Monday, July 14, 2008

Mix-in It Up

I stopped at Dunkin' Donuts on the way to the beach yesterday. Standing at the sugar and Splenda table, my friend Stephanie noticed a sign promoting DD's new ice cream products. I was thrilled to discover that it contained an apostrophe catastrophe. Mix-in's?


Did I just use the word "thrilled" in reference to a punctuation error, you ask? Yes, I love it when national chains and other high profile companies screw up. And as much as I love Boston, I have no love for the ubiquitous pink and orange cups containing mediocre coffee.

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8 comments:

  1. JessJuly 14, 2008 at 4:09 PM

    HA!! That's inexcusable.

    And I have plenty of love for DD's. :)

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  2. BeckyJuly 14, 2008 at 4:11 PM

    Really? I just think Dunkin' Donuts is kind of tacky.

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  3. Jane SuttonJuly 15, 2008 at 9:40 AM

    I loathe them as much as I love the word "loathe." They crop up everywhere, like kudzu. They serve artery-clogging food. And they're color scheme makes me wanna lose my donuts!

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  4. Jane SuttonJuly 15, 2008 at 9:41 AM

    Oops. I meant to write, "their color scheme." How embarrassing to make a punctuation error on an anti-bad-punctuation web site.

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  5. BeckyJuly 15, 2008 at 10:11 AM

    I know you hate them. This post is dedicated to you!

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  6. The Supreme Court of AwesomeJuly 15, 2008 at 6:51 PM

    First, I agree about the pleasure of seeing a mistake in a chain. I always feel bad about criticizing a small mom-pop shop. Can't they afford an editor for these things.

    But why all the hating on DD. I live on the iced coffee down here in S. Florida. Much better, and much cheaper, than Starbucks.

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  7. BeckyJuly 16, 2008 at 12:04 AM

    I go to Dunkin' Donuts because it's hard to avoid them! But I'd rather support a local coffee shop, if possible. DD seems like the Wal-Mart of coffee shops to me.

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  8. UnknownJuly 22, 2008 at 4:42 PM

    I can kind of see how this one may have evolved... The marketing team at DD probably started off with "Mixings", dropped the "g" for folksy appeal and made it "Mixin's" Then someone at some brainstorming meeting added the hyphen to show how clever they are: "See? They aren't just mixings anymore, they're mix-INS! Cuz you mix them in, see! Hi five!"
    And thus the apostrophe became a vestigial memorial to a long forgotten "g".
    Or maybe I'm giving them too much credit.

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