We all know that if people can play games with a product name, they will.

But there is nothing like those names in other languages that do the job for you.

We’ve all giggled like school children over Pschitt lemonade, Colon vineyards, Extra Dick marking pens, Fanny jam, Cockburn’s port, Bimbo bread, JussiPussi bread rolls, Aass beer, Blackbush whiskey, Bonka coffee, Horlicks milk modifier, Cock soup, Fart ski wax, Big Nuts candy bar, Finger Marie biscuits and, who could forget Spotted Dick pudding. I could go on, but you’d think I was making them up.

As you will notice, these names are usually found on mass-market consumer goods and make us laugh depending on which language we are thinking in. Fart may be funny to you, but it means “luck” in Polish. When Nestlé bought out Rowntree’s Chocolate Company, they soon found out that the UK’s favourite Kit Kat chocolate bar is also the rest of Europe’s favourite cat food.

It is rare to see these gaffes on up-market gear. And the reason for this little story is a magazine that I found in my dermatologist’s waiting room.  An intellectual monthly edited by a respected authority on the arts. Pierre Hügli. Unfortunately, egotism got the better of him and he just couldn’t resist adding his initials to the magazine title banner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 11th, 2009 at 9:00 am and is filed under Main blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.