1

For example, when trying to describe a product or service on a landing page, how do you arrange the commas and quotes?

Concrete example:

[clip art describing your product here]

Think, 'Uber meets laundry'!

Does any part of that sentence belong in quotes? Should there be a comma after the word 'think'?

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2
  • There's a past question on Apple's slogan "think different" which might provide clues. There are various interpretations of what "think different" might mean.
    – Stuart F
    Jun 30, 2022 at 15:44
  • I voted to close because I think that in advertising, one can choose any look that strikes one's fancy.
    – aparente001
    Jul 1, 2022 at 3:06

2 Answers 2

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2

Merriam-Webster perhaps comes close to this usage of 'think':

think [transitive verb] ...

8a: to center one's thoughts on

  • talks and thinks business

But even this isn't quite the same. A paraphrase of the example in the question might be

  • [To help you conceptualise this,] imagine a state of affairs where Uber meets laundry!

Possibly the next subsense listed by M-W is what we're after:

8b: to form a mental picture of

I'd compare

  • (1) Think Uber meets laundry!

with the quote structure

  • (2) Say/Write/Shout "Uber meets laundry!"

Notice that I've used the usual inverted commas in (2) to offset the spoken etc text, but have opted for zero introductory punctuation (no comma or colon) as I feel this better reflects the actual delivery. See the linked articles at the related thread How to punctuate one-word quotes in a sentence for endorsement of zero introductory punctuation before quotes (etc).

But in (1), the internalised dialogue is better represented in my opinion by italicisation (often used this way, but perhaps unusual with imperative sentences). See the linked article by Marcy Kennedy in her blog post "How to Format Internal Dialogue' in Jason Bassford's answer to 'What is an indirect dialogue?' here. Again, I consider an introductory comma unnecessary and poorly representative here.

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5
  • I agree, but can one also consider that "Think" here means "Like", and that the whole is not an imperative sentence, or even a full sentence for that matter? (You can see this if you apply this kind of "think" in the middle of a sentence.
    – Řídící
    Jun 30, 2022 at 15:04
  • OP gives a complete imperative sentence.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Jun 30, 2022 at 15:07
  • Is it wrong to treat "Think" and "Like" interchangeably here? Ie, would that change the structure of the sentence?
    – Řídící
    Jun 30, 2022 at 15:15
  • @Řídící They don't feel interchangeable to me. To me, "like" would be telegraphese for "It's like", where "think" really is an imperative.
    – user888379
    Jun 30, 2022 at 15:43
  • 1
    The Merriam-Webster entry is in the right area. It's definitely an imperative telling you to direct your thoughts in a certain direction, although it's more common to use "think of X", think about X", or (in the US) "think on X". "Think about Uber-meets-laundry!" would be less contentious. I'd suspect it's influenced by the directness of other slogans like "choose X" or "buy X", as well as the ones you mention. And there was "Think Pink!" (a song) back in the 1950s where you are not merely short and direct, but also rhyming.
    – Stuart F
    Jun 30, 2022 at 15:50
2

Think [no comma] [no quotes]Uber meets laundry[no quotes]!

Think is an imperative.

Uber meets laundry is an object.

The grammatical structure is the same as

Buy our roast chicken!

Say you love me!

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