Singaporean DIY Sushi restaurant Maki-san recently launched a speciality sushi roll to commemorate Singapore’s national day today.
Their description of the roll is already making us drool — with “an abundant mix of chicken” amongst other things packed into it.
There’s just one tiny detail: they named it Maki Kita.
According to their Instagram post which has since been deleted, the guys at Maki-san were going for a more patriotic vibe, taking inspiration from the Singapore national anthem which starts off with the words “Mari Kita…”
Unfortunately, Maki Kita translated means ‘Curse us’ in Malay and not ‘Our sushi’ as they had intended.
As you would have it, netizens had a field day with it:
Eventually realising what they had implied, Maki-san pulled their post.
We’ve seen plenty of copy using puns, and it has almost become a sure-fire way for the more…quirkier copy guys and clients to write their ads.
But with puns come risks though, especially when using a language that may not be native to the rest of the team involved.
As one commenter noted:
Perhaps this could be a reminder to all of us in the business of words, that sometimes, being ‘punny’ may not be the write thing to do.
BEST OF GLOBAL DIGITAL MARKETING Conference 2017 (http://best-marketing.eu/events/my/)
For the seventh year running, we are bringing back the famous Best of Global Digital Marketing Conference to KL with a special focus on Content Marketing this year. Unique case-study based learning, as our team monitors over 200 digital marketing award shows across the globe and interviews the winners. Based on this extensive work, we produce in-depth case studies.
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Lessons: What other marketers from other countries/other business sectors could learn from this case study? What are the main mistakes to avoid?
The Best of Global Digital Marketing Conference has won popularity in more than 30 cities around the world from Singapore, Moscow, Jakarta, Istanbul to Amsterdam, Johannesburg, Prague, Shanghai, Seoul, etc.
Date: 14 August, 2017 (Thursday)
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Time: 8.30am – 5.00pm
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