Long Islanders are condemning a new popcorn brand for committing the cardinal sin of improper preposition use.
As any native Long Islander worth their salt knows, saying a person either lives or was born “in” Long Island is the grammatical equivalent of using a fork and knife to eat a slice of pizza.
“On” is the standard preposition used whenever referencing an island — making “Born In Long Island” Popcorn an easy target ever since it hit store shelves in December.
“You can be from, for, on, near, by, nearby, close to, far from, away from, and adjacent to Long Island,” raged one Reddit user. “But you can NEVER be in Long Island! Capeesh?!”
“People live ON islands — Bond villains live IN Islands,” said another.
“How to make sure your target market never buys your product,” declared a Reddit user.
Some said the name is just a clever way to sell the snack ,which costs between $5.99 and $8.99 for five ounces.
“It was a marketing strategy, and it was intentional,” a Redditor said. “People started ranting on social media, bringing out the pitchforks. Meanwhile, now everyone wants popcorn.”
The popcorn is made by Viviwoods, Inc., a Westbury-based producer of organic, gluten-free foods, which filed to trademark the name last May.
Viviwoods did not respond to requests for comment.
