Taiwan brand-name failures

Discussion Open Forum
1

Just a bit of fun/nonsense here.

At the vet this morning, they had a big display for a new top-of-the-range pet food. They’d decided to call it … R.A.W. BARF. Yup, some marketing company got paid money for coming up with that.

Near my house there’s a shop (I think they sell clothes) which may or may not be called CONT. It’s hard to tell, because the O is stylized so badly my brain insists on reading it as a U. And even if it is an ‘O’, it’s still the same word if you’ve got the right accent.

Anyone else got any favourites?

1 Like
2

T-bag tea.
Wooden Pecker cram school

2 Likes
3

There’s a Cuntry House coffee shop somewhere in the jungles of Xinzhuang

1 Like
4

IMG20181007123800

5 Likes
5

Wanko is my favourite.

I’ve also seen Spunk tours (a trend perhaps…?)

Omar whiskey

1 Like
6

Or language!

7

TP tea. Idk if its a chain or not.

8

Ah, that reminds me of that drink called ‘P’. I used to drink it quite regularly just so I could giggle over the tin (and the fact that it’s yellow).

On the same theme, I’ve always wondered what a pocari is, and why I’d want to drink its sweat. Sounds like a small, tree-dwelling mammal to me.

2 Likes
9

I don’t know, but it’s my go-to sports drink.

2 Likes
10

Calpis?

1 Like
11

Or a tribe name… So you’re drinking sweat from uh… pocari tribe members.

2 Likes
12

Not really their fault because they named if before the SARS outbreak.

But sarsaparilla was called sars before I remember as a kid.

13

image

Not Taiwan but worth an honourable mention

image

4 Likes
14

This.
It always sounds like they are saying “cow piss”

2 Likes
15

It gets worse if you know some Taiwanese . With my bad tones ,I avoid trying to say things like 700 in Mandarin, because if slightly wrong, could cause much fallout with Taiwanese speakers :scream:

2 Likes
16

Worth mentioning that Calpis and Pocari Sweat are both Japanese brands, so you can’t pin them on Taiwan.

In Danshui, there’s an English bushiban called “BJ English,” and the following repair shop signs can be found all over the island:

image

7 Likes
17

And the fact that the vitamin B in it makes your pee particularly yellow is an added bonus. :grin:

18

I thought this thread was going to be about Taiwan’s failures to create global brand names.

19

“Hunt God” (hunting equipment, I think)

Some store had a slogan, “Let us be your PRIME MATE”! (best friend?)

Of course the famous Pot Plant Auction (should read Potted Plant Market)

Lover Toilet Paper

Morning Wind (air freshener)

“Little Ding Dong Science Park” (Xiao Dingdang is the local name for Astro-Boy)

They should have run these by “Shaw’s Institute of Translatology”!

1 Like
20

Yeah the way Japanese people use English has always fascinated me.