Have we not discussed the MooLatte?

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It's a new coffee drink. From Dairy Queen. It's a milky light-brown. They've named it the MooLatte. Umm, yeah.

Here's a comical interview [from Slate], in which two guys from the Houston Press speak with a DQ spokesman about the drink:

Q: This drink, it's not the "Mulatto"?

A: No. No. No. "Moo," meaning cow, and then "latte," meaning—

Q: OK. We were thinking of some other possible items, and I just wanted to run them by you. How about the High Yellow Butterscotch Sundae?

A: I'm not sure if I understand what that is.

Q: Just like a sundae with butterscotch topping, but this would be High Yellow butterscotch.

A: You mean like a higher quality?

Q: Yeah. That's just something to consider. We were also thinking—the MooLatte has three separate flavors, but if you took eight flavors and combined them, you could call it the Octoroonie.

A: Octoroonie?

Q: Yeah.

A: Actually—wow, that's actually a pretty good idea.

Q: And then one more here … Sambo's Extra Dark Triple Chocolate Shake. How's that grab you?

A: Actually, Dairy Queen doesn't make shakes. They make Blizzards.

Q: OK—Sambo's Extra Dark Triple Chocolate Blizzard.

A: What would that be?

Q: I would say you would find the blackest cone you could find and fill it with chocolate ice cream. And go from there.

A: All right. Interesting.

Q: Well, it's just something to think about.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I forgot to actually ask a question.

My question is:

IS DAIRY QUEEN INSANE???

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I think Noah's too overwrought.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

roffle roffle roffle

― g--ff (gcannon), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 16:50 (twenty-one years ago)

not saying it's a good name 'cause it ain't but who cares I don't eat there anyway.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 16:50 (twenty-one years ago)

these guys must have totally solid pokerfaces, there's no way i could pull this off

― g--ff (gcannon), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

High Yellow Butterscotch Sundae!

Can't... breathe... too... funny...

― Harold Media (kenan), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm less "upset" by the name and more just baffled at Dairy Queen's apparent idiocy. I mean, next time someone tells you that political correctness has gone "too far," please point out that an entire phalanx of DQ marketing people somehow managed to conclude that it was a great idea to make race puns in the name of a beverage.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean, I'm still trying to imagine the product development / marketing-and-branding meeting that settled on this name. Did no one involved, like, question this idea?

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 16:54 (twenty-one years ago)

but unless you prove it was intentional, you've got no case.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 16:54 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe no one did! Shit happens!

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 16:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Also from Slate:

Moreover, the name of a commercial product should never spotlight, even unintentionally, the physical similarity between that product's appearance (in this case, hue) and that of any class of human beings. Being of Jewish ancestry, Chatterbox would certainly object loudly if Dairy Queen started selling coffee-flavored Italian ice cream with a big-nosed logo on the cup and called it the JooLato.

― Harold Media (kenan), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 16:57 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah nabisco, sadly (or not??) i think you could go your whole life never hearing these terms unless you took a "special topic: the civil rights struggle 1900-1970" in college. maybe i'm wrong.

― g--ff (gcannon), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 16:59 (twenty-one years ago)

But Stencil, if the name's not intentional, it simply doesn't make sense: I can't imagine why you'd think to put "Moo" in front of "Latte" except as a pun. I mean, if it was a subconscious pun ("MooLatte, that sounds nice, it reminds me of ... some word ... it sounds nice!"), then surely it's doubly embarrassing. Seriously, I just can't imagine how they could develop this name. It doesn't compute.

xpost: You could go your whole life without hearing the word "mulatto?" ("High yellow," yes, maybe, but c'mon.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

well, do you think the DQ spokesman was feigning not getting it?

― g--ff (gcannon), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I have no idea. I realized, a few moments after reading it, that he may have gotten it completely, and just refused to acknowledge. ("That's actually a good idea" could very well be a sarcastic thing to have said.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I wouldn't give them too much credit. I mean, they did name a drink "Moo-Latte," a light brown drink, no less. "Octoroonie" probably sounds like something the kids would really dig. A great idea! It's got eight things in it!

― Harold Media (kenan), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay, but you guys realize you're defending DQ by saying, umm, "Maybe they're not insane, maybe they're just massively ignorant and clueless as to the ramifications of naming a drink that's receiving a national marketing push?"

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah i think that's what's happened, seriously.

― g--ff (gcannon), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

...and for christmas they're offering the misceggnog.

