Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

SisyphusRocks7 t1_j07pbbg wrote

Reply to comment by thatbvg in [OC] geospatial distribution of different fast food chains in the USA (included some of your suggestions from my previous post) by MaverickJW

Multi-brand companies usually focus group that choice at a minimum, because of the many bad stories of clueless multi-nationals in the 1960s and 1970s. The most famous example is probably when Chevrolet tried to sell its “Nova” model in Mexico, which failed badly because “no va” in Spanish means “(you) do not go.”

Is there a potentially similar sounding word in Arabic to “Carl’s” that they might want to avoid associating with?

2

thatbvg t1_j07pzb2 wrote

True. I have no idea as I don’t speak Arabic but maybe you’re correct. I remember Mitsubishi launched the Pajero in Spain and they didn’t sell any because it’s not a very nice word in Spanish.

2