08 August 2008

"Fairlyland" and "Virgin Grave"

Japanese products often feature English labels. Well, let's say somewhat English labels. It seems that English sells well, but the marketing gurus are not very proficient in the language and often unaware of the message that the product description gives. Here are two really funny examples:
  • Text on Cake from am/pm: "Darling sweets might take you to a fairlyland" - What is a fairlyland?! I guess it is meant to say fairyland. So this cake is really cool... Are they meaning to say it's some space cake?! I thought use of marihuana is quite severely punished in Japan, so I'm surprised they sell it at the konbini ;-)
  • Underwear and stockings label: "Virgin grave". Hmmm, does that mean that you will die as a virgin if you wear this underwear? Not sure whether that is clever promotion :-)

Another funny one are the cleaning staff at GenkiJACS. They wear t-shirts that read: "Clean Staff". That's a bit too much personal information, isn't it? After all it's more relevant is "to clean" than "to be clean".

1 comment:

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