The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, July 31, 1996 - B1

TERRACE STAN 9ARD

| Neos.
COMMUNITY
EVENTS 82

JUST A THOUGHT:
KATHY FLORITTO

Name that
slogan

HAT’S IN A name?

Many of us are blessed with
names we'd sooner give to some-
one else.

As children, most of us have secret plans to
change our moniker just as soon as we're old
enough — but by the time we’ve reached ‘old
enough,” we rarely bother. We're used to it.
Worse, so is everyone else.

Years after we've come to terms with our own
‘label’, we are presented with the challenge of
naming our own children. Remembering our
childhood angst, we’re determined to give our
kids names that we're sure they'll love. Uh-
huh,

If finding just the right name for a child is
tricky, have you ever wondered how manufac-
turers arrive at the names they’ve attached to
their prodycts?

Imagine; just for a minute, that you had
designed and produced the ‘better mousetrap”’
and you had every expectation that the world
would be beating down your door very, very
soon,

You want to give your product a name that
works - one that is easily recognizable and onc
that translates well, no matter what language the
purchasers speak.

Apparently, it’s easier said than done, as many
large companies have discovered.

The name Coca-Cola, in China, was first
rendered as Ke-kou-ke- a,

Unfortunately, the Coke company | did not dis-
cover, until after thousands of signs had been
printed, that the phrase means ‘“‘bit the wax tad-

pole’? or ‘‘female horse stuffed with wax,’”

depending upon the dialect. Coke then research-
ed 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close
phonetic equivalent, ‘‘ko-kou-ko-le,’? which
can be Joosely translated as ‘‘Happiness in the
mouth.”’

In Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan
“Come alive with the Pepsi Generation’? came
our as ‘Pepsi will bring your ancestors back
from the dead.”’

Alsa in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken
slogan, “‘finger-lickin’ good’’ came out as ‘‘eat
your fingers off.’

When General Motors introduced the Chevy
Nova in South America, the company was ap-
parently unaware that ‘‘no va’? means ‘‘it won’t
go.”

After GM figured out why it wasn’t selling
any cars, it renamed the car as the Caribe for its
Spanish markets.

When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in
Mexico, its ads were supposed to say ‘‘It won’t
leak in your pocket and embarrass you.”’

The company mistakenly thought the Spanish
word “embarazar’’ meant embarrass. Instead,
the ads said that ‘Tt won’t leak in your pocket
and make you pregnant.’?

Au American T-shirt maker in Miami printed
Shirts for the Spanish market which promoted
the Pope’s visit. Instead of the desired ‘‘I saw
the Pope”’ in Spanish, the shirts proclaimed ‘I
saw the Polato.’’

Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France
called Cue...also the name of a notorious
pornographic magazine in that country.

In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic
Water translated the name into Schweppes
Toilet Water.

When the U.S. firm Vick’s, introduced its
Vapor-Rub products into German-speaking
Europe, its German labels remained recog-
nizable by retaining the familiar logo and
colours, but it revised the spelling of Vick’s to
Wick's,

German-speakers pronounce Vick exactly like
Fick and the infinitive “‘ficken’’ has one mean-
ing and one only: one of those dreaded 4-letter
words you hope never spills from the mouth of
your child.

The Japanese automobile manufacturer,
Mazda, is Matsuda ‘“‘pine ficld’’ in Japanese.
Unfortunately, if the Japanese pronunciation of
the characters is translated into phonetic
“Matsuda,” then retranslated into the phonetic
equivalent in Chinese, it means ‘‘deaih” —
hence, Mazda, not Matsuda.

A popular soft drink in Japan, made from fer-
mented milk, is Calpis. It has never even denied
the North American market. If you say it fast,
you'll understand why,

The first slide projector from Japanese giant,
Canon, was the Slidester. With that success be-
hind it, Canon introduced a movie projector, the
Cinester, which never sald well in English-
speaking markets,

What's in-a name? As Coke, Parker, Canon
and the Colonel discovered...quite a fot! Be
careful what you call that mousctrap..,

WOMEN’S PROGRAMS
aren’t on the federal govern-
ment’s chopping block, said
MP Hedy Fry, minister
responsible for the status of
women,

She was in Terrace on Friday
to talk to women’s centre
members and representatives
from Jocal graups.

Some of the biggest worries
the women had were con-
tinued funding for women’s
programs, ways to reduce
violence against women and
employment and training is-
sues.

“Since 1993 there has been
a 20 per cent reduction in fed-
eral funding to women’s pro-
grams,”’ said women’s centre
member Karla Hennig.

