> > I am the same way, but it isn't because I'm pedantic. It is because the company obviously employs people who are incompetent, stupid, don't care about their work, or all three at once, which leads me to fear the quality of their actual product/service.
>
> You're generalizing the employees. Maybe it's just the marketing department, and the product is excellent. I would look for a review of the product (if it interested me at all), not base my judgement on a small error in an ad.

Well, yes, it is generalising. But I still think it's valid. And even if it isn't, the fact remains that a shoddy advertisement which looks like it was made by the CEO's 10-year-old nephew is going to reflect badly on the product.

Obviously if I'm making a major purchase, I will look into the product in detail. But *first*, I will probably rule out all the companies who don't appear to be professional. I might get this impression from word of mouth, or past experience with some of them, or yes, from their advertising.

If we're not talking about major purchases, then crappy mispelled home-made advertising is even more important as a factor. Are you saying, when faced with two cans of peaches in a supermarket aisle at the same price, you'd buy one with a label printed out on a dot matrix printer with a clipart picture of a peach and stuck to the can with tape, instead of one with a glossy label from a big well-known company? Ok, that's a silly example, but my point is that companies with forty typos on their newspaper ad and a hand-painted sign over their door ARE going to create a bad impression compared to the competition, and I think that is justified.

Whatever you think of the marketing industry, it is part of running a business. If a company chooses to ignore that, it doesn't matter a whole lot if their product *is* good, because they're losing a lot of their potential customers right from the start.