From the PR Wall of Shame

This is what happens when you don't check your languages... My predecessor in this chair, Paul Studebaker, now editor of Plant Services magazine, called it "the unfortunate acronym of the week." I think he's on to something.  EuroBLECH 2008:Innovative solutions for sheet metal working I guess "blech" means something different in one or the other European languages than it does in English. There are hosts of examples of what happens when you don't check, most of which are apparently urban legends, like the original meaning of the characters chosen for Coca-Cola in Chinese, which supposedly meant "Bite the wax tadpole," and similar. Some, however are quite real. The Chrysler Corporation put the accent on the final "e" in the name of the Plymouth Volare, causing it to be the "maybe it will fly" car. I know about that, 'cause I owned one. As businesses become globalized, it is the responsibility of communicators from both vendors and pr agencies and media to watch out for stuff like this, and prevent potential embarassment...