Jif settles the great debate with a GIF peanut butter jar.

CNN Business ^ | Tuesday, February 25, 2020 | Jordan Valinsky

[Carriage Hill]

Jif is releasing a limited-edition jar of GIF peanut butter in a collaboration meant to be as smooth as the product itself.

The purpose is to "settle the great debate" over how to pronounce the looping image format that has overtaken in the internet, J.M. Smucker Company (SJM), the brand's manufacturer, said in a press release.

Although Jif is obviously pronounced with a "soft G," people often mispronounce the word "GIF," which is short for Graphics Interchange Format. It's said with a "soft G like the peanut butter and not a "hard G." That's according to creator Steve Wilhite, who made the declaration in 2013 while accepting a Webby Award.

Regardless of the official ruling, the internet has remained divided. Jif is partnering with GIPHY, a GIF search engine, to "put a lid on this decade-long debate": Both GIF and the peanut butter are pronounced "Jif."

[Flash Bazbeaux]

“I couldn’t care less.”

Ain’t nobody be callin’ you Choosy Mutha.

[Blue Highway]

Peter Pan is pronounced with a hard “PEE”. Ba da dump! I’ll be here all week, don’t forget to top your bartenders.

[Carriage Hill]

I remember GIF as "JIF", back in the 90s, during my Photoshop v3 days.

[3boysdad]

I could!

[Carriage Hill]

And then there’s PNG Preserves.

[Leep]

I will give you celery...anything else and you might as well vote for bernard sanders for President.

[Carriage Hill]

I’m having some right now. Mmmmmmmmm...

[Carriage Hill]

He looks and sounds like a Mikey “Propofol” Jackson wannabe.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

LOL!

[Carriage Hill]

You say tomatoes; I say tomatos...

[AloneInMass]

“Likewise, if the creator is adamant that it’s a soft G, then ‘graphics’ should be pronounced ‘Jraphics’ ... “

Who could forget the dinosaur classic ‘Jraphic Park’

[Carriage Hill]

+1.

[NEMDF]

In some celery stalks, spread on French toast before the syrup, in some cookies with those cross-hatched fork tines on the top.... ETC

[NEMDF]

yeah, cuz topless bartenders are not good, right?

[Rastus]

Considering the content of many JPEGs, you can probably find JPEG Jelly next to the Trojans.

[NEMDF]

AND cats and toddlers can unroll it much more easily if it is hung up “under”.

[Rastus]

I only eat Crunchy Superman. I haven’t had peanut butter in decades.

(but really, I buy Peter Pan)

[zeugma]

It depends. If you have cats, definitely under. If you don’t it doesn’t matter.

[beethovenfan]

Mother Smucker’s

[Captain Walker]

I think this highlights the most obvious shortcoming of the English language: too many words have to be heard before we know how to pronounce them.

We might not worry about umlauts, acutes, graves, or accents (or any of those other decorations on the European languages), but there's also a price to pay for that.