chronicle of cultural misunderstandings
Some product names just defy explanation.
Like some other folks, we’re in the process of rebuilding the blog. Perhaps that is obvious as quite a few things here desperately need attention. And we probably won’t suddenly turn into the Most Visited Site in Mexico – but hey – we do what do.
And one thing we are always trying to do is to bridge two distant cultures – maybe even needlessly distant cultures.
With that in mind – big companies that don’t do research on their English language product names – well – sometimes they make the process of bridging cultures that much more difficult.
Exactly what Sensations is this name supposed to evoke?
The real gold prize in this category that has swept the position once held by Pétalo “Sensations” (pictured at right) has to go to “Lady Emotions” bathroom tissue (my own photo is above).
I know, I know – cultural understanding. I teach enough English that it is not difficult for me to discern what a lot of my students are thinking. But if one of them suggested “Lady Emotions” as a name for toilet paper – I would probably react exactly as I did to the real thing – with utter speechlessness.
I recall a “Mexican” food restaurant somewhere in Ohio named “Chichis”- point is ANYONE remotely fluent in Spanish would not name a restaurant after what is in slang Spanish translated to something like “boobies”.
Never eaten there, but perhaps their main courses include chicken breasts with salsa?