When Good Words Go Bad

“Say what you mean; mean what you say.”

We’ve all heard some variation on that one, I bet. Probably used it yourself once or twice, even. Seems pretty straightforward, don’cha think?

Well, here’s a couple of little tidbits I read the other day from American Demographics magazine:

• When Pepsi started marketing its products in China a few years back, they translated their slogan, "Pepsi Brings You Back to Life" pretty literally. The slogan in Chinese really meant, "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave."
• A hair products company, Clairol, introduced the "Mist Stick", a curling iron, in Germany only to find out that mist is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the “manure stick”.
• When Gerber first started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as here in the USA - with the cute baby on the label. Later they found out companies in Africa routinely put pictures on the label of what's inside the box – since most people can't read.
  

Hey, that could never happen to me, you’re probably saying to yourself about now. Well… maybe. But sometimes you have no control over just what point of view a person brings to your, uh, message.

The Farts Store

The other day I was parking the car when we happened to notice the auto dealership across the street. I didn’t think anything of it – hey, it was just your run of the mill car business, but Mrs. MZM said, “You gotta see this from where I sit!”

I looked again, but all I saw was an ordinary building, y’know? Over on one end was the word “Service”, but right in front of us was the word, “Parts”. Still no big deal, as far as I can tell. But – color me intrigued.

So I scooched over in the seat and looked again, and lo and behold (which I believe is an olde English expression that means hey, looky thar!), an amazing transformation took place, right before my eyes. Up there, big as life, the building sign now proudly proclaimed in no uncertain terms: “FARTS”!

Now, if you’re anything like me (and sincere condolences if that happens to be the case), you’re gonna have to stop and think about that one a mite.

Oh, I know, I know; obviously the place doesn’t sell, y’know, liver-and-garlic sausage (or something equally disastrous, if you get my meanin’). It’s just that an ordinary light pole, when one’s point of view was juuuust right – caused a somewhat, um, regrettable alteration in one particular letter. Unfortunately, it was enough to completely discombobulate the message.

Hey, I realize it’s simply a matter of bein’ in exactly the right spot. Still, it was not only a funny thing to see, but the – can we call it an ‘incident’? – made me wonder how many other signs I could find that, well, don’t necessarily say what the proprietors of these shops think they say. Or maybe they do?

So here’s a few signs for your contemplation, from one of my favorite spots on the Internet, the FAIL Blog:




Hey, have you ever run across any similar images? Share the URLs in the comment box and let us all enjoy 'em!