Marketing

[nineveh_uk]

How the TK Maxx website described this garment that I purchased recently:

Description: Green high neck hoodie
Colour: Green (obviously)

How the manufacturer (Naketano*) described this garment:

Description: Ralle Rizzo Pimped IV
Colour: LSD Trip Melange

Fortunately it is a cosy sweatshirt with a high collar, and no-one knows the name when you wear it.

I think that someone should tell them that naming your sweatshirts things like I Will Fuck Your Brain ceased to be cool and edgy around the time the Sex on the Beach cocktail hit the mass market.

They do get it right sometimes, though: the Jedi Path looks exactly what a Jedi would wear on a chilly planet. Luke probably has one stashed in a cupboard on Skellig Michael.

*German

Comments

[tree_and_leaf]

German

I am unsurprised to hear that, given the weird and tiresome vaguely-hip German obsession with the word 'fuck.'

[nineveh_uk]

I didn't know that was a thing, but it certainly explains the weird crossover between Star Wars and the obscene. OK, it doesn't quite explain the Star Wars element, but half is better than nothing.

The advantage of the company being German is that my hoodie is nice and long; I assume they are cutting to a slightly longer body.

[tree_and_leaf]

It doesn't help that a lot of Germans seem to think that 'fuck' is the English equivalent of 'ficken', which it isn't - I mean, they're cognates, but while 'ficken' still a vulgar term, it's not as offensive as 'fuck.'* I think they think they're going for something equivalently edgy to the FCUK campaign, but missing, at least to English native speakers!

The Star Wars element is still strange, though.

[nineveh_uk]

That would make sense. My German slang is not exactly stellar, but none of their German names seems to reach a level of offensiveness/vulgarity of the English ones - there isn't a ScheißScheißScheiß sweatshirt. And I suppose that if they are not aiming at an Anglophone market that's fine, but it's weird here!

[azdak]

Some of the colour names are pretty unpleasant - "Schmutzmuschi pink" is not a designation that would make me rush to put that particular garment on, but since they also describe another colour as "nasty mint melange", the unpleasantness is presumably a feature rather than a bug. At least it´s creative, I suppose.

[nineveh_uk]

*Google translates* Well, that's certainly an interesting choice. I think they're mostly concerned with being Edgy, but it certainly ends up being bizarre. Is the aim to ensure that only young and hip people buy the clothes, hoping that the staid will be put off by the names? And what is a horny "Senfmaus" anyway??