Variations on the same advertising theme/Variations sur le même thème.

Back in 2008, I was very pleasantly surprised during a winter stop at a Grouse Mountain restaurant, in Vancouver, B.C. The milk they served was called Milk 2 Go.

En 2008, j’avais attiré l’attention du lecteur de mon blogue sur une publicité très ingénieuse trouvée sur une bouteille de lait. J’avais trouvé l’appellation anglaise originale mais le français Lait’s Go vraiment bien réussie.

I thought this was original and snappy. Even more snappy was the French panel, which made a FrEnglish pun by using Lait’s Go. The proper word for Milk but the sound of Let’s go.

Yesterday, in a different eating establishment in Ontario, I picked up a dessert made by the following/ Hier, à Toronto, j’ai trouvé un dessert portant l’étiquette suivante:

On the Go                                                         Emporte-moi

Quick Cuisine                                                                                      Cuisine rapide

The French side had been handled differently. It was no longer a brand  but a company name which would suggest ease of taking the food out: “Emporte-moi”, said the label – which means take me along. The only thing different is that the familiar “tu” pronoun had been used instead of the more formal “vous”.  The order of the words certainly worked graphically i.e. large type followed by small type. Unfortunately, the adjectival portion should have come AFTER the generic descriptive.

La graphie de la partie française  l’avait emporté sur la grammaire. On tutoie le client (pas toujours très malin) et on ne respecte pas la syntaxe française : Cuisine rapide : Emporte-moi.

Creatively, the Lait’s Go was a greater success which, I believe, would make the customer smile as he/she picks up the product. The On the Go label is just that – a label, which does not add any additional glamour or prestige to the product. The customer would pick-up the product and only later, realize, maybe, that it was from a company named “Emporte-moi”.

L’approche  adoptée sur la bouteille de lait avait très bien réussi – on avait l’envie d’en prendre une avec un sourire aux lèvres. Quant au dessert, eh-bien je l’ai emporté aussi, mais pas parce que la publicité m’en avait donné l’envie.

Conclusion: French advertising better in British Columbia than in Ontario?  I do not know, but as a linguist one impressed me and the other just left me cold.

Conclusion: La publicité française trouvée en Colombie-Britannique était mieux réussie que celle que j’ai trouvée en Ontario. Commentaires ?