Aaron Hoos

This past fall, my wife and I went to England on a vacation. During one of our many tourist day-trips, we ended up passing a small shop of cheap imports and I saw this toy in the window and took a picture.

I suspect the manufacturer had a tight budget when they hired a translator for this packaging:

It took me a while to figure out what a “Gross-vehicle” was but my best guess is that it was originally written in French — “Gros” means “Large” in French — and then translated into English after that.

This is a humorous example of an okay idea (like it or not, military toys sell) held back by weak content. Sure, kids might not care that it says “Gross-Vehicle”, but they might not want a toy that promises “intellectual development!” (note the exclamation mark). Meanwhile, parents might wonder what “3D Friction” is, and they probably don’t want their kids playing with a military-style toy that combines “make up your dreams!” and “intellectual development”.

Okay, so a lot of the videos I like are from Microsoft’s Office Labs. Hey, I think more businesses need to do this stuff.

Great article by Karen Swim. I particularly love how she brings in some content strategy into her first point. Good article, Karen!

The 5 Things I Hate About Social Media | Search Engine People Blog | Words For Hire.