Picking a name for a product that's to be sold internationally is something of a minefield ...
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| Pubic Beer? |
.... as one mans Finnish 'Lumia' smart phone, is another mans Spanish language slang name for a prostitute.
This
was the trap that the Hells Basement brewery from Alberta Canada fell
in to when they named a beer Huruhuru ..... for sale in New Zealand.
They thought it was the Maori word for feather or hair/fur .... however while
it does mean that, it was actually the Maori word most commonly used to
describe pubic hair .... Luckily they didn't tag it with the words Get your lips round this!
Of course they are not the only company to fall in to this trap .... we have visited this subject before, but its always fertile ground for another look. Others who have done so include:
- Peugot - the car manufacturer but Peugeot translates in southern China to Biao zhi, which means prostitute.
Fart Bar - is a candy bar made in Poland, where the name translates to “lucky bar.”
Pee Cola - which is bottled in Ghana, and means “very good Cola,” in the local language.
Barf detergent in Iran means 'snow' .... it doesn't do so well elsewhere.
Aass Fatol is a beer in Norway.
Siri the iPhone assistant is fairly popular in certain quarters, in the country of Georgia, where its the slang word for cock (and I don't mean rooster).
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| Products That Might A Re-brand Name |
- Facebook should maybe have thought about this as well, because its new name of 'Meta' sounds like the Hebrew word for "dead" ('Meta' is pronounced like the feminine form of the Hebrew word).
- Kentucky Fried Chicken's motto "finger lickin' good" in China got a laugh as its translation in to Mandarin was "eat your fingers off".
- When Rolls-Royce was going to launch its 'Silver Mist' car it had to suddenly change is as mist translates as "excrement" in German. They renamed it the 'Silver Shadow' instead.
- Honda had a working name for a new car the 'Fitta' ... however it apparently did not translate well in a number of other languages, including Swedish, where it is a vulgar description for vagina. They found out before the launch and decided to name the vehicle 'Jazz' in most countries.
There are literally hundreds of these names .... for the most part they stay perfectly safe and unremarked upon by anyone but the odd foreign tourist in their home markets, but then someone tries to market them abroad .... and a new name is needed.
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