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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to

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Speaker 1: the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much

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Speaker 1: for tuning in in whatever language you wish. We also

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Speaker 1: are obviously recording this in English with the help of

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Speaker 1: our super producer, mister Max Williams.

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Speaker 2: Ty Hoe on Young Lussio.

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Speaker 1: Yes, Yes, funny, funny story, Noel, I think you may

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Speaker 1: have heard this one the first time I was in Germany.

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Speaker 1: I was there for several weeks and I this was

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Speaker 1: pre uh translation apps, pre cell phone, and I have

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Speaker 1: practiced for some time a phrase that was very proud of,

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Speaker 1: and a phrase was this. When people came up to

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Speaker 1: me and inevitably spoke German, I would say, I would

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Speaker 1: try my best to keep up. Obviously I couldn't. And

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Speaker 1: then when I got when the water got too deep

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Speaker 1: for me linguistically, I would hold up a hand and

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Speaker 1: I would say, I'm sorry, my German is not good enough.

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Speaker 1: Can we continue this conversation in English?

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Speaker 2: Ooh, that's a power but not a power move, a

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Speaker 2: super move.

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Speaker 3: It's just a really very utilitarian phrase because it's respecting

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Speaker 3: their language and sort of putting you at the disadvantage

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Speaker 3: where it's like, listen, I gave it my all. You

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Speaker 3: are my intellectual superior, and I would really appreciate it

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Speaker 3: if you would talk to me like a child. So

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Speaker 3: I tried this, and maybe linguistic superior, but you have

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Speaker 3: to try, you know what I mean. Yeah, I'm just

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Speaker 3: I'm overstating the case. But it is very self deprecating

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Speaker 3: in a positive way, which I think would put them

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Speaker 3: in your corner.

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Speaker 1: Thanks, man, one would hope. But for again, for quite

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Speaker 1: some time, I would be in these conversations, I would

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Speaker 1: stop and say, I'm sorry, my English or my German

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Speaker 1: is not good enough. Could we continue in English? And

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Speaker 1: every single time I said this, the person I was

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Speaker 1: speaking to would kind of get a chill over them.

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Speaker 1: There would be some ice in the room, and then

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Speaker 1: they would usually say something like because Germans all speak excellent.

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Speaker 2: English these days.

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Speaker 1: Sure They would usually say something like, very well, I

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Speaker 1: was asking if you needed blah blah blah, or I

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Speaker 1: was asking the way to the you know.

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Speaker 2: The aldi.

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Speaker 1: And then at the very end of this trip, I'm

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Speaker 1: walking into the hostel and I bumped shoulders accidentally with

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Speaker 1: somebody walking out, and then she says this thing, and

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Speaker 1: I say I'm sorry, my German's not good enough? Can

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Speaker 1: we continue in English? And then she says, in a

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Speaker 1: perfect California accent. By the way, she says, you're an asshole.

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Speaker 1: And then the lady at the counter starts laughing and

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Speaker 1: she says, do you know what you've been saying? I said,

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Speaker 1: oh no, here's what I've been saying. I've been saying

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Speaker 1: to native German speakers, I'm sorry your German is not

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Speaker 1: good enough? Can we continue this conversation in English? And

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Speaker 1: I'm saying it with the worst American accent. Oh gosh, apologies,

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Speaker 1: good people of Berlin.

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Speaker 2: That is perfect.

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Speaker 3: That is a perfect example of delete into what we're

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Speaker 3: talking about today. But Ben in theory, like I said,

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Speaker 3: I mean, I was surprised when you said there was

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Speaker 3: this icy reactions. I was like, no, that's a pretty thoughtful,

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Speaker 3: respectful little thing to say, and if you had translated

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Speaker 3: it correctly, it would have been a super move. But

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Speaker 3: instead it sunk your linguistic battleship.

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Speaker 1: Yes, with apologies to all the good people of Berlin

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Speaker 1: and the Berlin metro area or I guess Frankfurt as well.

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Speaker 1: You are no brown. I am Ben Bullet. This is

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Speaker 1: ridiculous history.

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Speaker 2: True, it is that very thing, and that just really quickly.

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Speaker 3: While we're on the topic of Berlin in funny translations,

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Speaker 3: when I was traveling in Berlin with my buddy Frank,

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Speaker 3: friend of the show, he he had done his duo

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Speaker 3: lingo best, you know, to get some phrases up for

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Speaker 3: the trip. And the thing that I'll always remember is

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Speaker 3: when he was trying to order some pastries at like

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Speaker 3: a train station and he kind of got flummixed and

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Speaker 3: couldn't think of the word. He just said it in English,

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Speaker 3: but in a really thick German accent, and it was

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Speaker 3: not like intentional. It was clearly like his brain wiring

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Speaker 3: just kind of like fritzed out.

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Speaker 2: And that was what he did in the panic of

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Speaker 2: the moment.

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Speaker 3: Is you know, ordering in English dis stressful sometimes, let

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Speaker 3: alone trying to do it in a foreign language.

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Speaker 2: But I will rib him about that until the day

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Speaker 2: we die.

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Speaker 1: What did the what did the pastry seller say?

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Speaker 2: How did they I.

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Speaker 3: Don't think they even clocked it. I don't think it

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Speaker 3: was an issue, but I just it was.

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Speaker 2: I just was.

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Speaker 3: We were also a little punchy, you know, from time

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Speaker 3: differences and things like that, so it was kind of

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Speaker 3: a little bit dreamles, but that was just one of

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Speaker 3: the funniest things.

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Speaker 2: That's amazing.

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Speaker 1: And you know, when you travel or whenever, when you travel,

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Speaker 1: whether across physical distance or across a linguistic gap, these

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Speaker 1: kinds of foibles and little hiccups are not uncommon. It

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Speaker 1: was weird because one thing that expired our exploration today,

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Speaker 1: our good buddy Josh Clark, had reached out in advance

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Speaker 1: of an episode they did on Esperanto, which is a constructed,

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Speaker 1: nifty language, chock full of puns, all kinds of cool stuff,

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Speaker 1: And we started thinking about how translation works. You know,

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Speaker 1: are there really some things that you can say in

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Speaker 1: one language but not in another? How often do even

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Speaker 1: the world's smartest, sharpest people get it wrong. This led

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Speaker 1: to what, honestly Noel might end up being a continuing series,

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Speaker 1: the history of famous mistranslations. I was thinking, I don't

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Speaker 1: know if you ever heard this would but maybe we

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Speaker 1: start off.

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Speaker 2: With what I was not familiar with.

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Speaker 1: Jimmy Carter one time said that he wanted to leave

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Speaker 1: the US forever and have sex with everyone in Poland.

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Speaker 3: Well, and this is funny because Jimmy Carter, you know,

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Speaker 3: famous sweetheart. So you know, I'm sure there was no

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Speaker 3: harm intended, but yeah, I mean, especially when you're like

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Speaker 3: a traveling dignitary, these kinds of things can actually have

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Speaker 3: real world consequences in terms of like relationships between countries

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Speaker 3: or god forbid, even you know, escalation of conflict.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So let's travel back. It's December twenty ninth, nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy seven. Jimmy Carter is kicking off his really like

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Speaker 1: his first field trip as president, and he's going on

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Speaker 1: a six country tour and the first stop is.

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Speaker 2: Poland six country too, is that?

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Speaker 3: I guess it's only a whistle stur if it's in

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Speaker 3: America and by train, right, but it is sort of

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Speaker 3: like a foreign version of that, you know, where he's

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Speaker 3: not kind of trying to show face, you know, say hey,

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Speaker 3: I'm the new guy, check out my chops and let's

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Speaker 3: make friends.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, he's got a lot to prove to the world

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Speaker 1: and domestically to the United States, and as we know

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Speaker 1: with the history of the Carter administration, he had a

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Speaker 1: lot of problems proving himself domestically in policy.

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Speaker 2: It was a tough time.

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Speaker 1: But you know what, when you're the US president and

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Speaker 1: you land in a country. It's not the way that

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Speaker 1: the MAXs and the Knowles and the bends of the

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Speaker 1: world land. You don't have to stand in line, right,

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Speaker 1: you don't really have to go through customs. You get

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Speaker 1: off and you meet you get off the plane, you

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Speaker 1: meet a ton of dignitaries, and there's like a crowd

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Speaker 1: of people who are either angry at you or really

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Speaker 1: happy to see you. Either way, they want something. And

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Speaker 1: so Jimmy gets off the plague and he's got this

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Speaker 1: big speech he's going to do for Polish politicians and

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Speaker 1: activists and protesters. He gets welcomed by the leader of

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Speaker 1: Poland's Communist Party, Edward Garrick, and then five hundred other

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Speaker 1: people who are just hanging out and they've been waiting

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Speaker 1: all night in the bitter cold, in the snow, just

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Speaker 1: to see him. So he has to make this a

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Speaker 1: ridal a glimpse, right, right, So he has to make

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Speaker 1: his arrival worth the wait.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, he does, and he did just that, perhaps not

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Speaker 3: in the way that he was intending or in a

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Speaker 3: way that would be pleasing to the nation of Poland.

