THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 20, 1994 TAG: 9412200293
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICHARD GRIMES, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
There's a mystery brewing. Actually, it's already been brewed, bottled, and labeled. Why did the Coors Brewing Company misspell the word ``arctic'' on their new domestic beer Artic Ice?
Coors response to the question Monday was swift and cold as, uh, arctic ice.
``It was an intentional spelling of the word arctic. It's distinctive. It's memorable,''said Judy Hartley, a Coors spokesperson.
It's definitely distinctive, but isn't it still misspelled?
``We don't think of it as a misspelling. We think of it as alternative spelling.''
Hartley also said that the company chose the alternative spelling ``to be distinctive, the same thing as Absolut vodka, which doesn't have an ``e'' on the end.''
The vodka in question is imported from Sweden. And according to McKay's English-Swedish dictionary, ``absolut'' is a perfectly acceptable spelling, in Swedish.
Coors may have chosen an intentional misspelling to distinguish its latest brew. But not everyone is playing along.
The owners of BrewBakers coffee house in Ghent have decided to stick with proper English on their restaurant menu.
``We decided to let Coors be grammatically incorrect,'' said BrewBaker co-owner Patrick Sullivan. ``Our menu spells arctic correctly.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color photo of Coors Artic Ice beer]
by CNB