Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Oops.



Seriously, who would name a child's bed 'Lolita'.

Ha ha.

What was the male child's bed called, 'Twink'?

And check this:

'Naming firms often turn to linguists to weed out offending words in different languages.

"The funniest stuff happens when you're not paying attention to cultural differences," says Russ Meyer, head of the naming division of Landor Associates, a branding consultancy and design firm.

The classic example is General Motors, which shipped its Chevy Nova to Latin America in the late 1970s without doing its homework: No va means "it doesn't go" in Spanish.

Landor recently avoided its own potential disaster. "We came up with a name [for a company], `Telemon,' " says Meyer. "It was wonderful--until we went to Thailand, where it means `intercourse with your mother.

The wrong sound also can be a problem. Meyer reports that a food company recently considered putting out a product called "Feasties." "When you say Feasties, and when you don't get your `t' in there, you're in trouble," he notes.

Bland choices can be just as deadly. Remember "Like" cola, the beverage launched by 7 Up in 1982? "It was like calling it `Not Really' cola," explains Ira Bachrach, president of NameLab Inc., another San Francisco firm.'



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2 Comments:

Blogger Ted said...

An added irony is that "Russ Meyer" is the name of a famous exploitation filmmaker!

March 06, 2008  
Blogger Big Daddy said...

Good catch!

March 06, 2008  

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