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Speaker 3: So before we get into where this thing went horribly horribly,

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Speaker 3: a arrived let's give a little bit of context. It

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Speaker 3: was the late seventies, which is an extremely sensitive period

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Speaker 3: to your point earlier Ben for this nation Poland. Carter

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Speaker 3: and his team were there to talk business in terms

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Speaker 3: of like you know, business commerce between Poland and the

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Speaker 3: United States. Poland wanted more export markets in the US

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Speaker 3: and they were asking for around two hundred million dollars

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Speaker 3: worth of agricultural export credits.

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Speaker 2: And we don't need to get too in the weeds

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Speaker 2: about that.

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Speaker 3: I don't think I fully understand what export credits means.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, we don't need to get too into

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Speaker 1: the weeds because we might ourselves mistranslate what that means.

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Speaker 1: But from the base level understanding, it means that the

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Speaker 1: US was being asked to degree yeah, yeah, to not

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Speaker 1: have taxes or higher you know duty's and tariffs and

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Speaker 1: stuff like that.

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Speaker 2: I see.

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Speaker 3: But it also sort of sets up a tone where

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Speaker 3: it's like, this is how this is the kind of

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Speaker 3: business we're going to be doing.

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Speaker 4: And I know, I think maybe what it also do

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Speaker 4: is it's like we're going to do at least this much,

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Speaker 4: So it gives that's what I mean.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it sort of sets the tone of

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Speaker 3: the business transaction, right.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and on the other side of the conversation, and

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Speaker 1: you know, kind of the other side of the iron

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Speaker 1: curtain at this point, because it's Jimmy's first field trip

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Speaker 1: as the president, he again has a lot to prove.

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Speaker 1: And his head foreign policy advisor at the time is

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Speaker 1: a guy. Uh we all love this name, Zebec new

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Speaker 1: Brznetski un he himself.

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Speaker 3: First, I was having a hard time with the big

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Speaker 3: new Okay, yeah, well done.

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Speaker 1: He's he's He is also a Polish origin.

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Speaker 4: Also, I gotta jump in here. The last name has

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Speaker 4: a Z, then an E, then another z.

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Speaker 1: It's polish Man. Polish is a famously difficult language for

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Speaker 1: like people growing up in Poland. It's a difficult language.

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Speaker 1: Because his foreign policy advisor is himself a Polish origin.

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Speaker 1: They have kept a close eye on the country and

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Speaker 1: they're seeing the economy stalling, They're seeing growing economic instability,

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Speaker 1: and the communist Polish public is increasingly asking, what if

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Speaker 1: our current status quo is the wrong status quo? What

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Speaker 1: if there's a better answer.

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Speaker 2: So this is the.

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Speaker 1: Perfect time for a pro democracy force like the US

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Speaker 1: president to come through and you know, lay down some charms,

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Speaker 1: spit some game.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and he spits said game with the help of

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Speaker 3: a State Department provided translator by the name of Stephen Seymour,

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Speaker 3: which is very vanilla sounding name. A thirty one year

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Speaker 3: old fellow, and you know, not a bad dude by nature.

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Speaker 2: But let's just say maybe he lacked a little bit

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Speaker 2: of experience. He had the bona fides though, right, he

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Speaker 2: was a polyglot.

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Speaker 3: Most Americans are not able to say that, you know,

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Speaker 3: I could barely speak English, you know, Felia man, he

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Speaker 3: always very impressive when you go abroad and you realize

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Speaker 3: how it is just standard for folks to know multiple languages.

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Speaker 3: I feel like that is a kind of brain capacity

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Speaker 3: that I no longer possess. But again, he wasn't incompetence.

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Speaker 3: He was a great translator of Polish and Russian and

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Speaker 3: French texts into English. And he had a real solid

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Speaker 3: reputation for translating poetry. And I wanted to bring this

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Speaker 3: up too earlier, Ben, because translating conversations versus translating like literature, right,

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Speaker 3: or poetry or text the Bible even you know, there's

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Speaker 3: so many things in the kind of the umami that

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Speaker 3: you give the translation in order to make the feeling

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Speaker 3: of it translate to the new language, because you know,

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Speaker 3: works of art and literature, they are meant to be

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Speaker 3: felt as much as they are meant to be read

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Speaker 3: and interpreted. So it's like he was maybe working with

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Speaker 3: a little bit more nuanced than maybe was required for

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Speaker 3: this particular gig.

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Speaker 2: I don't know, what do you think?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right about that art of translation,

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Speaker 1: you know, and it is incredibly differentfficult to convey tone

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Speaker 1: and context or you know, the vibe for lack of

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Speaker 1: a better word, in conversation. If you're just translating a

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Speaker 1: scientific text, then the task is a little bit easier.

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Speaker 1: But this, dude is it's kind of like being asked

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Speaker 1: to do freestyle poetry from one language to the next

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Speaker 1: on the fly. And Polish was his fourth language. He

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Speaker 1: was Russian born, So translating from English to Polish is

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Speaker 1: like an extra plot twist for this got it an

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Speaker 1: extra permutation.

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Speaker 3: Just to go back to our conversation with aj, you

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Speaker 3: know about like the kind of levels of cipher's. You know,

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Speaker 3: you start to get kind of cipher's within cipher's and

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Speaker 3: that can really affect the complexity of the operation.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and as a result. In his initial speech, and

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Speaker 1: again this is in front of more than five hundred people,

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Speaker 1: including the leader of the country, he makes.

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Speaker 2: Three big errors.

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Speaker 1: The first one is he means to say, I'm very

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Speaker 1: glad to be in Poland. The way Seymour translates this,

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Speaker 1: it sounds like he is telling the crowd he has

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Speaker 1: abandoned the US forever and he's going to live in

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Speaker 1: Poland from now on.

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Speaker 2: That's like his opening line.

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Speaker 3: And bless his heart. We got to use that because

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Speaker 3: that's something that he would have said. Yeah, can you

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Speaker 3: imagine him saying all this stuff in Polish? Given it

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Speaker 3: his Southern best, you know what I mean. I mean,

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Speaker 3: it's probably comical. If there's tape of it that exists,

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Speaker 3: I would love to hear him, because you know, he's

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Speaker 3: doing it with an open heart and trying his best

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Speaker 3: to be a man of the people that he's communicating with.

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Speaker 3: But I'm sure it was cringe, you know, listening to

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Speaker 3: Southern bell like Jimmy Carter trying to muddle his way

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Speaker 3: through Polish.

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Speaker 1: So what's happening is Jimmy Carter is saying his prepared

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Speaker 1: English speech and then it's kind of like when you

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Speaker 1: have a ASL interpreter who's standing. Oh so he was,

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Speaker 1: it's actually speaking Polish. Yeah, I don't think so.

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Speaker 3: Okay, sorry, my fantasy has been no, no, what's cool.

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Speaker 3: I just my fantasy has been shattered. It's fine.

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Speaker 1: It would it would be amazing though, and it would

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Speaker 1: have also been a tremendous flex where he is speaking.

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Speaker 3: I guess that's not really done, you know, in terms

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Speaker 3: of like a foreign dignitary trying to speak the language.

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Speaker 3: But you do hear things like ben I and berlin a,

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Speaker 3: you know, but that's just sort of like that's a

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Speaker 3: big deal for that. I think they put a lot

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Speaker 3: of weight into them attempting to actually speak the language,

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Speaker 3: and usually those things get pull quoted quite frequently.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And I think one of the issues that we see

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Speaker 1: even now with this kind of interaction is geopolitical. Like,

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Speaker 1: for instance, if there were a US president that speaks

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Speaker 1: fluent Russian in public conversation regarding Russia or to the

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Speaker 1: Russian people, they're probably still going to speak in English,

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Speaker 1: like Vladimir Putin knows English, but it's seen as sort

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Speaker 1: of a like rolling over and showing the belly to

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Speaker 1: not speaking your own language, which I think is a

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Speaker 1: little bit cold warish, but sure, but that's what he's doing.

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Speaker 1: So second one, this is a weird one. Carter is

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Speaker 1: giving a kind of in depth shout out to the

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Speaker 1: Polish Constitution from seventeen ninety one, and in his speech

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Speaker 1: he says this constitution is one of the greatest monuments

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Speaker 1: to human rights in the entirety of the seventeen hundreds.

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Speaker 1: But the way Seymour translates it, it comes off like

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Speaker 1: a really sarcastic sounding roast, like something from the Colbert Report,

305
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Speaker 1: sort of like.

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Speaker 3: One of the three greatest monuments of human rights of

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Speaker 3: the entire.

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Speaker 2: Exactly.

