Comments on: A taste of Dunglish junkfood

By: Natashka

Natashka — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:48:03 +0000

I never said a quesadilla or a taco was junkfood. I said KFC is junkfood.

McDonald’s is junk food, salads or no salads. The meat at KFC is so processed, you have no idea what you’re eating.

I’m not a health nut, but I don’t usually eat crap either. Is everything black or white to you?

By: Laura K.

Laura K. — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:00:34 +0000

I actually thought the KFC commercial was clever!
You must be a total healthy nut to think something as innocent as a quesedilla is JUNK FOOD! Is a taco junk food as well? Same family.

Although I must say I don’t agree with a CHICKEN place selling mexican food. As it is KFC not serving mashed potatoes but fries is just weird to me as an American living here.

So indulge me, what else do you consider to be junk food that isn’t? To most people junk food would be candy, ice cream, etc. Not a tortilla with veggies and meat inside!

Oh lemme guess, you also think anything from McDonald’s is junk food too…. sigh.

By: Larry

Larry — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:20:05 +0000

The KFC ad is clever, although you have to know Dutch to find the English funny, which raises the eternal question of why it has to be in English at all. Even the voiceover guy at the end barely uses any Dutch words.

@Carla: yes, the sheep/cheap pun doesn’t work. But sheep are not female by definition; ’sheep’ is any animal of the genus Ovis. A sheep can be a ewe or a ram. And it’s spelled ‘mascot’ in English.

By: Natashka

Natashka — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:30:04 +0000

I was going to do something on the sheep thing and now I see that maybe I should. Thanks for that!

CenZ? Ouch And I don’t what my insurance company making puns…

By: Carla Bakkum

Carla Bakkum — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:11:34 +0000

What amazes me is the magic potency that Dutch advertisers attribute to the English language. What company isn’t using an English slogan these days? Think of Philips’ “Sense and Simplicity” and Fortis’ “Here today, Where tomorrow?” Sometimes, though, they really get it wrong. Tele2 now advertises its telecom services through a mascotte named Frank. Frank is an upright walking and talking black ram, and the accompanying slogan is “Born to be Cheap”. Tele2 fails to realise that to a native English speaker’s ear, the words “cheap” and “sheep” are no more alike than the Dutch words “bed” and “pet” to a Dutch ear. They rhyme, but they are not homonyms. Moreover, a sheep is by definition female, so their mascotte should have been a she.

Another example is the magazine CZ produces for its customers: CenZ. This is supposed to sound like “sense”, and thus be a play on words, but it only sounds like “sense” if a Dutch person pronounces it. A native English speaker will pronounce the voiced “z” consonant at the end and fail to get the pun.

The companies don’t try these slogans out on native English speakers, because they are not the target group. The wordplay has to work for the Dutch ea

By: Koos

Koos — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:49:08 +0000

I saw it as well today and instantly thought “That’s one for Natasha”. I don’t like it at all, the Unox commercial I can find funny cause its clearly over the top. And if it had more creative linguistic plays then cool, but this is not my beef.

Perhaps I’m a bit biased as I’ve eaten there once and thought it was absolutely disgusting.