What you need to know
- Is it pronounced 'gif,' like gift, or 'jif,' like 'jiffy'?
- Jif is partnering up with GIF-hosting site GIPHY to sell the debate once and for all.
- Special-edition Jif / Gif jars available at Amazon.
Peanut butter brand Jif has had it with people misappropriating its name for those fun mini-videos with no sound. So, it's turned to GIPHY, one of the biggest sites for hosting these animated memes, to settle the pronunciation debate once and for all.
And if you've ever made the cardinal mistake of proncounding GIF with a soft G, the company forgives you:
In fact, the peanut butter brand is so confident in the pronunciation, that it has partnered with GIPHY to offer special limited-edition jars on Amazon to commemorate National Peanut Butter Lover's Day on March 1st.
But our crack-team of investigative peanut butter journalists (i.e., yours truly) has discovered a history of deceit on the confectionery brand's part.
Just a few years ago, the company was proud to be a namesake with the popular animation format on the web, and proclaimed its undying love for the creator of the format, Steve Wilhite, when he took to the stage of the Webby Awards with a simple message: "It's pronounced 'jif' not 'gif.'"
We're nuts about him! RT @AlanKercinik: So, how much does @Jif love Steve Wilhite today?We're nuts about him! RT @AlanKercinik: So, how much does @Jif love Steve Wilhite today?— Jif® Peanut Butter (@Jif) May 22, 2013May 22, 2013
Obviously, the big peanut lobby has gotten to both Jif and GIPHY, and this flip-flop by the company is the latest sign of a confectionary system mired in corruption. We need a confectionary revolution where the top one-tenth of 1% doesn't tell the bottom 90% how to pronounce the word which, as their creator intended, is obviously with a soft G, as in 'jif.'
Anyone who says otherwise is simply an agent of the status quo and has been bought out by the peanut-industrial complex.
