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Lost in translation

As part of its promotional push in the lead up to launching direct flights to Buenos Aires in December, Air New Zealand has been flying journalists from various food and travel publications to Argentina to experience the sights and sounds of the city. This has resulted in a slew of articles in local press from journalists who have been fortunate enough to go on a South American junket on the credit card of the airline.   

Local publications have been filled with all the typical Argentinean features, including glorious steaks, fanatic football scenes, and elegant tango steps. And one article in the Herald honoured the street art of the nation by using the colourful splash of some graffiti as its leading image.

And while this piece of street art is eye-catching, the text featured on it is incongruous to say the least. Written in bright orange alongside the image of a hippy version of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara is the statement ‘por amor, usa perservativo’, which roughly translates into ‘for the sake of love, use a condom’.

This once again indicates that just because something looks or sounds beautiful in another language, it isn’t necessarily always the case.  

Ad agency Hill Holiday previously used this to its advantage in an ad campaign for Clark chocolate bars that made banal statement sound super sexy when uttered by beautiful women in their native languages.    

And to show that even English words can take the mind to the wrong destination at times, Buzzfeed released a list of 13 words that sound sexy but actually aren’t. 

   

    

   

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