It’s amazing the furore over a single apostrophe. Even if it was such an obvious clanger.

Myer’s now infamous use of ‘EARLY BIRD GET’S THE RIGHT SIZE’ on promotional signage for the retail chain’s post-Christmas sales seemed to generate some handy “unexpected hype” across social media, with the story being picked up by traditional news outlets and even followed up by Ten’s The Project.

Myer’s ‘response’ was predictably safe and I reckon you’d be hard-pressed to find any lasting damage being done to either the brand or the stores’ sales figures. One could even argue that the exposure served to draw awareness to Myer’s sales event in what is a typically crowded and saturated retail market at this time of year. Is anyone talking about DJ’s stocktake sales? Would any of us be this interested in Myer’s stock-standard campaign if it weren’t for this seemingly innocent punctuation error?

Fertile ground for a good ol’ conspiracy theory, methinks. After all, us PR peeps have to keep ourselves in a job, don’t we? Wouldn’t be the first time we swallowed a cheap stunt hook, line and sinker. Remember the ‘monster slipper’ or NAB’s embarrassing ‘mistweet’? And if one thing is sure to whip the Grammar Nazis into a frenzy, it’s the misuse of the humble little apostrophe. Works every time! DJ’s PR guys are probably kicking themselves that they didn’t think of it first.

Early bird gets the worm, indeed.