Because I have worked in advertising in countries around the world, I am familiar with the practice of multinational organisations who re-use TV commercials in different markets and over-dub them in the local language. This produces cringe-enducing howlers from time to time, one of which was brought to my attention this morning by John Ward of Not Born Yesterday and The Slog fame in his weekend Slogger’s Review Bar. I just had to share it with you.
This classic from Gaviscon comes under John’s “In The Media” headline. I’m not sure how it works, but my guess is that the storyboard he has shown is an English language commercial, translated into some foreign tongue and then back again to English to demonstrate the mistakes that ESL (English as a Second Language) produces from time to time.
If you can’t come up with Pants on Fire nominees to add to my previous post you might find the opportunity to post examples of ESL irresistable. With stuff like this out there we could start a whole new blog!
Michael Weaver
February 22, 2010