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Speaker 1: And it's all in the it's all in the way

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Speaker 1: they order it, because he lists this one thing as greatest,

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Speaker 1: and he lists this second thing, and then he says,

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Speaker 1: and you know, third.

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Speaker 2: Place, coming in third, solid third, you know.

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Speaker 1: So Carter, by the way that you're founding document exactly, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: welcome to your bronze medal as a country. And Carter

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Speaker 1: still doesn't know anything's wrong. He's probably he's probably thinking, well,

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Speaker 1: maybe they just don't react the same way American crowds do.

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Speaker 3: Which they maybe don't, you know, I mean, very likely

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Speaker 3: there would think about all the things that would have

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Speaker 3: been in play, like the decorum, or maybe there would

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Speaker 3: be a little confusion not necessarily gonna erupt into outright aggression.

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Speaker 3: So it would be kind of confusing being up there

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Speaker 3: and then not really knowing because you're already coming into

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Speaker 3: a situation where you're not familiar with all of the

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Speaker 3: cultural nuances. And then you're starting to see some head

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Speaker 3: scratching and you're like, oh, okay, well maybe I'm killing it.

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Speaker 2: Who am I to say, let's just sally for it.

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Speaker 1: Maybe they just don't cheer here. Maybe that's an American.

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Speaker 5: They're very reserved Polish, right. Sure, and then so he

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Speaker 5: doesn't know anything's going wrong. Sure, he's a very smart guy,

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Speaker 5: So surely he's getting a weird vibe. And he says,

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Speaker 5: I would like to learn more about the desires of

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Speaker 5: the Polish people.

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Speaker 2: Naughty Jimmy Cotty, I love it. Well, what he means

335
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Speaker 2: there is that he, therefore America.

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Speaker 1: Wants to know what the public dreams about when it

337
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Speaker 1: comes to early future of their country.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, how is it translated? Well, I don't know know.

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Speaker 3: I mean, maybe it's just the way you said it been,

340
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Speaker 3: But I get The word desire is a sticky wicket,

341
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Speaker 3: my friends, you know, because it's like it could be

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Speaker 3: used formerly like I desire to make a pact of peace,

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Speaker 3: you know, with this nation. But also if you don't

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Speaker 3: continue the formality on the back end and you kind

345
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Speaker 3: of mix it up a little bit, it can sound

346
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Speaker 3: real horny, you know, by accident. I think that's why

347
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Speaker 3: I still don't like the It's my Pleasure at Chick

348
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Speaker 3: fil A weird me out.

349
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Speaker 2: It just sounds a little horny.

350
00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:03,639
Speaker 3: I don't know why, And especially when paired with the

351
00:19:03,720 --> 00:19:06,800
Speaker 3: kind of puritanical roots of that company, it just sounds

352
00:19:06,840 --> 00:19:08,160
Speaker 3: like repressed horny.

353
00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:08,600
Speaker 2: I don't know.

354
00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:12,400
Speaker 1: Also how that review is just too much.

355
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Speaker 2: You know what, very weird. It's very like Robot. It's

356
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Speaker 2: like eight thirty in the morning.

357
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Speaker 1: Also your fifteen Courtney, just give me the weird chicken biscuit.

358
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Speaker 3: I think I basically picked up on the same nuances

359
00:19:23,960 --> 00:19:26,720
Speaker 3: that the Polish were picking up because more or less

360
00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:29,240
Speaker 3: out of like you know, he they interpreted what he

361
00:19:29,359 --> 00:19:31,879
Speaker 3: said as like I want to know you all.

362
00:19:32,359 --> 00:19:39,200
Speaker 1: Sexually exactly exactly. It came to Medley in quiet storm. Yeah,

363
00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:42,159
Speaker 1: you're on the money, though it translated with you're all

364
00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:44,439
Speaker 1: the money with both Chick fil A and this by

365
00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:47,040
Speaker 1: the way, it translated in a way that meant to

366
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Speaker 1: the Polish people in the audience, I specifically meet Jimmy Carter.

367
00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:54,000
Speaker 1: Want to have sex with all of.

368
00:19:53,920 --> 00:20:02,200
Speaker 3: You, all of all at the same time.

369
00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:05,639
Speaker 2: We could we can take and do a numbers system

370
00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:09,320
Speaker 2: that one, you know, one by one everybody. Logistics aren't

371
00:20:09,520 --> 00:20:11,840
Speaker 2: What's what's concerning me right now? I just want it?

372
00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:13,560
Speaker 2: Here's my question?

373
00:20:13,680 --> 00:20:14,720
Speaker 4: Was Roslin there also?

374
00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:18,240
Speaker 2: I think she was can get in the mix it.

375
00:20:18,560 --> 00:20:21,159
Speaker 2: We talked on the plane, We preyed on it. She's schools.

376
00:20:21,240 --> 00:20:25,080
Speaker 2: She likes your vibe too. We're opening up our relationships

377
00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:29,920
Speaker 2: your entire country because what's more American than that, you know? Uh,

378
00:20:30,119 --> 00:20:31,360
Speaker 2: it's bigger than all of us.

379
00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:35,199
Speaker 1: Yes, so uh this thing was actually scandalous enough that

380
00:20:35,320 --> 00:20:39,520
Speaker 1: the local newspapers decided to censor themselves. So the many

381
00:20:39,600 --> 00:20:42,080
Speaker 1: reporters weren't there. He didn't he didn't know any of this,

382
00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:46,680
Speaker 1: none the wiser. Yeah, exactly. So they toned the statement

383
00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:50,080
Speaker 1: down when they report on this, and what they say

384
00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:52,800
Speaker 1: instead of I want to have sex with you is uh,

385
00:20:53,200 --> 00:20:55,840
Speaker 1: I want to have carnal knowledge of the Polish, which

386
00:20:55,840 --> 00:21:02,080
Speaker 1: is still not it's not improvement cardinal. It's just I

387
00:21:02,119 --> 00:21:04,760
Speaker 1: don't know what it is about that word cardinal. Just

388
00:21:04,800 --> 00:21:08,440
Speaker 1: it's because also the idea of consumption of EAI.

389
00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:10,440
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say, it's like I want to devour you,

390
00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:11,879
Speaker 2: I want to devour your.

391
00:21:11,760 --> 00:21:13,760
Speaker 4: Flesh makes me just think of popcorn. I mean, I

392
00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:16,480
Speaker 4: think that what makes this so terrible is is Jimmy Carter.

393
00:21:16,600 --> 00:21:20,879
Speaker 4: We're talking about you. It's like sweetheart, Yeah, this wholesome sweetheart.

394
00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:22,800
Speaker 4: Like I think, Ben, you're the one who told me

395
00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:25,040
Speaker 4: this lie. But it's like Jimmy Carter might not been

396
00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:26,720
Speaker 4: the best president, but he might have been the best

397
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Speaker 4: person who was president.

398
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:32,200
Speaker 2: Oh continues, I mean he's not did he just die? No,

399
00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:33,360
Speaker 2: Roslyn passed away.

400
00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:37,800
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, he's he's I'm not. He's so old and

401
00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:41,240
Speaker 3: continues to do amazing work, you know, with his foundations,

402
00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:43,359
Speaker 3: and it's just a regularly I think I think he

403
00:21:43,480 --> 00:21:47,560
Speaker 3: like insists on his presidential kind of detail and like

404
00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:50,040
Speaker 3: you know, property and supplements that you get to be

405
00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:53,199
Speaker 3: the bare bones minimum because he doesn't want anyone to

406
00:21:53,240 --> 00:21:54,959
Speaker 3: have to pay for his life. And and he does

407
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:58,720
Speaker 3: all this habitat for humanity stuff like super legitimately awesome

408
00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:01,880
Speaker 3: guy continuously so you know, throughout his career. Again, maybe

409
00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:05,200
Speaker 3: not the best president. This diplomacy stuff is obviously really tricky,

410
00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:07,600
Speaker 3: but what a guy. You know, he will go down

411
00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:09,680
Speaker 3: in history as one of the great philanthropists I think

412
00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:11,000
Speaker 3: of of our time.

413
00:22:11,080 --> 00:22:15,240
Speaker 1: Well said, he's also he's also he is in hospice

414
00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:17,240
Speaker 1: as we record now, and.

415
00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:20,480
Speaker 2: I knew he wasn't. Well, that's that was triggering for many.

416
00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:25,440
Speaker 1: A while, right by some time now, Yeah, for many years,

417
00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:27,880
Speaker 1: he for many years he would.

418
00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:31,440
Speaker 2: But he makes every now and again not but he did.

