Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) What's in a Name

(thread drift)

I was involved with IBM for a bit. It was a little bland but some inadvertent gaffs did slip through.

Around the time of the launch of the PS/2 there was a new connector called MCA. Later as they expanded it there was a faster version called MCA32 which gained the marketing name Fat Pipe, meaning fast pipes between devices for data.

We did a european launch and as we went from country to country, locals assisted us with the translation of the slides. We got to France and I suspect we lost something in translation.

The slides said Grande Pipe, as we got to this part of the presentation the audience burst into laughter. Needless to say this blew the tempo of the entire remaining presentation.

Afterwards we asked someone what went wrong. It turns out that Grand Pipe is the french slang for "big swinging d*ck". Preparation and local skills should never be underestimated. Mind you the local that translated it for us never said anything . i never did pay him back.

Toyota did not call the MR2 that in France, I forget the model name they came up with, but merde was not exactly the best name for a car in France!

Its called the MR (emmair)

As to Alistair's product launch, in french slang a pipe is not so much slang for male genitalia, but more for a Monica Lewinsky style act.

Didn't Volkswagen sell the Mark 1 Golf in The Us and Canada as 'The Rabbit'?

G

Perhaps they should have marketed it as the VW Rabbi for the Israeli market

No comment. We've really only has one Welsh Sports car- the Gilbern of beloved memory. product of a very clever collaboration between a GILes Smith a Welsh pork butcher from Pontypridd and BERNard Friese a German, engineer
great motor though. I had one of the MG engine GTs and it was the Dogs

They were fine looking cars. I particularly liked the shooting brake version of the Invader.

In North America, the MR2 wasn't even badged as a Toyota in the first year. The story goes that they were worried it would be a failure and thus sully the reputation of Toyota; another version is that they were worried the Toyota name would be a negative in the NA sports car market. Either way, the first cars were debadged and simply had the MRC crest and name on them.

Pandy,

I wanted to say thank you but I guess this just makes it worse ! (not meant at you). Anyway form the stage you could detect that something was not quite as Big Blue intended.

In my defence at that time I was young, naive and keen to embrace local cultures. Today I realise these were merely defence words and don't cover up the fact that I remain daft

I went to John MacDonalds in the early 70s Back Sanderson Road
Newcastle upon Tyne for an Invader estate . I loved its butch looks ( still do ) . He had sold it and tried to sell me a mog with bladder seats . I thought he was mad how could I pull the birds in that old thing shot through my mind. My how times have changed me.