Communicate from the heart

Posted: June 6th, 2007 | Author: dotblack | Filed under: Branding, Business | 3 Comments »

It’s a fact, many brands and tag lines get word-by-word translations. Imagine having Nike’s “Just do it” translated into Arabic? Now think about what that would mean, it’d turn into such an offensive tag line instead of being a catch phrase. And otherwise is true too. Some phrases exist in both English and Arabic languages. Interestingly Mobinil a telecomm operator in Egypt has got it right with their tag using two equivalent phrases as their catch lines.

In English: Communicate form the heart

Mobinil, Communicate from the heart

In Arabic: ????? ?? ?????

???????, ????? ?? ????

The two are so different in meaning even though they are nearly word-by-word translations.

In English: It’s about Sincerity and Passion.

In Arabic: It’s an S-lang phrase, used when spending on something accessible and easy to purchase in a way it could be taken for granted. Turned into text and formal, it is talking sincerely and freely all the way from deep down.

Although I feel there has been a mix up somewhere, I could still give it a plus. But still, the identity has a different taste in English, deeper in Arabic.

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1 Rami Kayyali said at 4:42 pm on June 8th, 2007:
For some reason, this reminds me of the Pajero incident.
2 dotone said at 4:01 pm on June 9th, 2007:
Which incident?
3 Rami Kayyali said at 8:11 pm on June 22nd, 2007:
Woops, sorry about the very very very late reply. Your comments are moderated, so I sometimes forget to comeback and check for a reply.

I meant how Pajero meant a very bad word in Mexico, if I recall correctly. It was interesting though, Misubishi had to rename the car there.