Brits Don’t Know How to Pronounce 'Krispy Kreme'

There are a number of subtle differences between American English and British English. You say "to-may-to," we say "to-mah-to." You call it the "sidewalk," we call it the "pavement." You, for some inexplicable reason, shorten "mathematics" to "math," despite their clearly being an "s" in the word. We call it "maths."

But these Anglo American dialectical disagreements pale in comparison to the one that just caused a multimillion dollar food business to instigate an entire rebrand. Brits are apparently having so much trouble pronouncing "Krispy Kreme" that the doughnut chain announced today that it would be changing its name in the UK.

You see, despite the spelling, Kreme is pronounced "cream"—not "crème" as us faux-fancy Brits are wont to do. The mispronunciation has caused such confusion that Krispy Kreme will be rebranding itself as "Krispy Cream" on this side of the Atlantic. Every one of the chain's 90 British stores will all undergo a name change.

Krispy Kreme—sorry, Cream—spokesperson Charlotte Roberts explained in a statement: "The company rebrand is a strategic decision made in acknowledgement that our UK customers have struggled with the pronunciation of 'Kreme' (said 'cream') since our launch into the UK. We hope that the rebrand will settle any confusion as to both the pronunciation and spelling of the name for our customers."

The chain was also quick to point out that the doughnuts themselves would not be getting an Anglicised makeover.

Roberts added: "We want to reassure our loyal fans that the quality of our doughnuts will remain of the highest standard and in line with original recipe that our founder Vernon Rudolph made famous almost 80 years ago."

In Britain, we call that a good PR line.