Lost in Translation

TheMarker Cafeלולה כץPut it rightLost in Translation

Put it right

לא קיימת פגישה בארבע עיניים בארה\"ב
או באנגליה, קיימת פגישה
one on one.
כשאומרים לך
\"we must get together sometime\"
- אל תוציא יומן ותחפש תאריך.

הבלוג שלי יעסוק באי הבנות שקורות לא אחת, בגלל פערים ושונויות בתרבות ובשפה, ויציע פתרונות

Lost in Translation

‎1

0 תגובות יום רביעי, 18/6/08, 18:58

Localisation should always be a concern for copy writers looking for that special something that will hit home: a name, a slogan, a picture, an image. There are well known examples of how a bad choice of any of these can deter sales rather than promote them. A case in point is the Chevy Nova that failed to sell well in Latin America, because the name, translated into Spanish means: Doesn’t go.A local advertising company, this week promoting a very expensive car, would have been well advised to check both on localisation of image and basic grammatical structure in English before launching its current campaign. All Americans and most well read non- Americans are familiar with the acronym of the American federal agency responsible for tax collection: the IRS. Probably, basing their advertising pitch on that familiarity, this advertising agency chose to top their ad with a cartoon type image of a law-enforcement officer.But although he’s wearing a fashionably striped tie with a star on his jacket sleeve, he looks more like a mafia gangster than a federal agent. This impression is strengthened by the angle of the truncheon he’s holding, the big flashy ring on his finger and his chunky bracelet. My bet is that the IRS would never choose such an image to portray their agency. So one can only wonder why the advertisers did. Now we come to the so-called catchy slogan which appears in the form of a Three Letter Acronym (TLA) I’m guessing that the message the advertising company hoped to express was: “This is an offer too good to refuse”. And since it seems they’d settled on using the image of an IRS law-enforcement officer, they needed to fit this message into the acronym. And their choice? Impossible Refuse System.

What a pity they didn’t know that some English words have a nasty way of changing their meaning depending on whether they’re used as verbs or nouns. We may record company assets which have set a new record; we may project a good image when we promote a new project. But dear oh dear, we most certainly will refuse to buy any refuse system unless we’re getting rid of waste materials.

Lola

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