― amateur!!!st, Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:16 (twenty-one years ago)

See, that's the part that's just blowing my mind. Surely there are dozens and dozens of people involved in the creation and marketing of a product like this; it sort of blows my mind that not one of them pointed out a potential problem with the name. (Because I imagine that if one of them did, an institution like DQ would probably just come up with a new name, rather than risking any possible offense or outrage or even just embarrassment over the issue.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Are you guessing that they did this in order to receive angry backlash, on an "any press is good press" assumption?

― Harold Media (kenan), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:18 (twenty-one years ago)

http://klax.tula.ru/~igor/kai_fanny.jpg

― Sir Chaki McBeer III (chaki), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:18 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe they have ceded the marketing department to vice magazine?

― amateur!!!st, Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I should clarify that I have no idea why they did it, and am not proposing any particular reason. I am strictly baffled.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I have no idea what the creative team for Dairy Queen looks like, but judging from the usual after-Church crowd I see patronizing them, it seems reasonable to assume it's a cracker-fest.

Maybe they knew good and well what it meant, but honestly didn't find it offensive, thinking that it referred only to skin tone. Maybe they thought it was like Creole Shrimp. At any rate, I doubt they hit upon the fact that this distinction was invented to give less property to people who were part black.

― Harold Media (kenan), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I have no idea what the creative team for Dairy Queen looks like, but judging from the usual after-Church crowd I see patronizing them, it seems reasonable to assume it's a cracker-fest.

er, all kinds of people go to dairy queens. the one on howard ave. is usually full of teenagers (of all races) on a friday night.

kenan: i think "mulatto" is kind of an archaic, somewhat offensive term in itself.

― amateur!!!st, Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I've always been really offended that Nabisco actually sells cookies called, ok get this, "Oreos"!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

So you should really be one to talk!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

er, all kinds of people go to dairy queens.

I'm sure you're right. I was thinking of my childhood, is all.

kenan: i think "mulatto" is kind of an archaic, somewhat offensive term in itself.

Exactly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulatto

― Harold Media (kenan), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

racist idiots or just idiots, i'm sure the drink is fucking nasty.

― g--ff (gcannon), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

DQ probably cynically uses Half & Half in their moolattes too!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:28 (twenty-one years ago)

They're also probably working on an energy drink called 'Hybrid Vigor'.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:29 (twenty-one years ago)

ok, I'm done.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:29 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/links/chicken/sign.jpg

― amateur!!!st, Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Here's my thinking, though. Even if you think of "mulatto" as a simple non-offensive racial designation, it's still very odd -- as noted above -- to pun on such a word in the name of a light-brown mass-market beverage. I mean, please. Beyond which it's reasonable to imagine that there are people in the US who would be offended and upset by said naming. And since an institution like DQ has no particular "truth" to try and uphold in the naming of their drinks, it stands to reason that they'd reject any name that has even the potential to upset people, even if the people making the decision don't think anyone should be offended. I mean, who the hell wants to unnecessarily bring race into coffee-drink naming?

I suppose sheer dumbness is the only answer here.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

How come no one ever gets pissed about Cheese Nips? C'mon, sexual and racial connotations.

― eat fudge banana swirl (Nick A.), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Was it George Carlin who pointed out that "tits" would be a good name for a snack food? "New corn tits!"

― Harold Media (kenan), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:36 (twenty-one years ago)

In all seriousness, it's really astonishing. I mean, you'd think that *somewhere* along the way - from product development, to marketing, to vendors (someone at the printing plant, come on!) - this name would have been questioned.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

SPIC and SPAN

― dean? (deangulberry), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe we should be blaming our lackluster public education system for not teaching anyone anything about race relations.

― Harold Media (kenan), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:39 (twenty-one years ago)

No, but nabisco is right, if they didn't know what a mulatto was, where the hell did the name MooLatte come from? It doesn't make sense outside of the racial pun context.

― eat fudge banana swirl (Nick A.), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Nabisco, you do realize your handle comes from removing letters from National Biscuit Company. So yes, I think it's possible that somebody could think up something as stupid as MooLatte.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 18:01 (twenty-one years ago)

what on earth does that mean?

― amateur!!!st, Wednesday, 18 August 2004 18:03 (twenty-one years ago)

National - tional
Biscuit - cuit
Company - mpany

Nabisco

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 18:04 (twenty-one years ago)

i knew that. but i didn't understand how the second sentence in your post followed from the first.

unless you find the word "biscuit" to be offensive.

