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Thursday, December 16, 2010

Vaffelim or Bafflot- וופלים או בפלות: Alit stirs up trouble by making the debate official


If you know anything about Israel, you know that little chocolate wafers are a staple food. It's a right of passage for every young Israeli soldier to learn the distinct way to open the package in one fell swoop - fast and clean.  They are a go-to snack with coffee, being cheap, light and sweet. And the biggest Israeli brand of these sweet little tasties is Alit.



Alit makes most of the basic chocolate sweets in Israel. Think of it as the Israeli "Hershey's". And Alit has done something that Hershey's is always hesitant to do: it has officially changed the name of a classic.

Alit made-over the name and face of this Israeli snack food after holding what I assume to be a nation-wide vote, although from their video, it looks like they only hit up central Tel Aviv.

According to the company's website, 1,147,035 people voted in total and just over 57% went with the "hip, young and cooler" Baffelot. I personally had never heard of the term "Baffelot".  Somehow after four years of living in Israel and eating these tasty cakes nearly every morning, I never came across one person who called them Bafflot.  So, to me they are Waffelim because "Baffelot" just sounds like a cheap bastardization of a legitimate term.

One of my friends claimed "Baffelot" was an army thing.  Another friend clamied it was a Jerusalem thing.  That the whole competition was really a competition between Tel Aviv vs. Jerusalem.  But after doing a very insignificant amount of research, my findings could find absolutely no correlation between those who say wafelim and those who say baffelot.

Plus, looking at Alit's silly ad where the old CEO argues with the young, "hip and cool" cartoon company mascot, I get the strangest feeling that this little competition was rigged.  Could it be?!?! Is it possible that they were planning to change the name from the very beginning even BEFORE the vote?!!!!


2 comments:

  1. Interesting point. It definitely sounds like they planned the name change all along. Bafflot sounds weird, especially if it comes from the English "waffle," so it should be with vavs, not a bet.

    And just an fyi, the chocolate brand's name is Elite in English. At least that's how its printed on products in US supermarkets. I know this because they are my favorite chocolate (I blame Tzuba's marcolit haha).

    ~Todd

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  2. Thanks for the comment, Todd! I guess Tzuba's marcolit was a full-on educational experience!

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