Re: A soothing advertisement (Spoiler)

On 27/05/25 14:51, Jeff Barnett wrote:

On 5/26/2025 10:11 PM, Peter Moylan wrote:

On 27/05/25 10:01, Jeff Barnett wrote:

On 5/24/2025 12:03 AM, Jeff Barnett wrote:

Many years ago, I would drive by the Los Angeles International airport
on the my way to work. Near there, visible from the freeway, was a
billboard advertisement for some SUV or pickup truck - I don't
remember which or the manufacturer. It caught my attention with these
three simple lines:
>
    Climb mountains
    Carry plywood
    Comb beaches (a play on beachcomber)
>
It has stuck in my mind like a little poem. I present it to you all as
a simple puzzle on what makes it coherent. I'll post my observation
after a while. BTW, I assume that many or most of the regulars in
these groups will catch on more quickly than I did.

>
It seems that the Hen was the only one curious about this. It took me a
while to become conscious of a phone trick: The place of articulation of
the first phonemes of the first words of each of the three lines is
velar; The place of articulation of the first phonemes of the second
words of each of the three lines is bilabial.

>
I did notice the pattern, but the pattern looked wrong to me. In my mind
the natural sequence of the bilabials is m, b, p, so the slogan should
have been something like
>
     Climb mountains
     Carry broomsticks
     Cuddle pigs.
>
I'm still not sure about the sequence of vowels in the first words.

The problem with your version as opposed to the original, is the former was trying to advertise vehicles.

I realise that, but I couldn't think of words that the advertising people would approve of.

I'm curious: Why are you mention vowels in the first words? If the  > vowels did match in some way too, we would have some variation of >

rhyme but of first syllables along with rhythm.
I wasn't trying for rhyme, but for some notion of "natural sequence". Perhsps it would sound better if the vowels moved stepwise from front to back, or from high to low, or something like that.
--
Peter Moylan       peter@pmoylan.org    http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW