A German company learned the hard way that its PR firm lacks cultural sensitivity and professional linguistic ability. Many car blogs (such as this one) reported this week that the German "tuning shop" AVUS Performance recently released a car with the name "White Power." After the controversy broke, AVUS released the following statement and apology:
Dear visitors, readers and customers,
We are very sorry and unfortunate for what has actually happened and is currently happening to our first press report. Due to a mistranslation of our latest project car - the Audi RS6 V10 biturbo - there were lots of radical right-wing rumors on all different blogs and pages that received our first press report. We distance ourselves from the project title - it was done by our press agency which obviously mistranslated our German project name into English. Furthermore we distance ourselves from anything that has to do with that group synonym and we would also like to say sorry if anyone got personally touched.
Deepest Regards
The AVUS PERFORMANCE Team
(emphasis added)
With such clumsy communication in that release, AVUS apparently still has a little more to learn. This tuning shop should certainly have some professional native English speaking translators work on all future translations of brands, press releases, and apologies so as not to "personally touch" anyone in the future. This is not the most embarrassing error that could have been made in the apology, but similar or worse wording in other situations could result in bad translations that result in unintentional innuendo and insults that can be just as damaging as perceived racial insensitivity.
Yes, that is reading way too much into the poor wording. Fortunately, this somewhat sloppy apology is certain to resolve more problems than it causes - sometimes customers understand when they are reading sloppy communication from non-native speakers and sometimes they don't. Most people will assume that AVUS meant to say "personally offended" or "personally affected" instead of "personally touched."
Even more optimistically, the awkward wording of the apology could actually be a stroke of genius in PR damage control intended to emphasize that the German decision makers at AVUS Performance are not native English speakers and therefore the company should not be held accountable for poor English translations.
Correction - this post previously reported that Audi and its PR team were responsible for these errors. That was incorrect. It was actually the AVUS Performace "tuning shop" and its PR company that were responsible, as stated in the links above.
7 comments:
The original press release from the tuning shop (not Audi) is not quite an example of fluent translation. The first sentence features the expression "the _actual_ Audi RS6" and it goes pretty much downhill from there on.
This first press release can be accessed here: http://jalopnik.com/5234135/german-tuning-shop-names-custom-audi-rs6-white-powerThe deeply apologetic second press release can be seen here: http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2009/04/avus-issues-press-release-on-audi-rs6.html
Great article, even better title...
This reminds me of the company that marketed it's "Nova" line of cars in Mexico - "No va" in Spanish means "it doesn't go". LOL
But seriously, this is why one should always hire an outside reviewer to vet PR materials, no matter how much one trusts the PR firm. One is accountable for the product itself as well as all materials related to it -- customers won't be nearly as understanding of the hows and whys of such incidents.
Piotr, thanks for the additional comments and links!
Marcel, you might be interested to know that old story about the Chevy Nova is one of many translation myths to be debunked. See Myths Debunked: Bad Translation Apocrypha. It's too bad - some of those old stories are great. At least new examples like this Audi "white power" goof are showing up to to keep us laughing.
Here is the original press release from the link provided by Piotr:Avus Performance – WHITE POWER Audi RS6
With its 580bhp and an impressive 650Nm ( 479.35 lb/ft) of torque the actual Audi RS6 is the perfect symbiosis of an estate and a super car.
For AVUS Performance, based in Berlin, that starting basis was not enough.
As the importer for Sportec products in Germany they equipped the RS6 with a new high performance exhaust system with a diameter of 70mm, racing catalysts and a new ECU software.
The maximum power increased up to 700bhp and an astonishing 800Nm (589.97 lb/ft ) of torque are now tearing all 4 wheels.
The results are 0-60 in 3.9s, 0-120 in 12.1s and the RS6 is electronically limited at 211.27mph to not overstress the tires of the V10 biturbo. To get the power to the ground at best Avus Performance mounted a set of 22" wheels in the classic Sportec Mono 10 design.
Besides the better grip these have great impact to the overall look.
The already good standard factory suspension with electronic settings was only slightly modified with lowering springs which help to lower the car by 40mm. The handling improves noticeable and the car gets much more agile. On the other hand it fits perfectly to the complete look of the car and makes sense in combination with all the other options. Last but not least a carbon front-lip and a rear diffusor are also offered and are the icing on the cake.
I would bet that they intentionally made the follow-up awkward in its phrasing, providing an implicit but clear excuse for their blunder.
Given that Germany is almost exclusively populated by people who can construct an English phrase better than the bulk of us natives, I would be stunned if this was not their goal.
Though this discussion is almost a year old, I just had to add a comment regarding the ability of native German speakers to "construct an English phrase better than the bulk of us natives": that's exactly the problem here in Germany - many executives/professionals have enough English to understand and communicate well in conversation, but writing directly in English is not as easy as looking up a few words in the dictionary. In addition, many EN>DE translations are not performed by native English speakers and the results are often of this stilted and slightly funny/annoying "personally touched" variety. However, many German companies try to "save money" because either they "don't need" a translator because "everyone can English" or they employ translators who are not native English speakers. I'd be interested to know how this "White Power" translation was approved.
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