Japanese Store Takashimaya Apologizes For Ad With Menacing English Translation
Image via Osugi / Shutterstock.com
A large poster displayed on Japanese department store Takashimaya has turned heads for a strange reason.
The large billboard showed an illustration of a lady wearing a koi-patterned mask with glaring red text written in the background: “Rising Again. Save The World from Kyoto Japan.”
It didn’t take long for the advertisement to be the talk of the town, with many Twitter users pointing out that the poster paints Kyoto in a bad light.
“I get what they mean, but now I have this image of Kyoto turning into a giant robot and menacing the rest of Japan,” one Twitter user joked. “Is Kyoto attacking the world by sending koi fish to smother their faces?” another user poked fun at the advertisement.
Takashimaya has pulled down the poster and released a statement to address the blunder.
“To convey our intended meaning, a comma needs to be inserted between ‘World’ and ‘from,’ and omitting it resulted in the incorrect English phrasing,” the message reads. “Because of this, many people who saw the poster, as well as those who were involved in its creation and posting, were made to feel uncomfortable, and we deeply apologize.”
The advertisement shows the importance of punctuation. The intended message would have come across a lot better with commas involve, which would make it, “Rising Again. Save The World, from Kyoto, Japan.”
Save the world from Kyoto, hmmm pic.twitter.com/jlvGWGEWUc
— Dan Castellano (@ninja_padrino) November 8, 2020
I get what they mean, but now I have this image of Kyoto turning into a giant robot and menacing the rest of Japan. XD
— Pocky (@Pocky469) November 8, 2020
Are Kyoto attacking the world by sending koi fish to smother their faces?
— Special J (@jamessalvona) November 8, 2020
Apparently Takashimaya forgot to put in a comma between "Save The World" and "from Kyoto JAPAN" so it reads "Save The World from Kyoto JAPAN" instead. 😂😂😂 https://t.co/hgbJwnWrBp
— 🔥ѕєηѕєℓєѕѕ мαℓι¢є🔥 (@StayIcy) December 17, 2020
[via SoraNews24, cover image via Osugi / Shutterstock.com]
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