Language Going Nowhere

The Brazilians have a lot to answer for in the corruption of the Portuguese language but, to their credit, the Portuguese generally do their best to resist.

The latest mess I have come across in this area appeared in a proposal from a marketing agency to apply their talent to redesigning our company stationery. Nothing unusual there, except that the word they use for stationery is estacionário. They have got to be kidding!

Admittedly, there is no single word in Portuguese to describe all the headed paper, envelopes, visiting cards and so on that fall under the title "stationery" in English. So some idiot went to an English-Portuguese dictionary, looked up "stationary" and found "estacionário". Brilliant!

Of course, the idiot didn't know (or didn't care) that "stationary" means stopped, while "stationery" refers to those products sold by a stationer. So let's just use the wrong word, and get on with it. It's easier, and etymology is a bore, anyway...

Nestled Away

I have frequently criticised marketing campaigns for their stupidity. Now for a first - criticising a major brand for failing to advertise.

As a family, we tend to eat too many ice creams in the summer - bought by the box to keep in the freezer. My current favourite is Nestlé Brownies, which puts Magnums in the shade. So where's the publicity? How do they expect to sell a product if nobody knows it exists?

Hidden away on the Nestlé website is a very unattractive description of the product. But that is consistent with the unattractive presentation of the whole site! To get to that page, you have to guess whether the product is food (alimentação) or impulsive (impulso). Is ice cream ever bought for its food value? If you're "impulsive", you reach a different product page, with no picture of the product.

Anyway, it's very good. Buy it: Nestlé Brownies