Why You Can Trust CNET Jif really wants you to stop pronouncing GIF like its peanut butter
The company is teaming with Giphy to launch limited-edition peanut butter jars with GIF printed across the front.
- Named a Tech Media Trailblazer by the Consumer Technology Association in 2019, a winner of SPJ NorCal's Excellence in Journalism Awards in 2022 and has three times been a finalist in the LA Press Club's National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards.
Here's your handy pronunciation guide.
No one, it seems, wants to put to rest the debate over how to pronounce "GIF" more than peanut butter maker Jif. At least, that's the message the company is putting across by teaming up with search engine Giphy in an attempt to settle, once and for all, how to say the name of the looping videos shared widely across the internet.
To drive the point home, Jif on Tuesday said it's releasing a limited run of peanut butter jars labeled "GIF," which sell for around $10 on Amazon. The aim is to drill home that GIF (or graphic interchange format) is pronounced with a hard G sound, rather than a soft one like the peanut butter.
"With a tongue-in-cheek label, these collectibles can help Jif fans spread the news (get it?) that Jif -- with a 'soft G' -- should be all about the peanut butter," the companies said in a release. "If you've ever called a .GIF a Jif, we forgive you."
The debate over how to pronounce GIF has been ongoing since GIFs emerged in the late '80s. Even the Obama administration took a stance in 2013, declaring GIF was in fact pronounced with a hard G.
Giphy also created a suite of Jif vs. GIF .gif files to illustrate the debate.
Maybe this campaign will finally make the correct pronunciation stick. (That was bad. I'll see myself out.)
