of / they started brainstorming with "keep calm and carry on" ?
But who are the audience, and what is the purpose?
The phrase is used; and will be readily understood by, a sub-section of Scottish Society, working to lower middle class Scots raised here, and those that effect to be so.
The phrase is used; and will be readily understood by, a sub-section of Scottish Society, working to lower middle class Scots raised here, and those that effect to be so.
Target and core voters; not new Scots, not posh Scots, not Scots raised in other parts of the UK. Not Unionists who don't feel obliged to teach kids how to write mock Scots dialects in school.
Certainly not the many, many European and international Scots for whom English is already a second language.
It is, intact, one of the 12 Populist tactics; it's "folksy man of the people posturing'
You might call it "Vox Godley" , where a middle-class lawyer revels in being represented as a Glasgow fish-wife
A nod and a wink to all the nationalists pure ragin' they weren't brought up speaking Gaelic. And who are traveling to find yoons triggered by it.
It's an auld tradition; look up "synthetic Scots" : SNP founder Hugh McDiarmid ( real name Christopher Murray-Grieve, wrote 'Plea for a Scottish Fascism') , a fake colloquium designed purley to invent a fake national rural past character to call back to.
What it tells us is: when designing a public health motto, they were certainly thinking about 'Scots' ; just not all of us.
I genuinely wonder if the first suggestion was #FuirichRabhadh
Anyway: wash your hands, maintain distance, wear masks, stay alert ...and #KeepTheHeid
I genuinely wonder if the first suggestion was #FuirichRabhadh
Anyway: wash your hands, maintain distance, wear masks, stay alert ...and #KeepTheHeid
QED
Addenda; even giving the benefit of the doubt that it's Scots : at the 2011 census
"3.2 million said they have no Scots ability (age 3 and over)."
"3.2 million said they have no Scots ability (age 3 and over)."
And those wondering why it's fair to criticize, might consider what Nicola Sturgeon said about "stay alert" 
