Just saw an advert for a sat-nav unit which features a ‘safety camera locator’ to give ‘advance warning of accident black-spots’.
That’s got to be the most creative piece of advertising I’ve seen in some time.
Huh? What is that in English?
Which bit? The advertiser’s euphemisms for ‘speed camera’ (which was my point), or ‘sat-nav’ (which I thought was universal)?
I’m not sure I see where the problem is.
There’s a GPS unit here in Australia- known as the Road Angel- which advertises the fact they’re got all the fixed speed cameras, red light cameras, school zones, and accident black spots installed in the unit, and will warn you when you’re approaching them, speeding in a school zone, etc. It’s not exactly new technology, either- they’ve been around for a few years now.
Yup, Road Angel sells in the UK too.
I think Gorilla’s impressed at the advertising euphemism “give advance warning of accident black-spots” when they mean “let you know if you’re safe to floor it”
No no no. It means “touch the brakes to momentarily dip below the speed limit”. I wonder how long before they bring out the RAC Rally special edition that reads pace notes? “400 m, flat out into crest into kink left severity 4. 200m straight, sharp right. Congratulations you have now arrived at your destination. Welcome to Tesco”
The wording of that ad raised a smile with me, too GorillaMan. 
Wishing you and yours a good Christmas at this difficult time in your neck of the woods …
My dad tells a wonderful story of WWII-era paranoia gone silly. He was a kid living near Sydney Harbour, and there was a large American battleship coming to town. It was top secret, but of course every man and his dog knew about it weeks before, and in any event, it’s a bit hard to hide a battleship in the middle of your city. Anyway, it was officially hush-hush, and nobody was supposed to mention it. So there was a guy with a large motorboat who decided it would be a good money-spinner to take people out into the middle of the harbour for a close look at the ship. His sign?
“ONE SHILLING FOR A TOUR AROUND *THE OBJECT IN THE HARBOUR”
"D
Of course, his homemade 1940s sign didn’t have Vbulletin coding errors in it…
I’m not a driver myself, but I understand that these things do alert you to accident black-spots as well as the speed cameras.
I think the translation problem has to do with the term “black spot” in the context of auto accidents. We don’t do that here.
It’s been decades for me since I was in the UK or Ireland, so I may have the nuances wrong, but one or both of those countries would put up a road sign with a black spot where a serious road accident (death?) had occurred. The idea was to warn motorists to be especially careful.
As I said, not a concept most Americans are familiar with.
Sometimes advertising firms impress by virtue of producing really really great adverts. This is the current Christmas Irn-bru one. It’s a classic.