Kirk Douglas in Kubricks Spartacus 1969 ©CC

Enslaved in translation!

Zara – somewhat lost in translation! Or, there is no such thing as bad publicity…

Did you like the looks of Spartacus, a temple of masculinity, with just some rugs draped around the body of Kirk Douglas? No style is done without the proper footwork! According to the German magazine, “der Spiegel”, the Spanish fashion label “Zara” has managed to brand a pair of sandals as “Slave sandals”. Well at least I get the point, and if I were a slave in the age of ancient Rome, I might have been fortunate wearing these. But what other associations could be connected to this labeling? The working conditions under which these pair of fashion apparels were produced or just the simple assumption that the buyer will perceive what it feels like being repressed! Nevertheless, the company quickly renounced the name and blamed it on a mistake that somehow lost the connection to the original message in the translation!!! Fine, back to the myth claiming that “there is no such thing as bad publicity” – at least the ZARA site generated one more click this week….

 

 

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