Friday, January 23, 2009

1-800-GOT-FRENCH?


In a letter to the editor in Thursday's La Presse, a one very irate André Dumaine complained that the company 1-800-GOT-JUNK was an affront to the French language because of the very flamboyant signage on their truck. He takes the OLF to task for rejecting his complaint. It seems that the company is within it's rights, since it is displaying it's corporate trademark, which is allowed under the law. Not good enough, proclaims our vigilante! The law must be changed to eliminate such overt threats to the French landscape of Quebec!
Well, last year the OLF announced that due to budgetary constraints, their ability to make inspections was hampered. It got me to thinking that M. Dumaine and other like-minded defenders of the faith, could help out the Commission by acting as volunteer OLF inspectors. In fact, I'm sure there are thousands of others who would love the idea of bringing similar offending companies to justice.
Perhaps a month of training in the summer, a uniform and a contravention book is all that's needed to get this loyal and indispensable crew out into the field. I bet that they can even offer some useful suggestions to Frenchify those corporate names that contain English references.

May I get the ball rolling by suggesting,"1.800.COCHONNERIE" and perhaps these;

Apple = "POMME"
Tommy Hillfiger- "TOMMY COTELIGGER"
Microsoft "MICROMOLLE"
Burger King "ROI DU L'HAMBURGER"
Canadian Tire "PNEU CANADIEN"
Shell "COQUILLE"
Any other suggestions?

1 comment:

  1. Subway : Voie sous-terraine

    Mister Sub: Monsieur sous

    rue Cockburn: rue de la Graine qui pique.

    Alfred Hitchcock: Alfred Les parties me démagent.

    Westmount: Le mont de l'Ouest

    Independant Grocer Association (IGA): Association des épiciers indépendants (AÉI)

    Laidlaws: Lois de congédiement

    Dairy Queen: La reine laitière

    Adam Foote: Adam Pied

    Pat Burns: Patrick Brûlé

    Johnny Stone: Jean Lapierre

    ReplyDelete