419
00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:34,119
Speaker 3: I mean, but within the last handful of years he

420
00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:37,600
Speaker 3: would show up to big, big deal things. But yeah, anyway,

421
00:22:37,840 --> 00:22:42,119
Speaker 3: we interviewed him at the Carter Center a few years

422
00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:44,880
Speaker 3: back for how stuff works in the house stuff works

423
00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:49,639
Speaker 3: days and I think our pal Matt Frederick has I

424
00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:52,639
Speaker 3: think it was Matt, one one of our longtime friends

425
00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:56,280
Speaker 3: has Uh has a great story about thinking, holy crap,

426
00:22:56,440 --> 00:23:00,359
Speaker 3: I have to put a lava leer mike on Jimmy Carter.

427
00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:02,920
Speaker 3: For any non audio nerds, lava lier mic is the

428
00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:06,240
Speaker 3: little thing you have to clip and drop down someone's shirt. Yeah,

429
00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:10,159
Speaker 3: it requires getting a little cardinal so they've got some

430
00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:12,160
Speaker 3: cardinal knowledge of Jimmy Carter.

431
00:23:12,359 --> 00:23:16,879
Speaker 1: So so this is crazy because Jimmy doesn't know, the

432
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:20,920
Speaker 1: Americans on the team don't know, and the transfer.

433
00:23:20,600 --> 00:23:23,080
Speaker 3: Translators are moving on to another gig or at least

434
00:23:23,119 --> 00:23:25,800
Speaker 3: he's like got his hands full just doing the day

435
00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:29,199
Speaker 3: to day of translating throughout these meetings. So he's not

436
00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:33,120
Speaker 3: even thinking twice about what's just transpired in this speech, right, he.

437
00:23:33,040 --> 00:23:36,159
Speaker 1: Doesn't know until two days later when a local journalist

438
00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:40,199
Speaker 1: finally ask him what's going on. It's sort of like,

439
00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:43,639
Speaker 1: have you ever had a great day or a great

440
00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:46,240
Speaker 1: meeting and then you realize that your fly has been

441
00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:48,560
Speaker 1: down the whole time. It's kind of like that.

442
00:23:48,920 --> 00:23:51,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, it may be even worse, because this is just

443
00:23:51,119 --> 00:23:54,040
Speaker 3: like the biggest whoops, Like you thought you killed it,

444
00:23:54,320 --> 00:23:57,359
Speaker 3: You thought everything was good, you did your job well,

445
00:23:57,680 --> 00:24:00,400
Speaker 3: and then it turns out way no, you had one

446
00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:03,040
Speaker 3: job and you did it not well at all, And

447
00:24:03,119 --> 00:24:05,760
Speaker 3: now you've got to deal with the backlash and you're

448
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:10,280
Speaker 3: probably gonna get fired, which I believe did quietly happen.

449
00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:13,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is this is crazy.

450
00:24:13,359 --> 00:24:17,120
Speaker 1: So he he's been busting his humps, Like you said,

451
00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:22,720
Speaker 1: our translairacymore for the preceding forty eight hours handling all

452
00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:25,640
Speaker 1: this other stuff as an interpreter. And then there's a

453
00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:30,040
Speaker 1: final formal banquet and he has removed from that banquet.

454
00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:33,520
Speaker 1: It's not an improvement, scored it out. Yeah, their last

455
00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:38,439
Speaker 1: minute escort or their last minute interpreter rather couldn't do

456
00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:45,280
Speaker 1: his job because Jimmy Carter has somewhattle strong southern axioms.

457
00:24:44,520 --> 00:24:48,080
Speaker 3: A bit of a drawl bit, if you will. He's

458
00:24:48,119 --> 00:24:52,000
Speaker 3: got a god molding a slip of molasses in there, and.

459
00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:53,840
Speaker 2: It really likes to roll around inside.

460
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:55,800
Speaker 3: The word just make a meal of it, you know,

461
00:24:56,280 --> 00:25:00,399
Speaker 3: right right, never metal phrase that didn't need some shoeing,

462
00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:02,120
Speaker 3: and the.

463
00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:05,320
Speaker 2: That's so dumb, No, keep it back.

464
00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:09,159
Speaker 1: And so this interpreter was listening to this and the

465
00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:14,119
Speaker 1: poor guys thinking is this even English? And so he

466
00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:18,400
Speaker 1: literally just sits there until the interpreter from the Polish government,

467
00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:25,640
Speaker 1: presumably sighing theatrically, says, well, the president you see needs

468
00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:26,200
Speaker 1: to follow it.

469
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:29,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, there were some words spoken.

470
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:33,119
Speaker 3: I can't speak to the quality of them, but I

471
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:37,040
Speaker 3: would love to hear a translation attempt at least exactly.

472
00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:41,040
Speaker 1: So, like you said, this could have been a huge snaffoo,

473
00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:45,439
Speaker 1: a big scandal, But luckily it didn't scuttle US Polish relations.

474
00:25:45,800 --> 00:25:48,760
Speaker 1: When Carter returned to the US, they continued to work

475
00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:53,000
Speaker 1: with this country until the end of communism. And you know,

476
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 1: we can't say for sure whether he managed to bang

477
00:25:56,080 --> 00:26:04,480
Speaker 1: out the entire nation of communist Poland one at a

478
00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:07,320
Speaker 1: time or in a group. We do know, like you said,

479
00:26:07,359 --> 00:26:10,000
Speaker 1: that he was happily married and monogamous for the entirety

480
00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:14,159
Speaker 1: of his adult life, So it seems unlikely that he

481
00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:17,160
Speaker 1: did this, just think of the logistics. And it also

482
00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:20,800
Speaker 1: seems unlikely that he desired to in the first place.

483
00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:25,359
Speaker 3: Oh yes, it would have been his pleasure to do so.

484
00:26:27,960 --> 00:26:29,359
Speaker 2: Jimmy Carter, What a guy.

485
00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:39,640
Speaker 1: And we're back Pepsi. Oh, pepsi. You guys like pepsi

486
00:26:39,680 --> 00:26:41,280
Speaker 1: back when you know soda drinking?

487
00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:43,840
Speaker 2: I don't like. I don't. I don't like pepsi. Oh no, no,

488
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:45,200
Speaker 2: good pepsi pop is good.

489
00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:46,640
Speaker 4: I can't even fake it.

490
00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:50,400
Speaker 3: No, dude, it's just I mean, I like some pepsi products,

491
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:54,000
Speaker 3: but pepsi is an inferior cola. I'm sorry it has

492
00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:56,679
Speaker 3: got nothing to do with my Georgia roots. You know,

493
00:26:56,800 --> 00:26:59,960
Speaker 3: I have no skin in the game politically or terms

494
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:03,359
Speaker 3: of loyal brand loyalty. Coca Cola Classic is just the

495
00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:07,000
Speaker 3: superior cola. Pepsi tastes weird, I don't. I don't got

496
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:09,399
Speaker 3: a word in mouthfield. Yes it's weird.

497
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:13,080
Speaker 1: It stays with you a little more in the mouth itself,

498
00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:16,280
Speaker 1: and it's I almost feel like.

499
00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:20,520
Speaker 3: It's more sugar srapy. Yes, it's denser or something. It's weird, you.

500
00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:24,280
Speaker 4: Guys known like' like furnette.

501
00:27:24,280 --> 00:27:26,760
Speaker 3: I feel it's like a punishment. Drink it like coats

502
00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:29,080
Speaker 3: the inside of your mouth. Whatever it's, it.

503
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:32,800
Speaker 4: Just lives there. It's it's now a roommate in your mouth.

504
00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:37,919
Speaker 3: Brought to you by so uh yeah, but again Pepsi.

505
00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:40,840
Speaker 3: You know the Pepsi brass is listening. Plenty of great

506
00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:44,960
Speaker 3: pepsi products. Sure, I prefer to to coke products.

507
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:47,280
Speaker 1: Right, It's like how you don't you can love a

508
00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:50,720
Speaker 1: band and not need to love every album, right.

509
00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:53,960
Speaker 3: So please please give us money pepsi. I'm sorry, We'll

510
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:56,080
Speaker 3: take all of the buddy, we will. We will drink

511
00:27:56,119 --> 00:28:00,520
Speaker 3: pepsi on the air. So before do you know we

512
00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:02,720
Speaker 3: may have talked about this before, but there's this kind

513
00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:05,880
Speaker 3: of there's a genre of music called Plunderphonics where it's

514
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:08,120
Speaker 3: like a lot of kind of satirical use of samples

515
00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:11,320
Speaker 3: and you know, news clips in this audio collage. But

516
00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:13,600
Speaker 3: there's this group called Negative Land I think we've talked about.

517
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:17,040
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and they made a record called Dyspepsi that

518
00:28:17,359 --> 00:28:21,400
Speaker 3: entirely uses like clips from Pepsi commercials and all kinds

519
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:24,600
Speaker 3: of weird stuff and it's like it is a rop

520
00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:26,919
Speaker 3: I highly recommend you checking it out. It'll make you

521
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:29,880
Speaker 3: either crave pepsi or never want to drink a pepsi ever.

