Supermarket chain Lidl has enlisted the help of Huus van de Taol for their television commercials. Lidl currently has a commercial on television where actor Alex Klaasen comes to live in the ‘Lidl flat’. According to the story, his character Freek comes from Drenthe, but Klaasen’s accent is still too little like a Drenthe variant.
According to Bert Rossing, of the Huus van de Taol, Klaasen does not speak Drenthe. “It’s not one of the Drenthe variants, but just a dialect. Maybe this is the first step.”
He indicates that the supermarket chain at the house knocked on the door to really show Drents in follow-up commercials. “They want our help with that,” Rossing said. “So they are now going on a course.” According to Rossing, the fact that there is currently some fuss about Lidl’s advertising is not the reason that Huus van de Taol has been called in. “No, they knocked on our door before the first commercial was shown.”
According to Lidl, they have called in the Huus van de Taol because soon more actors can be heard in their commercials who have not lived in Drenthe. Klaasen himself lived in Drenthe for some time in his youth. According to Lidl, Klaasen currently speaks “the accent that he also used in his time in Drenthe”.
The other actors are now receiving training from Huus van de Taol to ensure that they also come from Drenthe. Lidl emphasizes that they have not engaged Huus van de Taol for Alex Klaasen, because according to the supermarket chain, he does speak Drents. That it will remain with an ‘accent’ for the time being, is because otherwise the inmates of the Lidl flat would not be able to understand him. “So he does what all people from Drenthe (sic) would do if they meet a non-Drenten citizen: speak ABN. Alex does that too, although, just like with all Drenthe people, you still hear a Drenthe accent.”
Look and judge for yourself about Klaasen’s ‘Drentsheid’: