The Tipiak ladies scare me

An unnerving advertisement has made its way back onto French TV. It’s the Tipiak ladies from Brittany. Basically, these three old ladies are sitting around chatting in their traditional Brittany outfits (which really look like a lot of effort to get around in: imagine trying to get those tall hats through rooms with low ceilings). In this ad, they’re talking about croutons They have a bowl of home-made croutons and a bowl of Tipiak croutons. One of the ladies crunches loudly (despite not having many teeth to crunch with) and says “They’re the same!”. Big points for Tipiak. Here’s the advert:

Yes, they yelled “Pirate”” in French at the end there. If the gappy-toothed, crunching old lady isn’t enough to scare you into buying the Tipiak croutons, seeing the three of them yell at you at the end should be. Why are they yelling “pirate“? Apparently, in Brittany, calling someone a pirate is the same as calling them a thief. Clear as mud? Yep. Apparently, Tipiak is the pirate for stealing their crouton recipe, and it’s repeated in all the Tipiak advertisements in which the three old ladies star. No joke, they have a whole range of commercials on the go. I read that one of them has passed away so I’m not sure if any new ads are on the horizon.

Even though I always feel like my skin is covered with spittle after watching this ad, it’s a refreshing change to the perfect rows of white teeth and over-happy faces selling the most mundane of products of other advertisements. I’m still not tempted to buy the croutons. Are you?

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I'm a technical author, journalist and writer from Australia who has been living in Europe since 2000 and exploring the world from there. My passions are writing, snow sports and travel.

3 Comments on “The Tipiak ladies scare me

  1. Um, yes. That is slightly creepy and now that I have an image of spittle-covered croutons, I’m also not buying any. (Although, to be fair, I’m really not allowed to eat wheat!)

  2. Hi Wendy

    You can extrapolate and also say that for “senior people” and for people from this region (very “we are from Brittany before being French” ) anyone else is a foreigner and a pirate especially if trying to get owner ship on local specialties !!

  3. Mandy, that’s the best reason I’ve heard so far to say no to spittle-covered croutons. 🙂

    Sabine, I love that so many regions of France think of themselves as not French. It’s actually a very French thing! Thanks for the extra history update – great to know. I’m going to walk around saying ‘pirate’ all the time next time I’m there.