522
00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:32,760
Speaker 1: Again, it's great for that to be in the conversation

523
00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:36,600
Speaker 1: here because we're talking a lot about pepsi's at campaigns

524
00:28:36,640 --> 00:28:39,000
Speaker 1: and they've had a struggle with that. You know, we

525
00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:42,720
Speaker 1: are longtime residents of the Atlanta metro area, so we're

526
00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:47,080
Speaker 1: clearly from the Coca Cola empire, but it's important to

527
00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:51,400
Speaker 1: establish that personal taste aside, we bear no ill will

528
00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:54,959
Speaker 1: towards the land of Pepsi. It is true, however, that

529
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:59,120
Speaker 1: Pepsi ran into some famous weird translation issues when they

530
00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:03,040
Speaker 1: sought to expand internationally, like I didn't know this, but

531
00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:07,680
Speaker 1: for many decades, like dating back to the late nineteen thirties,

532
00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:11,800
Speaker 1: pepsi was considered the lower end, as you said, like

533
00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:16,200
Speaker 1: the inferior soda. It's and it's because they tried to

534
00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:20,600
Speaker 1: advertise themselves as a money saver. Their official slogan from

535
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:24,240
Speaker 1: thirty nine to nineteen fifty was twice as much for

536
00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:24,920
Speaker 1: a nickel.

537
00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:28,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so it's like, are.

538
00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:30,640
Speaker 1: We as good? Well, you get twice as much?

539
00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:35,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, what's that checkers? You gotta eat? Yeah, and one

540
00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:39,640
Speaker 3: hundred percent. Snopes says that the specific slogan was Pepsi

541
00:29:39,720 --> 00:29:42,960
Speaker 3: cola hits the spot twelve full ounces. That's a lot,

542
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:46,239
Speaker 3: twice as much for a nickel too. Pepsi cola is

543
00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:47,480
Speaker 3: the drink for you.

544
00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:50,640
Speaker 2: Fun. It's a fun little nursery rhyme.

545
00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:53,000
Speaker 1: A lot of people seem to take this as a

546
00:29:53,040 --> 00:29:57,240
Speaker 1: personal attack, like you're calling me cheap. You know, folks

547
00:29:57,320 --> 00:30:01,680
Speaker 1: were buying pepsi, but they were bindly luxury cola. They

548
00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:04,640
Speaker 1: were buying it to hide at home because they were

549
00:30:04,760 --> 00:30:07,680
Speaker 1: worried about looking like there were skin flints and they said,

550
00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:12,520
Speaker 1: like in this era, people would you would drink pepsi

551
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:14,640
Speaker 1: if it was just you and the kids at the house,

552
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:17,840
Speaker 1: but if guests came over, you would serve them coca cola.

553
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:20,080
Speaker 1: And there was even a thing where people would like

554
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:23,880
Speaker 1: pour pepsi into the glasses they gave people, but they

555
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:27,360
Speaker 1: would bring out the coca cola bottle in the living room.

556
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:29,160
Speaker 1: So it's like pepsi cola fraud.

557
00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:30,600
Speaker 2: It was nuts.

558
00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:34,120
Speaker 4: So true story here. When my family first moved from

559
00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:37,160
Speaker 4: Detroit to Atlanta, my mom wanted to live there, having

560
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:38,520
Speaker 4: a house, right, my mom wanted to store and there's

561
00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:40,320
Speaker 4: a deal in pepsi, and she about a couple two

562
00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:44,320
Speaker 4: letters pepsi. Didn't think anything about it, and she said,

563
00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:46,840
Speaker 4: like people were like seriously offended. And I think this

564
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:48,960
Speaker 4: might be much more of like you're in Atlanta, but

565
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:52,400
Speaker 4: there is still like that whole you know, perception about

566
00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:55,520
Speaker 4: pepsi and coke where it's like, uh, yeah, you don't

567
00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:58,440
Speaker 4: serve it in certain parts parts of this country.

568
00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:00,560
Speaker 2: Right right, this is not the up for you.

569
00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:02,760
Speaker 3: It is jarring when you go to a fast food

570
00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:05,360
Speaker 3: restaurant or like even like a whatever sit down restaurant,

571
00:31:05,400 --> 00:31:06,880
Speaker 3: you order a coke and they're like, we only have

572
00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:09,920
Speaker 3: pepsi products and I'm just like, I'm fine. Yeah, you know,

573
00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:13,200
Speaker 3: there is a sort of like inherent sort of aggression

574
00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:14,800
Speaker 3: that comes with that in the in this part of

575
00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:15,240
Speaker 3: the country.

576
00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:15,960
Speaker 2: It's true.

577
00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:18,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, I usually will just take that as a sign

578
00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 1: from the sign from the universe that today is a

579
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:25,680
Speaker 1: water drinking day. Back when I was drinking more soda,

580
00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:28,240
Speaker 1: but also amc theaters.

581
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:29,239
Speaker 2: I just learned this.

582
00:31:29,640 --> 00:31:32,200
Speaker 1: They got they got taken over by pepsi or they

583
00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:35,920
Speaker 1: got gentrified by pepsi. I went to watch Oppenheimer for

584
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:39,520
Speaker 1: Friends of Ours and I ordered a coke and the

585
00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:42,160
Speaker 1: kid at the counter said, we only have pepsi. Hey,

586
00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:43,800
Speaker 1: you know what I did, don't I got.

587
00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:46,760
Speaker 2: A bottled water? Yeah? Smart? What is that dasani?

588
00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:51,600
Speaker 1: They Oh, gosh, Dosani's a coke product. Okay, what's the

589
00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:54,400
Speaker 1: pepsi equivalent of disani? I can't remember, but I bet

590
00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:55,200
Speaker 1: you they've got one.

591
00:31:55,240 --> 00:31:56,720
Speaker 2: They have to. They have to.

592
00:31:57,040 --> 00:31:59,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, So why you're why You're like, I'm googling cow

593
00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:04,760
Speaker 1: kited up. I'm sure we'll wreck awkwardida. Okay, that makes sense.

594
00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:07,400
Speaker 1: It was an aquiffina. It had to be so back

595
00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:10,960
Speaker 1: in the day because people were worried about looking like

596
00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:14,000
Speaker 1: cheap skates. They didn't want to be associated too strongly

597
00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:14,959
Speaker 1: with drinking pepsi.

598
00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:18,480
Speaker 2: PEPs knew about damage control. Yeah that's not good.

599
00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:22,480
Speaker 3: Okay, we've got to reverse this marketing train wreck because

600
00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:25,840
Speaker 3: clearly we have made a horrible mistake and we need

601
00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:27,040
Speaker 3: to revamp our image.

602
00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:30,160
Speaker 2: Right, it's maybe we go ham in the other direction.

603
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:31,120
Speaker 2: So they did.

604
00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:34,680
Speaker 1: They did exactly that. They wanted a better catchphrase. So

605
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:39,240
Speaker 1: from nineteen fifty three to the early nineteen sixty one

606
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:43,160
Speaker 1: they had a different campaign, and the campaign's name was

607
00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:51,080
Speaker 1: be Sociable, which feels like communist propaganda, where your monocle exactly,

608
00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:56,080
Speaker 1: you know, pinky up when sipping this champagne of gola

609
00:32:57,640 --> 00:32:59,960
Speaker 1: from your tiny crystal goblin.

610
00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:04,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean seriously, you know they they totally you know,

611
00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:09,400
Speaker 3: jump the shark in the other direction. First, the past

612
00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:11,640
Speaker 3: pepsi is just for the poor, and now this one

613
00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:14,800
Speaker 3: is just for the like the upper crust, and that

614
00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:17,320
Speaker 3: doesn't sit well either. You guys are trying to reach

615
00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:20,360
Speaker 3: a general audience who keeps screwing this up.

616
00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:23,880
Speaker 2: It's very interesting. Yeah, it was like it was like.

617
00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:29,480
Speaker 1: They had some kind of weird Twilight Zone esque computer

618
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,000
Speaker 1: that was saying if the poor.

619
00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:34,040
Speaker 2: Don't. We will go for the rich.

620
00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:36,720
Speaker 3: But you need Don Draper on the case man, he

621
00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:39,080
Speaker 3: would have come up with a way better catch ras.

622
00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:42,640
Speaker 1: And the thing is, if you look at these ads,

623
00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:46,600
Speaker 1: you'll see pet people drinking pepsi in public group settings,

624
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:50,200
Speaker 1: no longer hiding the shame of drinking pepsi cola. But

625
00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:54,520
Speaker 1: these folks who are depicted, they're all a little bit

626
00:33:54,640 --> 00:33:58,080
Speaker 1: too cookie cutter, a little bit too Norman Rockwell. And

627
00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:01,280
Speaker 1: this is right around the time gets super into.

628
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:04,360
Speaker 2: Rock and roll. People would to be edgy and rebel.

629
00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:09,879
Speaker 3: Now isn't that funny, Because wasn't the early Coke advertising

630
00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:12,600
Speaker 3: was exactly that, Yeah, Norman Rockwell kind of stuff.

631
00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:14,600
Speaker 2: But they but they got the timing right. They got

632
00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:15,400
Speaker 2: the timing right.

633
00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:17,880
Speaker 3: Pepsi was a daylight and a dollar short, and they

634
00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:20,279
Speaker 3: like totally were behind the times. And then you know,

635
00:34:20,400 --> 00:34:23,360
Speaker 3: the tide had turned and Coke with I think I

636
00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:25,759
Speaker 3: think a big again. I think Coke's the better drink,

637
00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:29,719
Speaker 3: but much better marketing. They were always right finger on

638
00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:33,480
Speaker 3: the pulse. They invented freaking polar bears in Santa Claus. Yeah,

639
00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:34,960
Speaker 3: and they'll check me on the first one.

640
00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:39,680
Speaker 1: They also had the They had their own share of missteps,

641
00:34:39,719 --> 00:34:42,600
Speaker 1: but they had a lot more successes. Their ratio was good.

642
00:34:43,080 --> 00:34:46,760
Speaker 1: Pepsi missed the youth market, the most powerful market in soda,

643
00:34:47,120 --> 00:34:53,960
Speaker 1: because they were they were increasingly looking like the avatar

644
00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:58,400
Speaker 1: of the suffocating traditional society and social roles.

645
00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:00,120
Speaker 2: They hated rock and roll, you know.

646
00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:04,200
Speaker 1: Pepsi was now the one saying no sock ops for you.

647
00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:09,640
Speaker 1: And so they realized this when they did some studies

648
00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:13,960
Speaker 1: and found that as a soda brand they were now

649
00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:20,920
Speaker 1: associated with struggling, married couples who are painfully budget conscious.

650
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:24,239
Speaker 1: So they're not the fun drink anymore. They're the had

651
00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:25,600
Speaker 1: kids too early drink.

652
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:29,320
Speaker 3: Oh wow, okay, yeah, And they came up with another

653
00:35:29,640 --> 00:35:34,840
Speaker 3: banger of a slogan, absolutely mind boggling. Now it's Pepsi

654
00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:40,880
Speaker 3: for those who think young. It's so convoluted, it's basically

655
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:41,719
Speaker 3: has no meaning.

656
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:46,160
Speaker 1: It's like Monty Burns, it's a Monty Burns idea. Now

657
00:35:46,239 --> 00:35:48,280
Speaker 1: it's Pepsi for those who think young.

658
00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:51,959
Speaker 3: Why then, Now, It's like that part is a little

659
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:56,719
Speaker 3: bit perplexing, and the idea of thinking young is inherently

660
00:35:57,360 --> 00:36:01,880
Speaker 3: a put on. Right, It's like you're you're already casting

661
00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:05,480
Speaker 3: your audience as a bunch of phonies who are actually

662
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:07,920
Speaker 3: old but just doing their best to think.

663
00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:12,359
Speaker 1: You or somehow cognitively impaired. This one only lasts from

664
00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:15,399
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty one to nineteen sixty three. Like you say,

665
00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:17,480
Speaker 1: it's a swing and a miss. But they had a

666
00:36:17,560 --> 00:36:19,840
Speaker 1: lot writing on this, so they went back to the

667
00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:23,480
Speaker 1: drawing board and they returned with come alive. You're at

668
00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:24,640
Speaker 1: the Pepsi generation.

669
00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:29,040
Speaker 2: This was a success. Actual banger, actual chess. Yeah, really

670
00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:29,799
Speaker 2: good right here.

671
00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:32,560
Speaker 3: I mean, if we're just spitballing slogans, wouldn't this be

672
00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:34,120
Speaker 3: the first one where you'd be like, that's good?

673
00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:37,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's like pepsi banger slogans.

674
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:37,520
Speaker 2: For a drink.

675
00:36:37,719 --> 00:36:40,440
Speaker 3: I think it's so weird and what's the word. It's

676
00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:44,000
Speaker 3: almost propagandistic. It's like you're it is for sure, but

677
00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:47,320
Speaker 3: like what makes a good one? It's all bullshit, Like

678
00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:50,480
Speaker 3: there's nothing about any drink that will make any of

679
00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:52,319
Speaker 3: this stuff true, you know what I mean.

680
00:36:52,440 --> 00:36:54,440
Speaker 2: So it's just like, which one is the thing that

681
00:36:54,880 --> 00:36:59,719
Speaker 2: makes you feel a spark of hope and excitement around this?

682
00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:06,640
Speaker 3: Sugar water carbonated beverett bad for you, really actively bad

683
00:37:06,719 --> 00:37:06,920
Speaker 3: for you?

684
00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:10,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a there is a brilliance to it because

685
00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:14,680
Speaker 1: it's incredibly inclusive. You're if you want to be in

686
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:18,319
Speaker 1: the Pepsi generation, Yeah, you're part of a movement now

687
00:37:19,080 --> 00:37:19,800
Speaker 1: Star Treking.

688
00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:22,120
Speaker 3: You know, Sorry, it just sounds the word generation just

689
00:37:22,160 --> 00:37:24,680
Speaker 3: sounds inherently futuristic to me because of Star Trek.

690
00:37:24,719 --> 00:37:25,279
Speaker 2: I don't know why.

691
00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:28,960
Speaker 1: That's just it sounds inherently massive to me. And so

692
00:37:29,200 --> 00:37:33,239
Speaker 1: both younger people who want to think of themselves as

693
00:37:33,320 --> 00:37:35,640
Speaker 1: hip and popular and older people who want to think

694
00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:38,760
Speaker 1: of themselves as youthful and hip, they like this. Pepsi

695
00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:43,640
Speaker 1: becomes associated with that youth popularity, success acceptance, Pepsi. They

696
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:46,600
Speaker 1: even had a ditty that they put.

697
00:37:46,520 --> 00:37:47,719
Speaker 2: In here, which.

698
00:37:49,480 --> 00:37:51,960
Speaker 1: Maybe we might play a clip if we if we

699
00:37:52,080 --> 00:37:52,440
Speaker 1: find it.

700
00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:54,520
Speaker 2: But what's it to the tune of is it its

701
00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:57,480
Speaker 2: own tune? It's like I'm trying to think it's imposed

702
00:37:57,560 --> 00:37:58,160
Speaker 2: a melody.

703
00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:01,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, well I'm if you guys can't tell him

704
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:03,359
Speaker 3: on the back end of being a little bit ill,

705
00:38:03,680 --> 00:38:05,359
Speaker 3: so my voice is a little bit shot, So I'm

706
00:38:05,360 --> 00:38:06,879
Speaker 3: not gonna attempt to sing because it would be sad.

707
00:38:06,960 --> 00:38:08,880
Speaker 3: But I was supposed to do like a rap, like

708
00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:11,279
Speaker 3: an eighties rap. There's a whole new way of living.

709
00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:15,480
Speaker 3: Pepsi helps to apply the drive. It's got a lot

710
00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:19,000
Speaker 3: to give to those who like to live because Pepsi

711
00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:22,840
Speaker 3: helps them come alive. It's the Pepsi generation coming at you,

712
00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:24,040
Speaker 3: going straw.

713
00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:25,160
Speaker 2: I like that.

714
00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:29,239
Speaker 3: Interpretational and the less I could do the mark come

715
00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:33,640
Speaker 3: alive though, what an invitation? Yeah right, yeah yeah in English? Uh,

716
00:38:33,800 --> 00:38:35,600
Speaker 3: the Pepsi boy, there we go.

717
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:36,439
Speaker 2: This is the term.

718
00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:41,160
Speaker 1: Pepsi's market share expands. It explodes past the demographics, the

719
00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:45,080
Speaker 1: geopolitical newss good news, good news. The growth of the

720
00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:50,440
Speaker 1: Pepsi empire seems unstoppable until the new ad campaigns reached China,

721
00:38:50,800 --> 00:38:55,000
Speaker 1: where sales plummet. Uh, we're gonna have we can. I

722
00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:57,759
Speaker 1: explore a couple of different versions of the story, but

723
00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:01,960
Speaker 1: you know, the big takeaway. The big takeaway is that

724
00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:06,320
Speaker 1: because pepsi helps them come alive doesn't quite translate the

725
00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:09,680
Speaker 1: same way in the Chinese language. Well, first of all,

726
00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:11,319
Speaker 1: I think we've talked about this on stuff they don't

727
00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:16,439
Speaker 1: want you to know. China is obviously known for many things,

728
00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:21,160
Speaker 1: but one is censorship of American culture. So if you

729
00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:24,160
Speaker 1: have like films that play in China. There are versions

730
00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:27,480
Speaker 1: that you know, for the Chinese market that remove things

731
00:39:27,560 --> 00:39:30,080
Speaker 1: for cultural sensitivity purposes, and one of them is, I

732
00:39:30,320 --> 00:39:33,200
Speaker 1: believe up until pretty recently, they they weren't allowed to

733
00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:36,840
Speaker 1: have ghosts, Like ghosts is a thing where they like

734
00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:39,600
Speaker 1: they get no, that's a no go. Ghostbusters I think

735
00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:41,560
Speaker 1: did not you know, play in China and stuff like

736
00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:48,320
Speaker 1: that because of the cultural phenomenon of the ancestor worship.

737
00:39:48,719 --> 00:39:52,520
Speaker 1: I think that's accurate praying to your ancestors, revering you know,

738
00:39:52,719 --> 00:39:54,680
Speaker 1: the dead, and like treating them as though they were

739
00:39:54,760 --> 00:39:56,719
Speaker 1: still you know, have a place at your table. All

740
00:39:56,760 --> 00:39:58,520
Speaker 1: the shrines and all of that kind of stuff. It's

741
00:39:58,520 --> 00:39:59,080
Speaker 1: a big deal.

742
00:39:59,640 --> 00:40:04,680
Speaker 3: So when you have a mass market media blitz promising

743
00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:10,319
Speaker 3: to raise the dead, you know, that's just absolutely insulting.

744
00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:12,560
Speaker 2: How dare you right?

745
00:40:12,760 --> 00:40:17,120
Speaker 1: It's yeah, the censorship is real with this and the

746
00:40:17,680 --> 00:40:22,640
Speaker 1: idea that like, okay, the way Pepsi pictures this is

747
00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:27,080
Speaker 1: come alive meaning to feel energized or Peppi with Pepsi

748
00:40:27,719 --> 00:40:28,319
Speaker 1: welcome folks.

749
00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:29,120
Speaker 2: You can have that one.

750
00:40:30,080 --> 00:40:32,440
Speaker 3: But that's the thing though, dude, Even to me, I

751
00:40:32,560 --> 00:40:37,920
Speaker 3: read come alive and that it can it's very broad

752
00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:40,719
Speaker 3: and vague, and it's like, maybe it's a phrase that

753
00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 3: has fallen out of fashion, but I don't even think

754
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:44,759
Speaker 3: about it like that. So for it to you know,

755
00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:47,719
Speaker 3: have to translate this again the feeling of what does

756
00:40:47,760 --> 00:40:50,560
Speaker 3: that mean? It's not something that there maybe is an

757
00:40:50,600 --> 00:40:52,480
Speaker 3: analog to in that language.

758
00:40:52,719 --> 00:40:55,640
Speaker 1: Sure yeah, like a lot of idioms as well. So

759
00:40:55,920 --> 00:40:59,480
Speaker 1: the message translates to something along the lines of Pepsi

760
00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:02,000
Speaker 1: brings or dead ancestors.

761
00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:02,120
Speaker 2: Back to life.

762
00:41:02,560 --> 00:41:06,120
Speaker 1: And this anecdote is often quoted in marketing schools and

763
00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:11,080
Speaker 1: speeches and various things as a textbookcase of when advertising

764
00:41:11,200 --> 00:41:14,239
Speaker 1: and translation go wrong. But there are a couple of

765
00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:17,479
Speaker 1: issues with the story. First, a lot of versions claim

766
00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:20,440
Speaker 1: the entire slogan was come alive with pepsi, but the

767
00:41:20,520 --> 00:41:23,320
Speaker 1: real slogan is, as we said, come alive. You're in

768
00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:26,520
Speaker 1: the pepsi generation. And that might seem like splitting hairs

769
00:41:26,680 --> 00:41:30,920
Speaker 1: or soda bubbles. But in translation, small differences do yield

770
00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:33,960
Speaker 1: big results and big consequences.

771
00:41:33,719 --> 00:41:36,880
Speaker 2: So there's another little wrinkle in the story. Most versions

772
00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:42,520
Speaker 2: don't specify which language got hit by the mistranslation. Ben,

773
00:41:42,560 --> 00:41:46,480
Speaker 2: I know you're a student of Chinese, and there are

774
00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:53,160
Speaker 2: different dialects. Of course, is Mandarin Cantonese, right, yeah, it's

775
00:41:53,200 --> 00:41:58,040
Speaker 2: a huge country. Mandarins the official language, Cantonese is very common,

776
00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:01,400
Speaker 2: and there are any other number of dialects and separate

777
00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:05,799
Speaker 2: languages for different ethnic groups. How similar are they which ones.

778
00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:09,120
Speaker 3: Any like that's the same manner? Any Cantonese? Are we

779
00:42:09,239 --> 00:42:11,880
Speaker 3: talking like completely different?

780
00:42:12,200 --> 00:42:12,480
Speaker 4: Or like?

781
00:42:12,640 --> 00:42:14,640
Speaker 2: Is it sort of like maybe Dutch is to German?

782
00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:16,080
Speaker 2: I see? Yeah, so.

783
00:42:17,640 --> 00:42:21,120
Speaker 1: They use the same character sets, like the same idiograms

784
00:42:21,200 --> 00:42:24,000
Speaker 1: and stuff, so wherever you go you can read the

785
00:42:24,120 --> 00:42:31,160
Speaker 1: same sentence, but the pronunciations can become mutually unintelligible. Mandarin

786
00:42:31,239 --> 00:42:35,520
Speaker 1: has four tones, but Cantonese has six, so it's much

787
00:42:35,600 --> 00:42:40,000
Speaker 1: more difficult at least wow for people to like honestly,

788
00:42:40,239 --> 00:42:44,080
Speaker 1: for people our age who have never tried to learn Cantonese,

789
00:42:44,200 --> 00:42:48,480
Speaker 1: it would be almost impossible. So it's it's tough, and

790
00:42:48,600 --> 00:42:51,760
Speaker 1: it does make a difference to figure out which language

791
00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:56,240
Speaker 1: this got mistranslated into. Other versions of the story. Sometimes

792
00:42:56,280 --> 00:42:58,960
Speaker 1: say the mistranslation didn't occur in China at all, that

793
00:42:59,080 --> 00:43:00,720
Speaker 1: it was in Thailand or Germany.

794
00:43:01,239 --> 00:43:03,760
Speaker 2: But in anyway, how do we not have better records

795
00:43:03,800 --> 00:43:03,920
Speaker 2: of this?

796
00:43:04,040 --> 00:43:08,000
Speaker 3: Though you'd think that like historians of marketing would have,

797
00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:11,000
Speaker 3: you know, got the clippings, you know what I mean,

798
00:43:11,200 --> 00:43:14,200
Speaker 3: there would be artifacts out there that could prove this

799
00:43:14,440 --> 00:43:15,680
Speaker 3: from different campaigns.

800
00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:18,040
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it's because PEPSI is not super proud

801
00:43:18,080 --> 00:43:18,200
Speaker 1: of it.

802
00:43:19,320 --> 00:43:21,239
Speaker 3: Yeah, but we know, I mean, I guess this is

803
00:43:21,280 --> 00:43:24,520
Speaker 3: also probably pre Internet, so they probably were able to,

804
00:43:24,840 --> 00:43:27,200
Speaker 3: you know, do the best they could to pull any

805
00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:30,200
Speaker 3: examples of that stuff from the public record. But in

806
00:43:30,239 --> 00:43:33,319
Speaker 3: any case, you will hear the mistranslation phrase in one

807
00:43:33,360 --> 00:43:36,680
Speaker 3: of a handful of different ways, including come alive and

808
00:43:36,840 --> 00:43:41,040
Speaker 3: out of the grave with PEPSI works for Halloween maybe,

809
00:43:41,120 --> 00:43:43,480
Speaker 3: but not the rest of the year. And again with

810
00:43:43,560 --> 00:43:46,280
Speaker 3: the cultural stuff. This is wild, but it's so interesting

811
00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:50,800
Speaker 3: too because the cultural argument really is most profound, I

812
00:43:50,880 --> 00:43:54,440
Speaker 3: think with China because of that, you know, very important

813
00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:58,759
Speaker 3: spiritual connection to ancestors. Another one was PEPSI will bring

814
00:43:58,840 --> 00:44:01,440
Speaker 3: your ancestors back from the dead, right, and then bring

815
00:44:01,680 --> 00:44:03,360
Speaker 3: dead ancestors back from heaven.

816
00:44:03,600 --> 00:44:07,520
Speaker 2: That sounds wow, that's a that's a okay, that's I'll

817
00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:07,920
Speaker 2: give it that.

818
00:44:08,239 --> 00:44:10,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's are we talking are they zombies

819
00:44:10,560 --> 00:44:14,400
Speaker 3: now or are they like back like they were cemetery situation.

820
00:44:14,640 --> 00:44:17,480
Speaker 2: What happens when you run out of pepsi? Right? They

821
00:44:17,560 --> 00:44:18,839
Speaker 2: don't do they turn?

