It might sound downright military, but when you take ads over the phone, the phonetic alphabet is your best friend. Without it, that Yamaha YZF250 can become something entirely different! It’s amazing how similar a Z can sound like a C over the phone, and a sneaky F can sometimes masquerade as an S. A 15 can transform into a 16 or even a 50.

Whether its an ad for a motorcycle or just a random song lyric, it’s funny how often we mishear things. And it’s a common enough phenomenon that there’s a name for it: a misheard phrase, word or lyric is called a mondegreen. It’s most common to mishear the words to popular songs; in fact, there are websites completely devoted to misheard lyrics. Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising seems to indicate that “there’s a bathroom on the right” rather than “there’s a bad moon on the rise”. And it’s surprising how often Jimi Hendrix was thought to have sung “excuse me while I kiss this guy” rather than “excuse me while I kiss the sky”.

So when we read your ad back at you don’t let a little phonetic action faze you. It’s as simple as Alpha Bravo Charlie: we’re just trying to make sure that we’re saying exactly what you’d like us to.