The Travesty of Mis-Translation

This morning, Fred, my francophone art director, and I were speaking about a commercial I thought was particularly bad.

GREG: That was a poor choice of actor. It was a complete travesty.

FRED: Really? You thought he was a travesti?

GREG: Absolutely. Didn’t you?

FRED: Well, he didn’t look like one to me.

GREG: No?

FRED: Well, he wasn’t wearing a dress...or makeup.

Pause.

GREG: What are you talking about?

FRED: Don’t you have that word in English? Travesti? For when a man dresses up like a woman?

Pause.

GREG: Are you talking about a transvestite?

FRED: I guess. In French it’s pronounced travesti.

GREG: Oh. Okay. In English travesty is just a big mistake. He’s not a travesti. He’s just a really bad actor.

FRED: Yes. I agree.

Even the hippies will find this one weird.

We have a 5-year-old who still wears pull-ups to bed. Or rather, we're making her wear them to avoid doing laundry every day.

We recently purchased a pack of Up & Go pull-ups...

Despite the English on the front of this package, all of the small type is in French or Italian. So I'm guessing there aren't a lot of mother-tongue English speakers at the Up & Go plant. Certainly not in their design or marketing departments... 

Call me prudish, but is "Make love not war" something you really need to print on pull-ups? Then again, these are sold to the French and Italians.

Cool Business Ideas

I love learning about unique business practices. I keep a file of the ones I find most interesting. The most famous is Google's policy of encouraging employees to spend 20% of their work time on side projects. But here are a couple others I've come across recently:

Zappo's offers new employees a $2,000 bonus to quit after they've completed a four-month training period. CEO Tony Hsieh says, "It's best to know early on if an employee doesn't buy into the vision or the culture."

A new agency called Big Agency Defectors (BAD) has a 20:20:20 plan. For all new clients, they will develop three creative routes for $20k. For another $20k, they'll blow out any one of those routes into a full campaign. And they'll charge a 20% markup of production on any ads produced.

Anyone have any other cool ideas to share?

Anyone have any specifically from Swiss or Euro businesses?

My Debut in Fast Company

My letter to the editor was published in Fast Company.

Now, I will be able to say "Fast Company published my piece on Brand Awareness."

That's got to boost my potential income by at least 20%, right?

Blogosphere Experiments, Part 3 (or Bakugan, Britney Spears, AIG bailout)

According to Google Analytics, some weird things are happening with this blog.

I usually get around 40 hits a day, which is very flattering. A huge thanks to everyone who reads this.

But traffic has spiked to around 80, and has been holding for some time. And I think it's because of my Bakugan post.

Google Analytics tells me that this Bakugan post has received 839 hits since it was first posted a month ago. I know those aren't you regular readers.

And a search for "Bakugan au combat" lists this blog immediately after two Bakugan instructional videos on You Tube.


So I've double the visitors to my blog with a serendipitous post title. The Bakugan visitors don't seem to spend much time on the site once they realize it's just cultural commentary. But I wish they'd click on a GoogleAd ad or two while they're there.

Blogosphere Experiments, Part 2

In the last 7 days, I've received 12 clicks for a total of $18.84.

So since this blog began, I've earned $36.50 (Google sends me my first check after I reach $100.00).

I wonder if you could fund a party like this. Start a blog, run about 10 Google Ads on it, and tell your invitees the more they click, the bigger the party.

Small Talk

When people don't have much to say, they talk about the weather.

Except for expats in Geneva. We talk about travel. When Milan is a 3 hour drive and Paris is 5, you can't go wrong with, "So, got any trips planned?"

And it's much more interesting than meteorology.

Oreos in Apple Juice

An American co-worker recently received a care package with three packs of Oreos. While I would have hoarded them like free hotel toiletries, she was kind enough to bring them into the office.

SWISS:  What are these?

AMERICAN:  Oreo cookies.

SWISS:  They look like biscuits.

AMERICAN:  Um...Well, you should try them.

SWISS:  They taste like chocolate biscuits.

AMERICAN:  Well, they're not. They're cookies. You should try dunking them in milk.

SWISS:  You put these in milk?

AMERICAN:  Yeah, that's the best way to eat them. See on the package, it says, "Milk's favorite cookie."

SWISS:  That's weird.

AMERICAN:  Putting them in milk?

SWISS:  No, the company telling you what drink to have with their food. What if it said "Apple juice's favorite cookie"? Can't you choose for yourself?

The Swiss are neutral. But they apparently do not appreciate having their beverages dictated to them.

Lesson: Do not share your Oreos.