Thursday, June 07, 2012

The Perils of Globalization

iStock/Thinkstock
Is the Swedish furniture giant Ikea selling sex? Oh please. Here's the headline:

IKEA red-faced over product that sounds like sex.

Ikea, the Swedish furniture giant hires translator to vet merchandise as product names run afoul of Thailand’s conservative mores. Their story is just the latest example of the perils of names in a globalized economy.
Read the entire article here.

One more tidbit:
The company, which launched its fifth-largest superstore in Bangkok last year, realized that terms like Jättebra, for a plant pot, can echo a crude Thai term for sex.

1 comment:

Eurobubba said...

And what do the Thais think "Bangkok" sounds like?