Posted on 10/29/2021 8:45:40 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Facebook's announcement that it is changing its name to Meta has caused quite the stir in Israel where the word sounds like the Hebrew word for "dead".
To be precise, Meta is pronounced like the feminine form of the Hebrew word.
Facebook isn't the only company to be ridiculed over translations of its branding.
Here are a few examples of when things got lost in translation.
When KFC arrived in China during the 80s, its motto "finger lickin' good" didn't exactly go down well with the locals.
The motto's translation in Mandarin was "eat your fingers off".
Rolls-Royce changed the name of its Silver Mist car as mist translates as "excrement" in German.
The car was named Silver Shadow instead.
Meanwhile when Nokia released its Lumia phone in 2011, it didn't exactly get the reaction it was expecting.
In Spanish, Lumia is a synonym for a prostitute, although it apparently only appears in dialects with a heavy gypsy influence.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
The Nova did not sell very well in Latin America. “No va” means “does not go” in Spanish.
Chevrolet Nova.
Wow, META is DOA already. I really thought the slogan Make Everything Trump Again would be the nail in the coffin.
The old classic Chevy Nova in spanish meant Chevy no go. :)
It just wouldn’t go - the name.
what’s the new logo symbolize, two boobs...Zuckerboob and who else?
Back in the 70’s, a Chinese delegation was given a tour of a Ford car factory.
They asked what the name of the car was that was being made.
Upon hearing it they seemed embarrassed and some snickered.
Pinto in Mandarin is a naughty word for mistress....................
Toyota’s MR2 when spoken sounds like “merdeux” in French. Which is also “sh!tty”.
Em air doo.
They call it the “MR sportif” but the label said “MR Sport”
I’m trove of info on Toyota names.
Well, I’ve still got my Nokia phone although I don’t know if it’s a Lumia.
The Ford Ka, a popular car in Vietnam translates to “cock” in Vietnamese
I’m not a vietnamese speaker though and I suppose someone here may be.
Taking lottery bets when FB?META crashes into bankruptcy.
My buddy’s dad bought him a MR 125 Honda bike. We were very helpful pointing out the MR stood for mental retard.
Hi.
Similar story from Mexico when the Chevy Nova came out.
The dealerships informed Chevy that Nova means won’t go.
5.56mm
The Golem. If you can erase from the golem’s forehead the first letter of ‘Emeth’, the Hebrew letter ‘aleph’, the remaining letters would spell ‘meth’, meaning “death”.
Funny how we see things. When I saw the logo I thought of the mangled remains of a bicycle that someone ran over.
How about the Chevy Nova. No va means “it doesn’t go,” in Spanish.
There are software packages that are used to scan existing or invented words to screen them against profane or sensitive words in multiple languages. Both common and obscure languages in fact. An example of this rebranding due diligence is when International Harvester successfully rebranded to Navistar many decades ago.
In the 1980s, the group I was working with got ahold of one of these word checking programs to use in coming up with a name for a new product. We were just the developers of the product so in practical terms we were second team compared to the marketing types so spent our time on frivolous words to have fun. We spent a few days loading profanity words from multiple languages in the software and and it caught every one of them. Ahhh, fun times being an engineer.
I'm acquainted with a Canadian company that some years ago was bringing to market sodium hydroxide balls that would be used for industrial water treatment applications. They had an employee contest to name the new product. The contest winning name was Polar Bear Balls. Human ingenuity at its best!
“Hebrew speakers”?
If not Jews, who are they? What, saying “Jews” is now not PC?
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