How about Ford's logo: Go further. Shouldn't it be:Go farther
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1Why do you think it should be father rather than further?– user 66974Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 19:31
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There's a huge cultural association with using further regarding road trips. Furthur. I can only assume Ford wanted the figurative implicature.– Phil SweetCommented Aug 18, 2020 at 19:57
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There’s a long history of using slightly (or more) grammatically “off” phrases in advertising. Winston tastes good like a cigarette should. Think different. I’m lovin’ it.– XanneCommented Aug 18, 2020 at 20:02
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Shouldn’t it be go farther? No, that’s boring. And boring is the last thing we want. “We have the meats!”– XanneCommented Aug 18, 2020 at 20:04
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Does this answer your question? When should "farther" and "further" be used?– livresqueCommented Aug 19, 2020 at 1:46
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1 Answer
Merriam-Webster on "further" vs. "farther":
For much of their history the words have been used interchangeably. As adverbs, they still are interchangeable when applied to distance (of the spatial, temporal, and metaphorical varieties). Many usage guides will still recommend the aforementioned distinction of farther for literal distance and further for figurative, but there is enough recently published evidence of the figurative use of farther that it is difficult to say it is a mistake.
So you are asking that, if Ford is an automotive company designed to make people go far, why is their slogan using "further," the term more commonly used to describe figurative distance?
I would say that Ford's slogan is not meant to speak to the company's literal purpose, in which "farther" would be appropriate. From a business standpoint, the slogan is meant to make the reader see beyond just the distance that its vehicles cover, and be motivated to go "further" in whatever aspect of life that Ford's services can assist in. The key here is branding - Ford wants you to associate the Ford brand name and its offerings with drive (no pun intended), inspiration, and self-improvement.
To evidence that, here is a quote from a Forbes interview of a Ford executive.
'What we aim to do is inspire behavior,' Matt VanDyke, Ford's director of global communications, told me. "Go Further" is "more than an advertising tagline. We want to institutionalize it as part of our culture.
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It still sounds weird to me. I would instincitvely have used "farther" to refer to distance of any sort, literal or figurative, and "further" for everything else. The only example that comes to mind is "further more".– DKNguyenCommented Aug 18, 2020 at 20:34
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The terms are technically interchangeable as adverbs as MW says, but I would agree that in the modern tongue, "farther" has been used almost completely in relation to physical distance and "further" has been used only for addition or figurative distance. I just assume that Ford went based on the common uses of either word (i.e. usage guides, media use of further/farther) in order to appeal to the masses with the slogan. Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 20:43