822
00:44:19,760 --> 00:44:22,680
Speaker 1: So with all these do they do they crave pepsi

823
00:44:22,920 --> 00:44:26,040
Speaker 1: right when they they've risen in the night for the

824
00:44:26,080 --> 00:44:29,279
Speaker 1: pepsi cola. With all the caveats were giving you, it

825
00:44:29,400 --> 00:44:32,160
Speaker 1: might sound like we're giving we're spinning a tall tale,

826
00:44:32,239 --> 00:44:36,320
Speaker 1: ridiculous historians. Uh, maybe a bit of bait and switch. However,

827
00:44:37,360 --> 00:44:41,280
Speaker 1: we have to have those caveats because this is still

828
00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:44,960
Speaker 1: probably I'm going to say probably true to some degree.

829
00:44:45,040 --> 00:44:48,720
Speaker 1: Pepsi has never once come out and denied that this occurred.

830
00:44:48,960 --> 00:44:52,279
Speaker 1: They have never made an official statement of any kind

831
00:44:52,360 --> 00:44:55,560
Speaker 1: about this, despite it being one of the most legendary

832
00:44:55,680 --> 00:44:58,839
Speaker 1: stories in all of Western marketing lore. And it makes

833
00:44:58,880 --> 00:45:02,160
Speaker 1: you think, you know, we're left with two conclusions. Maybe

834
00:45:02,239 --> 00:45:04,520
Speaker 1: pepsi did have a sort of stumble since it was

835
00:45:04,600 --> 00:45:09,200
Speaker 1: pretty widely reported by multiple otherwise solid sources. Or maybe

836
00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:12,120
Speaker 1: pepsi really brought people back from the dead and it

837
00:45:12,239 --> 00:45:14,719
Speaker 1: got covered up. You know, it's one of those two.

838
00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:15,800
Speaker 1: There is no in between.

839
00:45:16,080 --> 00:45:19,360
Speaker 3: I mean, look, I might rethink my position on pepsi

840
00:45:19,640 --> 00:45:22,759
Speaker 3: if in fact did bring back you know, loved ones

841
00:45:22,760 --> 00:45:23,239
Speaker 3: from the dead.

842
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:25,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't, but again, I need to know the rules.

843
00:45:25,520 --> 00:45:28,200
Speaker 3: Isn't a monkey's pod type situation, you know, I just

844
00:45:28,400 --> 00:45:30,240
Speaker 3: there's a lot of questions, a lot of questions.

845
00:45:30,320 --> 00:45:33,680
Speaker 1: A temporary thing, is it long lasting? Is there a

846
00:45:33,800 --> 00:45:35,760
Speaker 1: way to send people back again?

847
00:45:36,200 --> 00:45:36,560
Speaker 2: I don't know.

848
00:45:36,640 --> 00:45:38,920
Speaker 1: We've got a lot of questions. We're looking for the

849
00:45:39,000 --> 00:45:43,319
Speaker 1: answers as we speak. Currently on a side note, maybe

850
00:45:43,440 --> 00:45:46,000
Speaker 1: this is where we end today. Currently on a side note.

851
00:45:46,320 --> 00:45:50,319
Speaker 1: Pepsi's name in Chinese characters translates to one hundred ways

852
00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:54,279
Speaker 1: to good luck, and Koch's name, Coca Cola's name translates

853
00:45:54,320 --> 00:45:58,800
Speaker 1: to quote to allow the mouth to be able to rejoice.

854
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:03,840
Speaker 2: Feel like, that's terrible, That is weird.

855
00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:07,759
Speaker 3: There's a brand of some kind. It's candy or something.

856
00:46:07,760 --> 00:46:08,320
Speaker 3: I'm a picture.

857
00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:08,880
Speaker 2: You know what it is.

858
00:46:08,880 --> 00:46:11,279
Speaker 3: It's Twizzlers. Do you remember what Twizzler's slogan was, You

859
00:46:11,320 --> 00:46:19,440
Speaker 3: guys makes mouths happy. Oh, that's right, yeah, makes mouths happy.

860
00:46:19,560 --> 00:46:20,600
Speaker 2: I'm guy.

861
00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:23,200
Speaker 3: And they don't say mouths when they do it, they

862
00:46:23,280 --> 00:46:25,760
Speaker 3: speak it out loud and they say makes mouths happy.

863
00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:28,200
Speaker 3: And in the in the commercials in the nineties like

864
00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:31,280
Speaker 3: Pee Wee's playhouse style kind of weird clamation of giant

865
00:46:31,360 --> 00:46:36,200
Speaker 3: lips and red vine pulsating twizzlers going in and.

866
00:46:36,239 --> 00:46:36,960
Speaker 2: Out of the mouths.

867
00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:40,279
Speaker 3: It's a very very macabre, like those MTV bumpers from

868
00:46:40,320 --> 00:46:42,640
Speaker 3: those days, you know, and really weird stuff there was.

869
00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:47,319
Speaker 1: There's an entire history we could do of weird advertising

870
00:46:47,480 --> 00:46:51,080
Speaker 1: slogans that aren't even mistranslations, the ones that have aged

871
00:46:51,280 --> 00:46:54,080
Speaker 1: so poorly that if you look at them now you

872
00:46:54,120 --> 00:46:59,040
Speaker 1: would assume they were mistranslations. But this also perhaps is

873
00:46:59,080 --> 00:47:04,200
Speaker 1: a continuing series, because there are many other other strange mistranslations,

874
00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:08,120
Speaker 1: some of which almost led to nuclear war, like we

875
00:47:08,239 --> 00:47:11,360
Speaker 1: will bury you slapping the shoe on the counter for

876
00:47:11,480 --> 00:47:14,759
Speaker 1: any history, and then some that are some that are

877
00:47:14,840 --> 00:47:18,839
Speaker 1: more comical, of course, like you can some Chinese shopkeepers

878
00:47:19,920 --> 00:47:23,080
Speaker 1: the way they wrote coca cola translates into bite the

879
00:47:23,160 --> 00:47:24,160
Speaker 1: wax tadpole.

880
00:47:25,120 --> 00:47:28,120
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, if you heard that way, that for me, though,

881
00:47:28,239 --> 00:47:28,960
Speaker 2: the wet sprocket.

882
00:47:29,760 --> 00:47:33,080
Speaker 1: That's that's specific enough for me that if I if

883
00:47:33,120 --> 00:47:35,240
Speaker 1: I was in a different country, I saw a drink

884
00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:38,479
Speaker 1: that was advertising itself as bite the wax tadpole, I'd

885
00:47:38,520 --> 00:47:40,759
Speaker 1: buy one. I would buy one and lose under like

886
00:47:40,920 --> 00:47:41,560
Speaker 1: two dollars.

887
00:47:42,000 --> 00:47:43,759
Speaker 2: I would definitely try, no question.

888
00:47:44,239 --> 00:47:47,600
Speaker 3: It also sounds like a really kind of fun expression

889
00:47:47,719 --> 00:47:51,360
Speaker 3: for like dying, you know, bite the wax tadpole.

890
00:47:51,480 --> 00:47:53,800
Speaker 1: Straight out of a Jimmy Carter speech. There we go,

891
00:47:54,480 --> 00:47:57,680
Speaker 1: h yeah, tune in. Maybe we'll have an upcoming episode

892
00:47:57,800 --> 00:48:02,120
Speaker 1: on further mistranslations. Oh and well meaning astronomer who accidentally

893
00:48:02,200 --> 00:48:06,560
Speaker 1: started all the Mars conspiracies, etca, et cetera audible mention

894
00:48:06,760 --> 00:48:11,560
Speaker 1: to various unfortunate names of automobiles with this, thank you

895
00:48:11,719 --> 00:48:15,279
Speaker 1: very much to our super producer, mister Max Williams. Thank you,

896
00:48:15,520 --> 00:48:20,320
Speaker 1: of course to Jimmy Carter. And in defense of the translator,

897
00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:23,879
Speaker 1: we mentioned Seymour again, he's not incompetent, like we said,

898
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:26,839
Speaker 1: it's just not everybody always has a great day.

899
00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:30,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's true. Huge thanks to Alex Williams.

900
00:48:30,200 --> 00:48:33,440
Speaker 3: Composed to our theme, Christophraciotis needs, Jeff Coates here in

901
00:48:33,640 --> 00:48:38,480
Speaker 3: spirit A J. Jacobs the Puzzler, Jonathan Strickland the quizt

902
00:48:39,360 --> 00:48:44,200
Speaker 3: and you Ben, my linguistic writer Die and also with

903
00:48:44,360 --> 00:48:54,440
Speaker 3: Jo We'll see next Niebooks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,

904
00:48:54,560 --> 00:48:57,759
Speaker 3: visit the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen

905
00:48:57,840 --> 00:48:58,840
Speaker 3: to your favorite shows.