Localisation Trådens avsändare: debora1997co
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Hello, everyone! Would you happen to have any advice? I am localising a slogan for a global campaign, and the direct translation could be offensive in the target culture, but the client insists on literal accuracy. How would you approach this?
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What are you asking for? How to approach what, the client's exact requests? You respect and fulfill them.
And what's the slogan? To what language target you are localizing? How can we tell if it's offensive or not.
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I’ll explain to the client that when you localise you want to resonate with the target audience and why what they propose is bound to fail or unlikely to be sucessful. Using a language that could be considered inadequate or even somewhat offensive only serves to alienate the audience rather than persuade them.
| | | | Daryo
Storbritannien
Local time: 09:06
Serbiska till Engelska
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| A variant on the textbook example of | May 1 |
'The future is Orange' advertised all over Northern Ireland by some 'marketing genius' employed by the mobile network company Orange, and blissfully unaware of what that means in Northern Ireland?
If your client is dead-bent on shooting themselves in the foot on automatic fire, all you can do is to warn them.
Preferably in a traceable/provable way, as you shouldn't be surprised if they try to scapegoat YOU when the inevitable backlash comes.
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We still don't know what's the slogan about.
Anyway if the French telecom Orange wants campaign with that slogan in Northern Ireland I'm pretty sure that there will be their logo on banners, ads, TV commercials or on whatever they gonna advertising the company. And people will know what it's all about. Or simply could just add The future is TELECOM Orange.
| | | | | Localisation versus literal translation | May 2 |
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida wrote:
I’ll explain to the client that when you localise you want to resonate with the target audience and why what they propose is bound to fail or unlikely to be sucessful. Using a language that could be considered inadequate or even somewhat offensive only serves to alienate the audience rather than persuade them.
You are absolutely right. The TE explicitely mentioned she/he is "localising a slogan for a global company", not translating. She/he should be able to explain the difference between localisation and literal translation to the client. If the client is really a global company, they are usually aware of all the risks that could arise from direct translations of slogans - since 1. this won't be the first localization job they are paying for (otherwise the "global" seems strange), and 2. they seem to be paying for a longer process of localisation. But it's hard to tell, since the TE has not mentioned what the client has actually ordered, what exactly was given in the briefing, if the client has already replied to a first draft of the localised slogan, what they mean with "literal accuracy" etc. Maybe the client only wants a slogan to that transfers the meaning accurately, not literally, and the TE has misunderstood this. Maybe this is the first time such a job was given to the TE, and the client wanted to make sure this was done correctly.
Anyway, usually you have to deliver a literal back translation together with the localisation, so the client can be sure what their slogan means in the target language, and the supplier can defend their decisions later on, which is also important, as Daryo has pointed out.
| | | | Joakim Braun 
Sverige
Local time: 10:06
Tyska till Svenska
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debora1997co wrote:
HI am localising a slogan for a global campaign, and the direct translation could be offensive in the target culture, but the client insists on literal accuracy. How would you approach this?
So it's a choice between quality and the client's wishes. If they want literal accuracy, why use a human translator? MT is cheaper and better.
Theoretical arguments are boring and irrelevant. The slogan either appeals to its intended audience or not. If you're not allowed to deliver quality, and are presumably not being paid a lot of money not to do it (since you're creating a Proz thread), why spend time and energy on this?
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Joakim Braun wrote:
debora1997co wrote:
HI am localising a slogan for a global campaign, and the direct translation could be offensive in the target culture, but the client insists on literal accuracy. How would you approach this?
So it's a choice between quality and the client's wishes. If they want literal accuracy, why use a human translator? MT is cheaper and better.
Theoretical arguments are boring and irrelevant. The slogan either appeals to its intended audience or not. If you're not allowed to deliver quality, and are presumably not being paid a lot of money not to do it (since you're creating a Proz thread), why spend time and energy on this?
Well, she said a global campaign, so why they'd use MT if they are wanting dominance?
Anyway, here is a real not hypothetical example from my country about Premier League on which I'm a big fan. Premier League is broadcasting on TV channels and is translated as Премиер Лига. Now, this word League is what we called англицизам, transcribed and accepted from English into Лига=Slime, and if you add Премиер which is also transcribed and accepted from English you get back literal translation as Premier Slime. Now this is offensive if you don't have a sense of humor. Anyway it's used and advertised and broadcasted as such. And the Englishman aren't offended because we use that word Лига=Slime which now has two meanings, and our Macedonian League is also called Прва Македонска Лига.
Anyway, OTP seems like not interested about our opinions, but she posted the question anyway.
[Edited at 2025-05-03 03:29 GMT]
[Edited at 2025-05-03 04:29 GMT]
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Samuel Murray
Nederländerna
Local time: 10:06
Medlem (2006)
Engelska till Afrikaans
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debora1997co wrote:
I am localising a slogan for a global campaign, and the direct translation could be offensive in the target culture, but the client insists on literal accuracy.
All you can do is provide the client with 4-5 different options, ranging from very literal to very creative, and provide detailled explanations of each. Then, it's up to the client to decide.
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