― amateur!!!st, Wednesday, 18 August 2004 18:05 (twenty-one years ago)

What's dumb about that? Brevity is the soul of wit, dude.

― eat fudge banana swirl (Nick A.), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

it's not offense, just foofy.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

did u know amoco means american oil company?? assholes!

― g--ff (gcannon), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

No, he's saying that it's possible to have thought up "MooLatte" while never having heard the word "mulatto."

Seems pretty darn unlikely, though.

― Harold Media (kenan), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 18:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 87 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

http://web.tiscali.it/memobox/media/telefilm/hd04.jpg

― charleston charge (chaki), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 21:49 (twenty years ago)

I have seriously always been so skeeved out by that commercial that I never noticed the name of the product!

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 21:50 (twenty years ago)

http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/981/images/news/DQ-Moolatte-006.jpg

― fauxhemian (fauxhemian), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 21:54 (twenty years ago)

http://www.advertisementave.biz/images/preview/dq-1.jpg

― fauxhemian (fauxhemian), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 21:55 (twenty years ago)

isn't McDonalds SCOTTISH? Wasn't there a movie where characters keep on refering to it as "the Scottish restauraunt"?

― BOATPEOPLEHATEFUCK (ex machina), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 21:58 (twenty years ago)

Dan I was just about the quote the part of the article you just quoted. As a woman of some Irish origin, I can only say...WTF?

― Allyzay Subservient 50s-Type (allyzay), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 22:04 (twenty years ago)

what the foick?

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 22:04 (twenty years ago)

I must have a heart of stone. I came nowhere near as close to freaking out like some of you did about that ad.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 22:05 (twenty years ago)

White Noise!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 22:05 (twenty years ago)

wonderful miscegeny goodness!!!!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 22:05 (twenty years ago)

isn't McDonalds SCOTTISH? Wasn't there a movie where characters keep on refering to it as "the Scottish restauraunt"?

Was this, by chance, Scotland, PA?

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 22:11 (twenty years ago)

Isn't that too obvious?

― BOATPEOPLEHATEFUCK (ex machina), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 22:13 (twenty years ago)

i still don't see this as "offensive" so much as "blindingly dumb"--which may amount to the same thing, i dunno.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 22:16 (twenty years ago)

I don't know, Jon, it wasn't that popular of a movie, so it seems like something one might forget.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 22:19 (twenty years ago)

I think it was a timetravel movie though....

― BOATPEOPLEHATEFUCK (ex machina), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 22:46 (twenty years ago)

maybe it was a book that my dad told me about

― BOATPEOPLEHATEFUCK (ex machina), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 22:46 (twenty years ago)

Wasn't it Coming to America, where the dad had the fake McDonalds restuarants and he wore a kilt?

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 31 March 2005 14:56 (twenty years ago)

jons links are making my hands quake with anger and reflexively ball into fists of death, and destruction, desperately seeking ad major fuckos to pummel then choke to death, ah release oh sweet release unfurl my hands so i may strangle thee, and type this out. thankx.

― j0n williams yr name isnt work safe, Thursday, 31 March 2005 15:12 (twenty years ago)

sorry about the name :D

― absolutego (ex machina), Thursday, 31 March 2005 16:24 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

http://slate.msn.com/id/2117270/

― a banana (alanbanana), Saturday, 23 April 2005 00:11 (twenty years ago)

It's not outright racist, but it's a little bit... *edgy* for a milkshake, ya know?

maybe kelis should do the moolatte ad campaign.

first time i heard of the moolatte was just about a year ago and i was all "WTF WTF WTF."

― my friend flicka (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 23 April 2005 00:35 (twenty years ago)

taken out of its racial trappings, "moolatte" is a completely pointless word: "latte" already implies that there's milk in the drink, so why bother with the "moo" (unless, like, there's BEEF in the drink, which i'm pretty sure there isn't)?

― my friend flicka (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 23 April 2005 00:38 (twenty years ago)

Why can't you people appreciate this pun on the word "umlaut"? It's a Möölättë!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 23 April 2005 01:21 (twenty years ago)

haha this thing popped into my head the other day, totally w/o reason: "it comes in 3 sizes, regular, large, and tragic"

― g e o f f (gcannon), Saturday, 23 April 2005 04:29 (twenty years ago)

http://ixamxnotxalonexixamxmany.punt.nl/upload/LogPics/Imitation_of_Life.jpg

― my friend flicka (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 23 April 2005 04:39 (twenty years ago)

OMG GEOFF

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Saturday, 23 April 2005 16:03 (twenty years ago)

Honestly, MooLatte did not remind me of "mulatto" at all, but when I opened the thread and read it I found it pretty funny.

