Is it pronounced with a hard “g” like “gift,” or is it a soft “g” like “gym”? That’s been the ongoing debate about GIFs—the animated images we’ve all infused into our text exchanges and social media comment threads in recent years.
Of course it was only a matter of time before peanut butter brand Jif would get in on the conversation. The company partnered with GIF database Giphy on a recent marketing campaign weighing in on the linguistic debate. The stunt isn’t limited to a whole spread of GIFs showing off the peanut butter brand. It’s also producing a limited-edition jar labeled with “Gif” on one side and “Jif” on the other.
Beneath the “Gif” logo is this text: “Animated Looping Images: Hard G Pronunciation.” That doesn’t sound like opening up the floor for debate as much as banging the gavel and calling this case closed.
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For what it’s worth, we polled our 225 Instagram followers on this very topic last year, and 66% of respondents favored that hard “g” pronunciation, too.
Adweek has the full story on the marketing campaign behind it. And check out this Eater piece slamming the stunt for resurrecting this tired debate.