In response to our earlier tip on overuse of the definite article, a reader asks us to comment on the reverse problem of using nouns unadorned that would normally have an article or possessive pronoun attached. Good question! Here's an example of what our reader has in mind:

"Googoo makes fabrics their softest for you and baby!"

Here, "baby" (or in effect, "Baby") is being used as though it were your baby's first name. We immediately recognize this as yet another effort by ad copy writers to insinuate themselves and their products into unwarranted intimacy with their audience. To strangers, your baby is properly "your baby," not "Baby." Any reference to the latter ought to conjure up images of the leopard in the Cary Grant movie "Bringing Up Baby"--or maybe Huey (if it's a boy) or Ruth (if it's a girl).