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Battle of the brands as Irn-Bru drags Snickers over tweet mocking the Welsh language

04 Mar 2020 2 minute read
Irn-Bru picture by Loren Kerns (CC BY 2.0) . Snickers picture by Bodo (CC BY 2.0).

Irn-Bru has roasted Snickers over a tweet claiming the Welsh language reads as if “someone sat on a keyboard”.

The Scotland-based fizzy drink’s Twitter account turned Snickers’ own “You’re not you when you’re hungry” motto against it.

Responding to Snicker’s apology over the deleted messages, Irn-Bru tweeted: “How do you say ‘You’re Not You When You’re Hungry’ in Welsh? Asking for a friend.”

The Snickers account had earlier come under fire after tweeting out: “A place in Wales or someone sat on a keyboard?” It then tweeted out Welsh place-names including Penmaenmawr and the incorrectly spelt ‘Rhosullanrugog’.

Snickers UK – which is made by confectionery giant Mars- published the tweets just before 12pm and then quickly deleted, and an apology was published at 2am.

The apology read: “From everyone at Snickers UK we’re sorry to everyone offended by our last tweet, we totally misjudged it and hold our hands up for that.

“We are hugely and wholeheartedly thankful for all our Welsh fans in the UK and all over the world, and promise not to let ill-informed Tweets ruin this relationship any further.”

Snickers first attempt at an apology upset people further after it light-heartedly brushed off the criticism, tweeting: “Obviously, we need a Snickers. We love the Welsh.”

 

‘Offensive’

Many were however not impressed with the apology, saying they were tired of seeing the same old jokes made about the Welsh language.

Welsh-language author Bethan Gwanas tweeted: “Sick of it. Seen/heard the same old joke so many times. Dripping tap syndrome. Enough/digon. Ooh – look – more letters in English than Welsh to say the same thing, there.”

Elin Heledd Rowlands said: “So confused as to why and how you came up with the idea for this. If you would have even googled ‘making fun of Welsh language’ you would see how serious we take it and how offensive it is. We constantly have to defend our first language, that people refer to as ‘pointless’ etc.”

Others, however, did not see what the fuss was about. ‘WriterinWaiting’ tweeted: “Thanks wokeness. We can’t even laugh at the Welsh now.”


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A Prophecy is Buried in Eglwyseg
A Prophecy is Buried in Eglwyseg
4 years ago

Polish survived after 20 uprisings
Portugal survived by pushing back Spain
Georgian has survived.
After a 9 year war of independence, Greek survived.
I wish it were otherwise. Your language’s survival is not a right. Cornish vanished when they stopped fighting back.

Johnny Gamble
Johnny Gamble
4 years ago

A Nation that surrenders dies, but a Nation that goes down fighting will always rise again from the ashes.
Also as some people pointed out on the other article about this a very stupid name change for a bar of chocolate.

Jonathan Gammond
Jonathan Gammond
4 years ago

Poland survived and it was a multilingual country until WW2. Likewise Greece. Wales has many similarities to Georgia except one: the latter has a better cuisine!! Portugal had a lucky escape and Spain, of course, is a multilingual state built up of former kingdoms which looked in very different directions politically, culturally and economically. Cornish was a matter of economics and demographics. Not everything is decided by ‘fighting’ or ‘fighting back’. If it were Jeremy Corbyn would the PM of a Socialist Workers Party government.

Nathan Abrams
Nathan Abrams
4 years ago

Free Snickers for all Welsh speakers by means of apology.

John
John
4 years ago
Reply to  Nathan Abrams

Diolch!

Kiah Jeffries
Kiah Jeffries
4 years ago
Reply to  Nathan Abrams

I don’t like snickers ?

John Ellis
John Ellis
4 years ago
Reply to  Kiah Jeffries

Me neither.

R Evans
R Evans
4 years ago
Reply to  Nathan Abrams

Mars bar instead?lol

John Ellis
John Ellis
4 years ago
Reply to  R Evans

More tempting. But as I’ve got matginally raised cholesterol and I’m trying to reduce my sugar intake, maybe not!

j humphrys
j humphrys
4 years ago
Reply to  Nathan Abrams

Ha ha, good one, Nathan! Apple or banana best, though.

Ceri
Ceri
4 years ago

A rather lazy joke met with a far wittier response, exactly what was needed. Did this gag bring the walls of our culture crumbling down? No. Was it a smart marketing move to resort to hacky xenophobic click bait? Also no. The snickers tweet may exemplify a malaise which bubbles beneath the surface of the ‘British’ (see English) identity – that culture is only of worth in a utilitarian sense. Ugly and dangerous. The snickers tweet was, at worst, a little burp breaking the surface, rather than a massive eruption. Deciding our own future resolves this issue. This kind of… Read more »

Jonathan Gammond
Jonathan Gammond
4 years ago
Reply to  Ceri

It must be a very boring job being the twitter feed for one of these corporate giants and every so often one of the tweeters goes ‘postal’ usually with embarrassing consequences for their company. What more is there to say about confectionery after a few tweets?

Eric Winnert
4 years ago

Honestly, the “Twitter storms” as I hear they are called are far more entertaining than the actual original tweet.

