Hei Ren Toothpaste

Can a global message be created? The answer is positive. Because of the globalization, a world message is demanded by “the citizens on the earth”, and also, human beings are really intelligent enough to be creative on a world-wide slogan or message. However, there are still some predictable barriers in the way of the creation of the global message. One is the language barriers, and the other is culture conflicts. The language barriers are obvious because there is no such a widely-used global language in the world.

Even English cannot be treated as the world-wide language tool for all the people. That is to say, a translation is required for the major company. But no one can be sure of a reasonable substitute for the local name, and then the problem occurs. In China, there is a famous toothpaste brand called “Hei-Ren”, which means exactly “black man” or “negro” in English. The Chinese company tried to spread the good product to the US at one time.

Atfirst, the word “negro” was chosen to be the English version for the product, but soon after, a lot of black people in the US began to protest to the name of the toothpaste. At last, the product was given the name “Hei-Ren” and never got an outstanding selling. Similarly, a same word or sentence sometimes cannot commute freely through different cultures. For instance, although the slogan “I’m lovin’ it.” can be accepted by most Chinese young people, a lot of mid-aged and aged individuals always take it as a childish expression.

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