Audi proudly introduces the shittiest car on the road today

Imagine the grand unveiling at the Frankfort Auto Show. A sexy model pulls away the sheet hiding the newest Audi as an announcer says, “Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the all new 2010 Audi e-Tron.”

And the French reporters fall to the floor, laughing hysterically.

Gas2.org has the story of Audi’s shitty day:

Naming cars in this day of globalization has become an exercise of gargantuan proportions. For marketers and brand managers, the trick is to avoid a name that can be translated as something less than appealing in one of the dozens of languages you plan on marketing in. Even so, every now and then we get one that is slightly out of place, but usually it’s not a huge misstep.

But has Audi crossed the line from funny to major blunder in naming their entire upcoming electric car brand “e-tron”? It appears they have because, as it turns out, the word “étron” in French means “excrement.” And Germany and France even share a border!

Audi’s e-tron brand has certainly had its fair share of the limelight—garnering lots of hype from the first entrant, the R8 e-tron. It’s a super sexy electric rocket that Audi says they will produce in a limited run. But now imagine it if you happen to speak French; “super sexy crap rocket” doesn’t really have much of a ring to it.

A personal story from the editor:

Back in my ad agency days, a client once asked us to translate its successful American ad campaign into German. We hired a translator to do the work. Unfortunately, no one at the agency nor at the client’s American office spoke German, so no one realized that two letters had been transposed in the final version of the ad. Our mistake, in retrospect, was in not having someone in the client’s German office proofread the ad. As soon as it ran, the client was flooded with phone calls. Turns out that as a result of those transposed letters, the headline said, “Our products are assholes.”

I feel Audi’s pain.

Source: Gas2.org via Tim Blair