“Apple’s ‘This is 7’ slogan for its new iPhone 7 has a rather unfortunate translation in Hong Kong,” Libby Plummer and Julian Luk report for The Daily Mail.” Smartphone users have been mocking the technology firm’s latest marketing line because it sounds just like ‘This is penis’ in Cantonese.”
“China is one of Apple’s biggest markets, but the translations for its new slogan differ drastically across mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan,” Plummer and Luk report. “While mainlanders and Taiwanese people predominantly speak Mandarin, Hong Kong dwellers typically converse in Cantonese, which is why the comical translation only affects them.”
“While the translated slogans are inoffensive in Mandarin, in Cantonese, ‘seven’ is pronounced as ‘chat’ which also happens to be a slang word for penis,” Plummer and Luk report. “The number ‘seven’ is widely used in local politics to make fun of politicians.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Well, it’s better than “This is ass” and certainly beats Samsplode’s latest: “This is fire.”
Come to think of it, this might even sell more iPhone 7 units! (Get it? Units.)
Yeah, yeah, there’s a “7 Plus” joke in here somewhere, but our minds are already drifting to that TGIF iced keg sitting in the corner over there… We’l leave that for Dennis Rodman.
Regardless, we predict continued survival and even – GASP! – wild success for Apple Inc.
It’s big, it’s hard, it’s 7!
you wish!
heh. the bigger, the blacker, the better…
Wrong site…
…bro?
That’s pretty good. MDN’s take’s were pretty funny also, “7 plus, units”.
So, who has the keg and why were we not invited?
Tim Cook knewed exactly what he was thinking about
when he excitedly approved the use of this slogan.
He is a Genius!
It should be “This is 8.”
Is it an iPhone 7 in your pocket or…
Upon being informed of this, Tim Cook reportedly replied, “Yummy! I’ll take two!”
So did your mum lol
Brilliant shame wiseass has not seen one that big not even on himself
This is 7. Big beatutiful. Can’t beat it.
Makes sense…my Cantonese friends always look bewildered when I use the word “woodrow.”
I come from Hong Kong and speaks native Cantonese as my mother tongue, I can assure you that this is just part of an elaborate massive anti-apple propaganda trying to find every possible way to demean iPhone, it never appear to me that iPhone 7 sounded like that, you have to deliberately twist your tongue to make it sound like the foul language. It really has began… This desperate move from the dark side…
And wouldn’t this apply to the Samsung Galaxy S Penis?
Ah, the penis mightier than the sword.
Because it’s not the number 7 itself, it’s the translation of the “This is 7” marketing slogan. Which Samsung didn’t use.
Speaking of which, after the 5c, we’re lucky Apple didn’t release a model called the 6c. Because if pronounced in English, “six see” phonetically sounds like “sik see” which is Cantonese slang for “eat shit.” Just imagine the field day that would’ve brought.
Samsung will just use the female part for their slogan.
So..I guess the movie Seven was a big letdown for them..
Gives a whole different meaning to “What’s in the box”
It translates perfectly fine. Just because some people use the same word in slang for a different meaning??
Wow, Samscum is really trying hard to spread any bad news about the iPhone 7.
I’ll take a whole pallet – in Jet Black, please!
So their word for seven is the same as penis? So when someone introduces their 7 year old son to you they would say this is my son, he is penis. Sounds like bull chat to me.
Medical image taken shortly after my smelting accident suffered back in the 1970s:
Goldmember, how ya doin’?!
Classic.
(Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.)
As of last September 25th, There were 1,584 people In America named ‘Seven’
Yeah. Same thing like nowadays word “trum” means “fake” and”asshole” in every single language in the world.
In Mandarin Chinese it translates as “This is a sperm whale.”
And in a similar vein, “courage” translates into “balls”…..
7 is not that big a problem. it’s like a ‘curse word’ but not ‘bad luck’. (more like ‘dick head’ )
( I think the issue is the SLOGAN with ‘This is…. ”
If Apple wants to it simply needs to change the ad slogan in HK not the number.
for bad naming in Chinese it’s ‘4’ pronounced ‘say’ which is ‘death, dead’ synonym for bad luck.
some old buildings didn’t even have 4th floors like no 13 floors in older USA buildings (it’s 12A). I thought selling the iPhone 4 would be tough in China.
(chinese businessmen are very sensitive to issues like this. Entire skyscrapers are aligned to Fung Shui. )
for the 7 issue they will think it was a ‘big joke’ but not a ‘bad luck’ worry.
Now 8 or ‘Fatt’ (phat) is GREAT. sounds like ‘prosperity’.
some Chinese businessmen will pay thousands to get a car number with ‘8’.
when I was working in Asia my house number was 48 which was sounds like ‘continuing prosperity’. Sort of worked as I made some money. lol. (btw my Chinese boss decorated the whole office green one day, even painted my Mac DESK green as the Fung Shui guy gold him GREEN was his good luck. He drove a BMW 7 ($100,000+) so I guess it worked out… yes he got a ‘seven’ series… )
The phone will be fine this year, next year with iP8 will be tremendous.
… Here in our ‘modern’ world. (o_0)
Anyone got some spare rhino horn?
Little kids must laugh their asses off when the teacher points to the number on a blackboard and says, “This is penis.”
Must translate to this is Samsung to ADD douchebags on Wallstreet.
Tit for tat, chit for chat, it goes both ways.