This word is used in Snickers’ new ad campaign, wherein they plaster these long, awkward neologisms (e.g., “Peanutopolis,” “Hungerectomy,” etc.) on buses and billboards and on their candy bar wrappers themselves.
What struck me about this one is that anybody reading it would promptly assume that it is a fusion of “substantial” and “delicious”; but wouldn’t that produce “substantialicious,” not “-scious”? In fact, the only words that end in “-scious” are “luscious” and the various forms of consciousness. I don’t think they meant to evoke lusciousness, and even if they did, shouldn’t they have coined “Substantialuscious”?
Things got worse when I opened the wrapper:
Substantialiscious \sub-'stan(t)-shu-'li-shus\
(noun). The weight of something when you weigh it with your tongue.
It is, of course, an adjective, a fact that a contributor to Urban Dictionary even tried to point out, albeit incorrectly.
It’s an easy target, I know, but I’m just genuinely surprised that they let something like that get out the door; it’s a fairly clever campaign, and “Hungerectomy” in particular presupposes that the average person is smart enough to know what the suffix “-ectomy” means. And wouldn’t somebody who knows that also know an adjective from a noun? It’s just confusing.
katie t. says:
yeah, i saw that on a wrapper. way to ruin my appetite, snickers! what the hell!
Jay says:
inorite
Hey after Googling I found a far more robust and academic discussion of this pressing commercialinguacular matter here.
I had no idea these ads were almost two years old!
kristen says:
I just noticed the same thing and googled it to see if anyone at Snickers had issued an apology for spelling their stupid portmanteau wrong, and then identifying it as a noun when it’s obviously an adjective. I can’t believe this. I would return my Snickers bar to the vending machine, but alas, I’ve already eaten it.
Gail/Ben says:
First we want to say THANK YOU we as co-workers had a good time with our spouses determining the meaning of the word we choose substantialicious as in “delicious”… Thanks
Knocky says:
I had no problem w/the word ‘substantialiscious’. I thought it cute. LOLOLOL
debra says:
No matter how many mistakes they made surrounding the campaign, they won. You’re not only eating snickers, you’re talking about it. Them=1, you=0. :)
andy says:
i agree with Debra. 1. we ate it. (and it was good.) 2. someone created this site that i am assuming snickers is not a part of. 3. and most of all they succeeded because we are all talking about it.
i also will add that one of snickers does a good job. anyone remember the commercial with the football player gets a concussion and he says he is”batman”. i love that one.