Punctuation Reveals Truth in advertising (Shallow Thoughts)

Punctuation Reveals Truth in advertising

This ad appeared in one of the free Santa Fe weeklies. It's got to be one of the funniest mis-uses of quotes I've seen.

Does she not know that putting quotes around something means that you're quoting someone, you're introducing an unfamiliar word or phrase, or you're trying to draw attention to the quoted phrase and cast doubt on it or make fun of it? That third use, by the way, is called scare quotes. Like you'd see in a phrase like this:

One expects lawyers to have a good command of English, and to pay attention to detail, so ... what should we think?

"Injured" isn't an unfamiliar word, so it has to be either the first or third use. And whether she's soliciting clients who only say they're injured, or she's casting doubt on the injury, it's hard not to read this as an offer to help people pretend to be injured to collect a payout.

Which I'm sure happens all the time ... but I don't think I've previously seen an ad implying it so strongly.