The ultimate naming-influencer win for Escape and @Iain_Treloar would be for CMA CGM to start selling *Chumma Chuggum* paraphernalia.
With the pronunciation continuing to make inroads at least among anglosphere cycling fandom, do we think this is likely?
Yes, sell clothing or other paraphernalia
No, but still embrace the pronunciation in some way
No, they will ignore the pronunciation
No, and they will speak of their dislike for the pronunciation
0voters
Edit: I designed these choices to be mutually exclusive, but poll settings don’t allow constraining can-choose-only-one-option (in this case, with four choices, my options for “maximum number of choices” are 2, 3, and 4. Of course this isn’t a social science platform, but perhaps the poll-options settings could be changed on the back end, so future polls have the possibility of being constrained to “choose only one option.”
I so badly want Decathlon-CMA CGM to get on board with this, but the interactions we’ve had with the team and/or its riders since coming up with Chumma Chuggum means that they are mostly confused. In the absence of them getting on board, I think a cease and desist would probably be my second-most desired outcome so we can Barbra Streisand-effect this into other languages.
Related to this topic: I stumbled on this Bollywood-style music video called Chumma Chumma. I don’t speak the language so don’t fully understand it. But it all makes sense if you think of the leading man as Paul Seixas, the backup dancers as Paul’s teammates, and the leading woman as the Tour de France.
I recently talk to a French senior guy at CMA CGM about this way of pronounciation. He wasn’t aware despite being into cycling (but in French, so it never heard of it). He then talked it with his colleagues. Looks like their senior staff are seeing it at a marketing failure…
Of course they are confused, they’re French and as far as the French are concerned there is only one way to pronounce a French word - their way. After 30 years holidaying in France (we love the place) i still love it when they look at you blankly after you’ve spoken to them in French because you’ve not got the pronunciation exactly correct.
