There's a Subaru ad running now in which they use the term "bleep-holes." We're to assume that "bleep" stands in for "ass" in this case. I feel the need to let them know: that just sounds silly.
I understand where they're coming from. As a child, I briefly tried using the word "bleep" as a stand-in for profanity; it's a tempting way to bridge the gap between personal politeness and a society that wants you to show tokens of rebellion. But they'll learn - as I did - that it doesn't work. It's a redundancy that substitutes one symbolic sound for another, thus exposing the arbitrary nature of linguistic associations. And it just sounds stupid. You're making a mechanical sound as part of a sentence and hoping it sounds a little bit badass. Oh I'm sorry, bad-bleep.
It's worse in this ad, since they're trying to sound humanizingly cynical. But instead they come off as patronizingly artificial. So please, Subaru, even if it is suited to your adorably dorky image, please stop making a fool of yourself.
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