She was worried these cuts
would continue, perhaps until
women's centre would be
eliminated.

The cuts were coming at a
time when the demands on the
Terrace women’s centre were
growing.

The work load in a rural
women’s centre, Hennig ex-
plained, was different than one
in an urban centre, since ‘‘here
we do everything.”’

“Tf the women’s centre is
shut down, or even cut back,
many of the child care
resources, information, ad-
vocacy and support services
offered in this community will
be gone,’’ said Hennig.

Fry acknowledged the dif-
ferent needs of rural women,
but added that “every depart-

ment in government has been.

cut,”

However, she said her de-
partment had tried to balance
the cuts, so that a basic level
of service for women
remained in all communities.

The Terrace women’s centre

will probably know by this fail
what it might be facing.

**To tell you to make do with
even less is unfair, but I can’t
say what that funding will
be,”’ said Fry. She did add that
the government was optimistic
about the next few years.

Her department was also
looking at ways to make sure
other ministries considered
women’s issues, since 52 per
cent of the population is made
up of women, she pointed out.

Women at the centre also
pointed out gaps in govern-
ment policies designed to pro-
tect women from violence.

And in a small town, there
was greater unwillingness to
accept domestic violence as a
common problem.

Melissa Munn, coordinator
of the Safer Campuses pro-
gram at NWCC, talked about
how difficult it was to find
community support for
women’s issues in small
towns.

“*Any atiempt to raise aware-
ness of women’s issues is met
with fear and anger and
denial,”’ said Munn.

Fry acknowledged the dif-
ficulty, saying that she was
trying to get different levels of
government to work together
— right down to the
elementary school level.

And Fry encouraged the
women to keep lobbying for
change,

‘Advocating is repeating
things ad naseum,’’ said Fry.
“Lobbying is not a one-day
wonder.”?.

She also. took a shot at

Skeena Reform MP Mike
Scolt, saying “‘you have to
elect an MP who doesn’t think
of women as a special interest
group.”

MP HEDY FRY, minister responsible for the status of women,
was in Teirace last week to talk with locat women. She urged
them to keep lobbying tha government for funding and for
changes to legislation.

= Camel capers

ADVENTURES IN THE DESERT, supper time in a farm house and an old-
fashioned carriage ride were among the topics of eight diffarent skits performed
last week by graduates of Terrace Little Theatre's summer school. The children

had been rehearsing for a week and a half pricr to thelr debut.

Around Town

Actors wanted

WHEN SWEENEY Todd’s clients came to him for a
trim and a shave, they hoped the barber's razor
hadn’t been sharpened that day.

That’s because he had an unfortunate habit of cut-
ling his clients throats.

How to dispose of the bodies might have been a
problem — if Todd hadn’t had a girlfriend who
owned a meat pie shop next store.

If you can handle the macabre details of the story,
then you might want to audition for the upcoming
play Sweeney Todd —The Demon Barber of Fleet St.

Russ Sangster is making his directorial debut in this
one act play.

He’s looking for four men and three women to act
in the play, which takes place in the 1800s.

Auditions will be held August 11 and 12 at the
McColl Playhouse from 7-9 p.m. both nights.

Sweeney Todd — The Demon Barber of Fleet St,
will be paired with another one act play, and together
they will run Oct. 3-5 and Oct, 10-12.

And a love story

IT’S AN UNUSUAL pairing, but what the heck.
Sharing the stage with the grisly Sweeney Todd play
will be a one-act love story.

Called Midnight Madness, the play takes place in
the bedding department of Blooms Department store,
and is directed by Diana Braaten.

Three actors have already been cast in it. Patrick
Mclntryre plays part of Wesley, and Nancy Stone-
Archer takes on the role of Anna.

Anna and Wesley meet accidently, in the bedding
department where Wesley works. They haven’t seen
cach other in the 14 years since high school.

Anna is lured in the store by a midnight madness
sale, and she’s looking to buy a new bed.

In between discussions of mattresses and sheels, the
two get lo know each again.

“Ivs a very sweet love story,”’ says Braaten. And
despite the numerous beds on stage, there’s no hanky
panky, she adds,

The third character in the play is the voice of Mr.
Bloom, the department store owner, heard over the
loudspeaker. He’s played by Chris Stone, Nancy’s
(real-life) father.

Rehearsals will be starting in early August, and
Braaten is looking for a number of beds to be donated
for the play.

In particular she’s looking for a slim water bed mat-
tress; a brass bed and a four poster bed.

If you can help her out, leave a message on Terrace

Little Theatre’s answering machine.

=: COMMUNITY-

Best course to keep lobbying