I wasn't familiar with "High Yellow" so that joke was lost on me.

"Octaroon" is something I only heard about in the last few years. I can imagine this DQ spokesman might not have heard of it.

Sambo. It is possible if he didn't get the other jokes, that he also didn't get this or just began to vaguely catch on and wasn't sure what to say.

― Lemonade Salesman (Eleventy-Twelve), Saturday, 23 April 2005 16:13 (twenty years ago)

To be completely fair, it isn't really that shocking that someone from Minnesota wouldn't know what "high yellow" and "octaroon" meant; I didn't know about octaroon and quadroon etc until... 1996? AND I AM BLACK, that type of stuff is supposed to come inthe introductory pamphlet.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Saturday, 23 April 2005 16:17 (twenty years ago)

"W.E.B. DuBoisenberry"!!!!

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 23 April 2005 16:38 (twenty years ago)

"with a talented 10% real cream!"

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 23 April 2005 16:41 (twenty years ago)

haha dq should promote the moolatte by having their customers take 'the paper bag test', it could be like the pepsi challenge.

― j blount (papa la bas), Saturday, 23 April 2005 19:04 (twenty years ago)

what about a poll test or a grandfather clause tho?...

yeesh.

― hstencil (hstencil), Saturday, 23 April 2005 20:48 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

To put everyone at ease, the movie in which McDonald's was referred to as "that Irish restaraunt" (or something close... was it Scottish?) was Time After Time (directed by Nicholas Meyer, of Star Trek II and VI fame).
It was HG Wells who said that, as he had time-travelled to the present day (1979) in pursuit of Jack the Ripper.
Saw it a long time ago and always remembered that line.

You're welcome.

― Brandon Mitchell (A.H.), Sunday, 17 July 2005 07:25 (twenty years ago)

Thanks! That is actually very interesting!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Sunday, 17 July 2005 10:30 (twenty years ago)

i actually had a moolatte a few months ago

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 17 July 2005 18:59 (twenty years ago)

RACIST

― kyle (akmonday), Sunday, 17 July 2005 19:19 (twenty years ago)

http://www.library.gatech.edu/about_us/news/banned/images/lester3.jpg

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 17 July 2005 19:22 (twenty years ago)

THANK YOU BRANDON!!!!

― OLD SPICE® CHEMTRAILS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (ex machina), Sunday, 17 July 2005 19:35 (twenty years ago)

I'm just a guy who loves helping people.

― Brandon Mitchell (A.H.), Sunday, 17 July 2005 19:36 (twenty years ago)

five months pass...

http://www.sixsixfive.com/images/Nigger-Treat.mp3

― $#@!, Monday, 26 December 2005 00:40 (twenty years ago)

hahahahahahahaaaaa

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Monday, 26 December 2005 01:00 (twenty years ago)

http://www.pki.com/images/events/nickortreat.jpg

― deej.. (deej..), Monday, 26 December 2005 02:34 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

Revive!!! Do they still serve this?

― Spencer Chow, Monday, 14 May 2007 21:46 (eighteen years ago)

OMG, I can't believe I missed nick-or-treat.

― Hurting 2, Monday, 14 May 2007 21:47 (eighteen years ago)

I don't know if they still serve this but I am still roffling hardcore at "it comes in 3 sizes, regular, large, and tragic"

― HI DERE, Monday, 14 May 2007 21:49 (eighteen years ago)

LOL

― Spencer Chow, Monday, 14 May 2007 21:55 (eighteen years ago)

LEELOO DALLAS MOOLATTE

― nabisco, Monday, 14 May 2007 22:07 (eighteen years ago)

MOOLATTEPASS

― nabisco, Monday, 14 May 2007 22:08 (eighteen years ago)

dan i think that's my finest moment in six years of ilxoring

― gff, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:38 (eighteen years ago)

nine years pass...

i could have sworn they stopped doing this because they realized it was bad but nope

http://www.dairyqueen.com/us-en/Menu/Drinks/Mocha-MooLatte/

― the klosterman weekend (s.clover), Thursday, 1 December 2016 02:43 (nine years ago)

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