Last but not least: Language confusion at Migros
The major Swiss retailer has its Italian pasta manufacturer produce a commercial in which a German mispronounces the name Migros. He earns media criticism for this. Those who don't deal with language professionally find the excitement exaggerated.
At Blick.ch Migros is now being accused of pseudo-dialect and Germanization and of not using its brand name consistently. But it is not quite that simple. Can one speak of pseudo dialect in a High German text? And is it Germanization at all if the brand name is pronounced with a voiced s in the Italian commercial, or is it not rather poorly dubbed Italianità, which in itself would suit Italian pasta? After all, a uniform pronunciation of the French brand name Migros does not exist in multilingual Switzerland, because the Ticinese articulate it as in the criticized spot.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyEVDcgM2aA
The articles on 20minuten.ch and Blick.ch have triggered a flood of comments. What annoys customers, however, is neither the Germanization nor the internationalization of "their" Migros brand, as Migros spokesman Urs Peter Naef told 20minuten. The majority of the comments and evaluations are not directed against the company's slip-up, but against the media hype of a topic that is far too banal for that. (sis)
