The Oak
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This happens all the time with words and names. Maria Sharapova's surname should be pronounced "Sharra-Poh-Va", not Sharra-Pova. And half the English now pronounce the word Wrath as "raff" instead of "roff". These are Americanisations. There is also the spread of mispronunciations due to media "democracy" where any bugger can get on TV no matter how vocally incompetent they are. So we get the letter H pronounced as "hache" instead of the correct "ache" and we seem to be getting an increase in dialect words, which is fine on local TV, but ridiculous on national TV, as a majority of people won't understand the meaning of the word. After all the point of language is communication |
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Googlypants
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Jif kitchen cream!
The J was giving everybody a hard time in Europe apparently - Still sounds a bit odd calling it Cif |
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¸.•*¨)Sweet Sinner¸.•*¨)
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Opal fruits 2 starburst..I dont know why though.... |
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claire.claireplant@btinternet.com
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I do not know if this is an urban myth, but the Mitsubishi Starion was so named because the English misunderstood the pronounciation of the Boss when he said 'Stallion' - does this count (they also produce the Colt, which does give some credence to the story) |
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gorilla
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In the UK Ford used to have an Si as part of their car range - they changed this when they brought in the Ka.
A Kasi is a toilet for those not understanding this!! |
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julienasfoster
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Pschitt (French soft drink) never made it to England - wonder why... |
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sukey
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Oil of ulay became oil of olay |
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foxy
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we had a chocolate bar called marathon when i was 10 later they changed it to snicker bar......i mean why? because the rest of europe called it that i guess, am 52 now and i doubt the name change kept it so popular |
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manc.lass
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they changed the chocolate bar marathan to snickers because of the europeans. I'm english and still find myself saying marathan now and again - i'm showing my age now :)
i'm 30 and it changed when i was in school. |
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One Burnt Toast
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That was same for 'Olay' face cream which eventually changed into 'Ulay' (UK) while for Australia it was named 'oil of Ulan'. Netherlands - 'Oil of Olaz'.
I remember that cream because my mother was fond of 'Olay' and few years later (around 1999) she showed me how they had changed the name. I used to buy that cream for her on special occassions. She has now moved on from 'Ulay' and is buying different facial creams instead.
I remember how they used to have 'Appletise' and yes they have added 'R' to the end of that now.
Good luck with your little project. :-) |
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guitarvirgin
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Generally speaking products are not renamed because people describe them incorrectly, they are renamed because by so doing it raises minor confusion about the product in the mind of the consumer. This forces the consumer to think about and therefore remember the product. It is called marketing. |
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Emily Hobhouse
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It was made in South Africa and it was called Appletizer in that country. Which is why they changed the name. Oil of Olay - same thing. It was also invented in SA. It's a politlcal thing and had to do with sanctions. Weetabix and Weetbix, too. |
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miranda404@btinternet.com
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The UK stationery company Platignum used to pronounce the name as it is written, though everyone outside of the company called it "Platinum". Then, about 15 years ago, they got fed up with the common pronounciation and changed it back to being pronounced Platignum! |
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P.K.
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has anyone noticed the latest adverts for visa, (on British TV)
they are pronouncing the cards name as Vay-ser
is it a re-branding? or just the numpty that does the voice-over? |
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flakeyum
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the drink wkd. i don't think its been renamed but when it first came out, i only ever said it when i was totally drunk so i used to say kdw or wdk or abc drink coz i couldn't remember what it was.. the bar man always knew what i meant!!!! |
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geronimo
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a washing powder called OMO
It upset the gay community in government so they did away with it..then they did away with a sticker of a black doll called a GOLLYWOG that advertised Robertson's Jam |
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jojo
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the coke slogan "makes you feel alive" was dropped in china as it was translated into "brings your ancestors back from the dead"
the nova car when translated into mexican means "nogo" |
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Pinkdragons
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This isn't a product but the 'Royal Mail' nearly changed their name to 'Consignitoir' But realised that it would cost a lot of money to get it printed on all their vans etc and it wouldn't be as recognisable as royal mail. |
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SG Elite
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Darkie to Darlie toothpaste! |
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Pardus
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Fury mentions Oil of Ulay/Olay...When it was first marketed, the advert (in magazines) used to say "pronounced ooo-lay".
This later changed because everyone said U-lay instead. Then it changed again!!!
Dime bars have now become Daim bars (which was the name given to them in other European countries - Tenerife sold them as such years ago)...
I know it hasn't altered, but most British people say "Nestles" but the correct way for Nestlé is "Nestlay". |
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beauxlox
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The Swedish cement company Skånska (pronounced skawn-ska) officially changed their name in the '80s to Skanska, because everyone who was not Scandinavian (the only languages where the å exists) pronounced it like that. Just to remove that small circle above the a cost them millions of dollars - letterheads, visit cards, invoice paper, building insignia, cement bags etc.
Very few people are prepared to take the trouble to get a product name right. Where a foreign name is involved, people seem to thinks "It's foreign, so I'm bound to get it wrong", and then they do, even when the pronunciation is easy. How many times have you heard Mitsubishi pronounced Mitsubooshi? Isn't Mitsu-bishi (it means 3 diamonds) easy enough? The German manufacturer of shaver and curlers and kitchen devices called Braun, is pronounced Brown and it is the German word for brown .... so why does everyone in UK and America called it Brawn? Isn't Brown simple enough, for God's sake? There is an e on the end of Porsche - it is pronounced. So the name more or less rhymes with "divorce yer" - it is NOT Porsh. Is that really so difficult? |
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Old Fart
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Vacuum cleaners all being called "Hoover" when Hoover is a company name and nothing to do with all the other makes of vacuum cleaner. |
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jameshens
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April 19th - Marathon became Snickers. For the obvious reason... |
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fumingpuma
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Not a product exactly..but Sainsbury the food retailers have become Sainburys because the public always added the 's' automatically...
And 'Jif' cleaning fluid became 'Cif' (pronounced Sif) in the UK because the 'J' didn't work in other languages (e.g. Spanish BUT nevermind that it NOW sounds like a Venereal disease to the Brits...added: I now see that Cif has already been mentioned in responses above)
I did spot a 'cheesy snack' packet on sale early 80's by Spanish snack manufacturers that was called 'Bum' whilst on vacation...never saw that on sale in UK!
And then there was the famous 'misnamed' car model Vauxhall/Opel had called the 'Nova'...which in Spanish means 'doesn't go'! So wasn't ideal for encouraging sales! |
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witchia
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in our town oil of ulay was called oil of ugly mayhap that had something to do with the change |
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Graham H
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fcuk designer clothing and cosmetics brand has a good chance of being renamed.for the same reason |
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isaulte
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Apparently the Mitsubishi Pajero had to be renamed in Spain as "pajero" means something quite different there, beginning with a W and ending with an R. |
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freebird31wizard
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We had a cleaning stuff that was called Jif. Internationally no one could really pronounce the J it seemed.. Now they named it cif instead... I see everyone above blaming the europeans for that... well we dutch people could pronounce it just fine and hate the new name... I still prefer jif... I think the spanish were the only ones who couldnt pronounce the J the way we did.... :) |
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LynseyB
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jiff got changed to ciff does that count? |
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delph
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Lara Croft was originally going to be named Laura Croft, but the americans cant pronounce Laura |
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