colon hyphen right parenthesis

On my ridiculously long drive home this afternoon, an advertisement for a diamond store came on the radio. I was listening to the all-news AM station to hear what was going on with the traffic. I generally listen to a station that is mostly commercial-free so I wasn't paying attention to the beginning of the ad but towards the end, the uber annoying voice said:

'colon hyphen right parenthesis'

Colon hyphen right parenthesis? Colon hyphen right parenthesis? I must have said it 20 times in my head before I realized what it meant.

Perhaps you are quicker than I am (and trust me, I'm not stupid) and got it right away. This is the verbal equivalent of a smiley :-).

Do they think they're cool because they verbalized the emoticon in a radio commercial for diamonds??? I don't get it.

Perhaps I am not cool and this is the wave of the future. sigh.

SunnyShine
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RainyBow note: Colon left parenthesis.