UNICUM ZWACK

 

Zwack is made from a secret blend of over 40 different herbs and spices. Some of the herbs and spices are distilled, some are macerated, then blended together and aged in oak casks at the factory in Budapest for over 6 months, giving Zwack liqueur a dark, amber color. It is widely known as the National Shot of Hungary , and is produced by Unicum Zwack, plc, in Budapest, Hungary, and now imported into the US by Diageo plc. Zwack is best served ice-cold, straight up, as a shot. It is also great as a cocktail known as the "Mad Hungarian? (an ice-cold Zwack shot dropped into a high-energy drink).

OK?

Maybe you're wondering why I posted that.

Well, it's Christmas morning and as we don't celebrate Christmas much around here anymore, things are a bit slow. There's no bedlam from kids, animals and guests. The house is clean and tidy and completely free of ripped wrapping paper. We didn't bother to prepare a Christmas breakfast as we've done in the past - corn fritters, bacon, toast etc. - and I haven't been playing a medley of Christmas music - Orff, Enigma, Pachelbel, Albinoni and others including my favourite The Little Drummer Boy.

For some reason 'Unicum Zwack' popped into my head. It's always intrigued me as a brand name, being one of those dark 'digestif' liqueurs like Jagermeister and Fernet Branca favoured by Europeans. Disgusting stuff all. It's an example of how popular brand names in one country (Unicum Zwack is Hungarian) don't necessarily cross over to other languages and cultures although Jagermeister is  an inexplicable exception having been popularised by association with Heavy Metal bands - I guess the Germanic and storm trooper - like name appeals to wanna be brown shirts and white supremacists.

I've now been thinking of other examples of branding that is a bit naff when attempts are made to put them across other languages and cultures.

No doubt you've heard of the Mitsubishi cock-up when they introduced Mitsubishi Pajero to Spanish speaking countries (Spain, North America and Latin America). The Pajero - a SUV turned out to be very aptly named as 'pajero' in Spanish means 'wanker'. When they realised their mistake Mitsubishi quickly rebranded it in those countries to Montero. 

Here, from Planet Languages are  a few more examples of other well-known brands getting it wrong:

Mercedes Benz also got off on the wrong foot when entering the Chinese market. Their brand name was translated as “Bensi”, or in Chinese: “Rush to die”. Not an ideal name for a car manufacturer who needs to reassure customers that their safety is paramount!

KFC was yet another victim to the pitfalls of breaking the Chinese market: their famous slogan “Finger-lickin’ good” was somewhat literally translated to “Eat your fingers off”. Luckily, it didn’t hurt them too much as they are the top fast-food chain in China today.

Coca-Cola also rivalled Pepsi’s mishap with their bizarrely wonderful translated brand name “Bite the wax tadpole” in China. 

 Braniff Airlines are no longer flying, but they will be fondly remembered for their 1987 ad campaign “Fly in leather”, which was translated into Spanish as “Vuela en cuero”. This worked fine in most of Latin America, but in Mexico it caused a bit of a stir as the connotation was “Fly naked”.

Barf – a detergent made in Iran. In its country of origin, it has a lovely clean meaning: “snow”.

 Siri – Apple’s virtual assistant has a fairly innocuous name in most countries, except Georgia where it is a rather rude word for male genitalia.

Fart Bar – a candy bar from Poland, where its name means “lucky bar”. 

Pee Cola – a refreshing soda bottled in Ghana, where it translates as “very good cola”. 

As it is Christmas I thought that I'd look at some of Robert's favourite mythical and idealised beings and people to see how they've fared in the crossover.

God seems OK - not unique given that there are so many of them but the simple name of God hasn't been buggered about with much. There are of course other names that have varied in popularity but Robert never uses these. He just says "God - the one and only etc." This is kind of like saying "Coca Cola original" or "X - formerly known as Twitter" Or "Richard's Bass Bag - the original bass bagging site" You know, all nonsense.

The Virgin Mary is a bit suspect as its an example of idealising a possibly real person and attributing traits and values to them that are patently not true. Sure Mary was at some time a virgin but the idea of 'virgin birth' is just silly unless it was an early form of IVF.

Jesus Christ is the most used name for Jesus and, no surprises here, is incorrect in both names. Jesus was likely named Joshua or similar and didn't have a surname as such. He was historically referred to as Joshua the wanderer, Jeshua the carpenter or Stop thief! or Hey you! depending on the your place in the political spectrum. 'Christ' derives from the Greek 'christos' meaning anointed.

The one of Robert's mythical figures he worships that gives problems is The Holy Spirit or The Holy Ghost. To Western people this ghost thing conjures up images of Caspar or Spooky on the one hand or sinister malevolent spirits on the other. When it was invented at the Nicaea Council in 329 (and subsequently 'entered' into all previous religious literature including the Bible) it was described as 'The Holy Spirit - the Lord, the Giver of Life' which is now contained in the Nicene Creed.

As 'the Giver of Life', and if you, like me believe that Mary was impregnated via an early form of In vitro fertilisation (IVF), then The Holy Spirit is like some sort of sperm bank which explains many of the images of it depicted as some sort of cosmic orgasm or something firing off particles like an onanist in a porno cinema.

I hope that gives you some food for thought and remember: Have a very merry Christmas.