I was sat watching the television when an advert for Specsavers came on. I was quite surprised when the voiceover started, “Specsavers are…”
I didn’t actually listen to anything else they said because it jarred with me. (Ironically the ad would appear to have been a ‘hearing’ ad, and not for their vision products!)
When we write for companies, we would always treat the company as a single entity – and therefore, an ‘is’.
A quick call to their press office and I had their formal line on this: the house style is that “Specsavers is”. It appears that the TV ad was wrong, which the head of editing made clear had slipped through the net. It’s not surprising – they tell me that more than 2.5million words of copy go past the Specsavers editing team each year. That’s a lot of words.
I went online and had a look at their website to see how they refer to themselves, and it is as an ‘is’. And then I checked YouTube and found the offending advert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF5-qf_EpKI
Rules for referring to companies in PR and copywriting
So, what are the rules? We will always follow a company’s style guide if there is one. But otherwise we’ll adopt these basic rules:
A company is an ‘is’ not an ‘are’ – because it is a single entity.
PR Centre is making a name for itself in the world of press release writing… ✔
PR Centre are making a name for itself in the world of press release writing… X
Therefore the company ‘has’ success rather than ‘have’ success.
PR Centre has been writing successful press releases for… ✔
PR Centre have been writing successful press releases for… X
If we were talking about opticians as a plural, then we may say ‘have’ or ‘are’. If it’s being referred to as a group of opticians, then we’re back to a single entity – so ‘is’ or ‘has’.
The opticians are learning about words. ✔
The group of opticians is learning about words. X
We will always use ‘we’ if we are talking in the first person; talking as if we are the company, which is friendly and engaging. But sometimes when more formality is required, the company can be an ‘it’ – the third person.
In our press release, we were keen to point out that…
In its press release, it was keen to point out that…
If your releases are a bit mixed up, well – you should have gone to PR Centre.