Derek Jones
Derek Jones
4 years ago

‘Welsh’ is derived from a Saxon invader’s (Germanic) word meaning ‘foreigner’ and used by the invaders to describe the people whose land they were taking. There is a long list of persecution they have perpetrated against the Brythons/Cymry such as forbidding them to; marry, trade, seek justice in courts of law, own property, write or speak their own language and much more. Welsh royalty were decimated by continual cheating, assassination, execution, life-long imprisonment (from infants to aged) and replaced in title by Saxon and Norman nobility for financial gain and power. Latterly, our children were humiliated for speaking their mother… Read more »

John Ellis
John Ellis
4 years ago
Reply to  Derek Jones

You might well have added the origins of your own surname to your list. When I was young I remember being told that about every fourth person in Wales had the surname ‘Jones’, and that Jones was therefore a Welsh name. But when I first came to live in Wales and, in time, gathered that the Welsh alphabet doesn’t have the letter ‘j’, I realized that could hardly be the case. It took me a while longer to get a handle on the real reason, which was alleged to be as follows: when English landowners acquired Welsh estates, they frequently… Read more »

Gavin Alexander
Gavin Alexander
4 years ago
Reply to  Derek Jones

A fine speech, Derek Jones, and one that applies in many ways to Scotland’s experience of England and English lords. So, I have every sympathy with our Welsh cousins and wish you all the best.

Rhys Thomas
Rhys Thomas
4 years ago
Reply to  Derek Jones

Excellent riposte. Most English people especially those that have made Wales their home are very supportive of the Welsh language. I believe that the Welsh are a very welcoming and friendly race. I believe that English people in general should realise that both countries share a joint heritage and English companies and some individuals that make a mockery of the Welsh language are actually being offensive to their own kith and kin.There are millions of English people living in England who have a Welsh DNA. Personally I believe that Welsh history should be taught in English counties that border Wales… Read more »

Dafyd
Dafyd
4 years ago
Reply to  Derek Jones

Good posts, I wish they could get published as articles on a major new website where the people who most need to read them would at least be forced to notice the headlines.

Martin Vowell, France
Martin Vowell, France
4 years ago
Reply to  Derek Jones

Very well said. Dillon yn fawr iawn.

Derrick Jones
Derrick Jones
4 years ago

When is a joke not a joke? When it’s aimed at the very roots of your culture, your first language. We Welsh are a nation that have undergone systematic linguistic genocide at the hands of England’s rulers and Parliaments for dozens of generations. Small wonder, then, that so many of us are heartily fed up with the hackneyed English mindset of poking fun at anyone who speaks Welsh, or even English with a Welsh accent. We are proud of our mother tongue, it is part of who we are. When our language is disrespected, we, quite rightly, feel disrespected. How… Read more »

John Ellis
John Ellis
4 years ago
Reply to  Derrick Jones

I suspect the fact that the comment was posted at midnight rather than in working hours reveals that some mildly intoxicated prat posted the comment when he staggered home from the pub. That someone back-tracked on the post within three hours, even though it was the middle of the night, is in my opinion rather encouraging. Snickers need to ensure that their staff only post comments in working hours, when – hopefully! – their heads are together.

R Evans
R Evans
4 years ago

I think people take offense too easily these days! Cant even take a laugh at ourselves, even if it is the same old joke!

Tudor Rees
Tudor Rees
4 years ago

The juvenile jibe by Snickers about the Welsh language, serves to remind us of the problems anglophiles have with other cultures and languages, in the multilingual, multicultural world we live in. The worrying aspect of this, is that our masters in Westminster have now decided to pursue new trade agreements with other countries, and gone are the heady days of Empire when they could dictate favorable terms to subservient governments, with Scotland, Wales and part of Ulster being among the few that remain in this category. Just as the USA, where Mars /Snickers are based, gave us a xenophobic anglophile… Read more »

Gez Taylor
Gez Taylor
4 years ago

I’m a Welsh speaker, living in Wales, bred in Wales and born In England of a, Welsh mother (and have Welsh maternal lineage going back forever) , and an English father whose grandmother was a Scot and whose Grandfather was Irish, from County Clare.
I had not heard the keyboard joke before and found it mildly amusing. . Would this be because of my heritage?
.

Lorna Sandvid
Lorna Sandvid
4 years ago

There is not a language more beautiful to listen to than the Welsh.

Jenkin Jenkins
Jenkin Jenkins
4 years ago

Racism plain and simple

Jenkin Jenkins
Jenkin Jenkins
4 years ago

Racism plain and simple if this was against other minorities there would be uproar they were better when marathons

Rodger Phillips
Rodger Phillips
4 years ago

Okay, while I am not welsh, I am of Welsh descent, though I speak the language, (albeit not as well as I think I should) and this is not something to be mad about, Irn Bru handled it brilliantly, and as some say to keep fighting back, well yes, but don’t be a dick about, fight back the best way possible, don’t get pissed off, don’t overly offended, take it lightly and put the offender in their place, and just simply never stop using the language, Snickers misjudged, they were right they apologised. three cheers for Irn Bru for sticking… Read more »

John davies
John davies
4 years ago

And literally no one cared.

Huw J Davies
Huw J Davies
4 years ago

At the risk of being called sexist I do remember a similar ‘joke’ many years ago on a birthday card. It had a computer screen showing a load of gibberish, the caption ‘A message from Wales’ (something like that anyway). Opening the card revealed a buxom young lady leaning forward resting her cleavage on the keyboard with ‘Bronwen wishes you a happy birthday’. So this ‘recent’ thing is just an old joke that has been reconditioned by someone at Mars. I’ve heard/seen it in many version over the last 40+ years, so it has long lost the power to amuse… Read more »

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