Digital Planet

I was listening to Digital Planet on the BBC this morning which you can listen to at the link. It talks about the new phone in Venezuela the Vergatario (The picture is of Hugo Chavez the Venzuelan President holding one). Now for anyone who lives in South America the name might spark a bit of hilarity as it actually is a slang term for a rather large male part of the anatomy. I was thinking about this is the context of the Spanish language and thought you might like a couple of examples of you having to be careful when you name a product.

Firstly the most well known is the Opel Kadett which wasn't known as the Vauxhall Nova because "no va" means "doesn't go" or "doesn't work" of course. This may or may not be an urban myth because all of Vauxhall's cars are Opels on the continent. However one that isn't an urban myth is the Mitsubishi Pajero. Much more hilarity ensues when you find out what that means. Pretty apt name for some of the people swanning around in 4x4's in the centre of a flat city like Valencia really.