2015-02-12

Dereliction of duty

Mister Donut, the US doughnut chain that emigrated to Japan leaving only Dunkin' Donuts to hold down the fort in the old country, is currently going through a Brooklyn thing. Their latest poster says:

この食感を表現する日本語が
まだありません。

ブルックリンD&D

Roughly speaking, "The Japanese [words] to express this mouthfeel don't exist yet: Brooklyn D&D." "D&D" stands for "Doughnut and Danish," not "Dungeons and Dragons" (I won't fall for that one again).

Technically this only describes the mouthfeel of the D&D, but I think that the name comes into play here: it goes only by the (English) initials "D&D," because it is impossible to put into (Japanese) words. To non-Brooklynites, it is literally beyond words, something which has never been experienced before. Reverse Sapir-Whorf marketing, if you like.

(Since both dōnatsu and dēnisshu are in fact fairly respectable loan words in Japanese — and both appear on Mister Donut's menu, at that — I assume that the real reason for using "D&D" was simple length considerations. But "The Japanese to express this mouthfeel is cumbersome yet entirely commonplace" would not have been a successful advertising slogan.)

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