The one I heard was one that never got to the implementation stage. It was a Chinese company wishing to expand their sowing machines into the US and wanted to call their company in the US ‘Ordinary Sowing Company’. They apparently did some research and though that was along the lines of Standard Oil, or General Electric. They were encouraged to change their name and did.
I don’t get it.
“Ordinary” is a synonym for some definitions of “standard” and “general.”
If you’re a Dutchman you might think twice about buying a Citroen…don’t want to get a lemon!
I always thought “Pocari Sweat” was a terrible name for the sports drink from Japan, but the brand has been around for years so perhaps it’s just me.
But the name makes me think of a delicate little creature from the veldt, perhaps a juvenile antelope, being run through some diabolical contraption in order to extract its sweat for thirsty humans. Poor widdle baby pocari!
.
It’s only an issue if you assume that in the Netherlands “lemon” has the idiomatic sense of “dud car” that it has in the US.
Bimbo bread is in regular supermarkets around here. I mentally pronounce it more like it would be in Spanish - beem-bo. It was kind of funny at first but I got over that quickly.
This is obviously untrue, as Mexican Pemex marketed a grade of fuel as “Nova”, before the Chevy Nova waas introduced.
They sold agricultural equipment?
Because calling your company Ordinary is unlikely to inspire confidence in the quality of your goods.
Japanese soft drink Calpis has never taken off in the US despite multiple name changes such as “Calypso”
Evidently not completely without hiccups, in the sports-sponsorship world:
One is supposed to name all that stuff Acme.
So do I.
The regrettably named BJ series balances. And while we’re at it, the BM series.
I’ve seen that here. I bought a pouch for a prank yet to be determined.
I always had to suppress a chuckle when I heard talk about Wang Laboratories.
André Citroën’s father was Dutch, and actually changed his name to Citroen (his own father had taken the name Limoenman because he was a fruit seller).
This probably has everything to do with the stuff being absolutely disgusting. Back in the '60s when we lived in Japan we joked that the company must have asked some GI what he thought of it and used his response as the name for the drink. There was also a Cracker Jack type snack called “Carapu” that we figured had a similar genesis.
I still giggle every time someone mentions the German company “Siemens.” Because I will never stop being twelve.
Not sure this qualifies since they never introduced the model in the US. When I was in Japan 22 years ago, I saw a van with the large letters M…U… on the back. As I got closer, I realized that the full lettering was Mysterious Utility. Still mulling that one over.
Oh, God. I’m 48 and a half, and I’ve just now realized that the insult “wanker” means “one who wanks,” i.e., a masturbator.
While not a brand name, I recall that Microsoft had an issue with their product registration code in, IIRC, Venezuela, because “hembra” there, which simply means “female” in most of the Spanish-speaking world, in particular means something insulting in that nation (“bitch,” I seem to recall).