Fritalian

I don’t actually see many commercials, what with the TiVo and the Netflix and all, but the other day I saw a Dunkin Donuts commercial that made my eyeballs bleed from the sheer offensiveness of it all.

The commercial shows unhappy looking people ordering latte and cappucino and other specialty coffees. They complain

My mouth can’t form these words. My mind can’t find these words. Is it French or is it Italian? Perhaps Fritalian.

At this point, my eyeballs hurt from the pain but do not yet bleed. Making fun of foreign “unpronounceable” words is nasty. But then they offer you Dunkin Donuts, a place where you can order your latte without resorting to foreign words.

Read that again. Latte. Without foreign words. Feel the blood dripping from eyeballs? Yes you do.

So is this some sort of irony? Is DD saying their customers are SO FUCKING STUPID that they don’t know “latte” is a foreign word? Does this oh so clever irony thereby justify and excuse making fun of nasty-sounding ferriners? (No.)

And I’m bothered because if you know me, you know I loves me some plebian. And therefore, the fact that I actually prefer plain ol’ Dunkin to a fancy Starbucks coffee delights me. And this commercial is clearly designed to establish plebian cred. Clearly designed with the assumption that plebian=ignorant xenophobic slob. Which is more than disturbing.

And p.s., while I was googling for a link to the video, I found I am not the only blogger offended by this bit of nasty.

3 comments

  1. Boston Homer says:

    I think you’re missing the point here…they’re making fun of ordering grandes and ventes words made up by starbucks marketing so they could charge more for coffee.

    I’m glad that you loves some plebians…maybe you should accept the fact that you are one, not that there’s anything wrong with that. And like most anonomous dimwits you need the comfort of others “offended” by a dumb commercial to cement your self-aggranzized view of your self. Enjoy your vante for 2 bucks more.

  2. deblipp says:

    Boston Homer, you are so pleased to insult me with your standard anti-blogger rhetoric that you refer to me as an “anonymous dimwit.” Certainly a commonplace on blogs but I’d bet good money that “Boston Homer” is a pseudonym, whereas it is verifiable that Deborah Lipp is not.

    So I guess there’s only one anonymous dimwit here, albeit one with a fairly well-exercised vocabulary. Enjoy a cruller with that self-aggrandizement why dontcha?

  3. Bob says:

    Actually, you missed the point. The DD customes recognized that the menu at Starbucks IS NOT IN A REAL LANGUAGE! It is mae up corpo-speak for sheeples that will get their stupid herd brains justify spending more $ for inferior beans that are over roasted to hide their cheap quality. It is brilliant You? Well, you bought it.

    Besides, Latte is not Italian for the drink–that uis an ENglish slang. Order latte in Italy and you’ll get a glass of milk.
    Fritalian= OT French and NOT Italian.