I am aware that Dibor is a French-style Home Accessories retailer. And I did manage to pass my French GCSE, and even though that was a long time ago now, I do still remember the odd word here and there. So I totally see what they were getting at here. I do. I really do.
But I still think this bread-board is pretty funny.
“Uh-oh, what do you use THAT for?”
Be prepared to hear that a lot
Somewhere, a designer is laughing at how clever he (thinks he) is.
(I would definitely have that in my house. If only to count the raised eyebrows.)
Claim you use it to beat your children
Oh my – I love it!
“Talkin’ outta turn. That’s a paddlin’. Lookin’ out the window. That’s a paddlin’. Starin’ at my sandals. That’s a paddlin’. Paddlin’ the school canoe. Oh, you better believe that’s a paddlin’.”
LOL. All I could think was, “BDSM.”
I love that we’re all seeing the same thing here.
Do you think they know what they’ve done? Or are they such Francophiles that they just can’t see it?
I’d love to think it was a bit tongue in cheek (not *that* cheek of course!) but I fear at the product meeting, the conversation did not go like this:
“Let’s call it M. Spanky!”
“Mais non – we shall use ze leetle grey cells an’ call him Pain; zose British, zey love ze double entendre….not zat we know what zis ees – zey made it up to make zemselves look like zey ‘ave ze culture.”
I suspect it was more like….
“So Norma, what shall we put on this fine bread board?”
“Well, John, since we are a Frenchlish company, let’s put ‘pain’ on it – it’s Frenchist for bread, y’know. Then our customers can feel they have a little bit of a paysanneishness in their kitchen, and when Felicity and Jeremy invite their chums over, they can pretend they bought it in Provence!”
“Oh Norma, you are so clever!”
~~~
Not clever enough to put Frenchist on this however….
http://www.dibor.co.uk/Product.asp?ProductId=T446
… perhaps ‘nourriture pour chien’ was too large to fit onto the side of the tin!
Frenchlish! I love it!
Frenchlish! That’s brilliant! I want to learn to speak Frenchlish, damn it!
That’s great, I would totally have that hanging in my kitchen. But then I am the one with the welcome mat that says “You again?” – it’s sad but it really tickles me