Here’s my ongoing project to spot which US products are like which UK products, because it has never been done before anywhere, in slim humorous books or elsewhere. These are my observations as and when I think of them, so don’t expect completeness or accuracy, or indeed entertainment. Keep your expectations low, is what I’m saying.
Key:
| = | pretty much equal to |
| ~= | similar to |
| /= | not equal to |
(* includes bonus reactionary curmudgeon entries! No prize if you can spot them!)
| US | UK | |
| Pine-sol | ~= | Dettol |
| Clorox | = | Domestos |
| Good Humor ice cream | = | Walls ice cream (same logo) |
| Lays potato chips | = | Walkers crisps (same logo) |
| 3 Musketeers | ~= | Milky Way |
| Milky Way | ~= | Mars |
| Snickers | = | Marathon* |
| Vons | ~= | Sainsburys / Tesco |
| Gelsons | ~= | Waitrose |
| Albertsons | ~= | Asda (I think you know what I mean) |
| Cif kitchen cleaner | = | Cif, which used to be called Jif |
| Jif | = | a brand of peanut butter |
| Starburst | = | Opal Fruits* |
| Bro-Magnons | = | Townies (i.e. collars flipped up) |
| Glenn Beck / Sean Hannity | = | Richard Littlejohn / Peter Hitchens |
| Larry King | /= | Jeremy Paxman (no matter what Larry thinks) |
| Larry King | ~= | Michael Parkinson (i.e. sycophantic but with a delusion of being a hard-hitting interviewer) |
| NPR and its local affiliates KPBS, KPCC, KQED and KALW etc | ~= | BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service |
12 responses to “The Same But Different, UK-US Differences Part 1”
I really enjoyed this. I play the same game whenever I’m in London.
We have Milky Way and Mars bars in the U.S. Is that one of them there curmudgeon dealies I won’t get a prize for?
Nope, it’s the fact that UK Marathon changed its name to Snickers
many years ago, but some Brits just can’t let go. Same
goes for Opal Fruits – changed some time in the 90’s.
There’s no way that Pine-Sol is similar to Dettol. Pine-Sol is a household cleaner. Dettol is a disinfectant. If you get them confused, well, there’s gonna be problems.
Pine-Sol and Dettol smell similarly. I think that’s where the confusion lies.
THAT EXPLAINS WHY I AM IN INTENSIVE CARE
If a US Milky Way is a UK Mars, what’s a US Mars? (I thought it was a UK Milky Way, but clearly my informants have misled me.)
I don’t know, I’ve not had one. I’ve seen them in Rite Aid, so I’ll do some more research.
Purely in the name of science.
Come of this! A parky doesn’t taste anything like a larry.
what do you mean? “Parky” is a shallow sycophant. King is pretty shallow too
but pretends to be tough by rolling his sleeves up. Same difference.
Given the choice, I’d take King any day.
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