Ad Watch: vomiting and linguistic insecurity

Auvi-Q (terrible name) is an epi-pen manufactured by Sanofi (also not a great name). This isn't another post about questionable naming practices. Instead, it's about my other hobby horse: Americans' linguistic insecurity and those fascinating flaps! (If you're new here, a flap is a speech sound that seems to give some Americans fits. Here is my first post about flaps. This one was good, too.)

In the ad, a "doctor" explains all the benefits of the product and cautions us about its side effects. It's all standard stuff. Like a typical American, she flaps when flapping is expected, giving us the following over the course of her spiel (I'm using my same-old system for representing flaps [D] and aspirated t's [T]):

• auDo-injector
• supporDive therapy
• aD increased risk
• ouDer thigh
• heart-relaDed symptoms
• sweaDing
• anxieDy
• diabeDes

All of these are garden-variety pronunciations in American English.

But then, toward the end of the spot, she throws us a curveball, cautioning us that the product can cause... vomiTing. Not vomiDing, the way the word is typically pronounced, but vomiTing, the way it's never pronounced. Not in the US, at any rate.

So, why? Where did this come from? Is it possible the TV doctor did this by accident? (Have you ever pronounced a word that way by accident?) Was it deliberate? (Why on earth would you call attention to vomiting this way? Were things seeming too American-casual and thereby failing to inspire I-must-ask-my-physician-about-this-medicine confidence?) What does it all mean?

For some outrageous reason, this ad is not available on YouTube. So, you'll have to content yourself with watching it at this link.

(If anyone out there can help me wrestle Blogger into line, I would really appreciate it. Getting stuff formatted the way I want it—with consistent fonts and type sizes—seems impossible, all the "convenient" controls notwithstanding. I swear this is going to drive me nuts. It doesn't seem to matter what font or type size I select—Blogger will make things look however it likes.)