Last month , Coca - Colaannouncedthat it was bringing its billion - dollar sign tea brand , Fuze Tea , to 37 country in Europe . The only problem is that “ fuze ” does n’t mean what they might ’ve liked in German - speak Switzerland .
“ Fuz ” or “ futz ” is a “ very unrefined and sexually - connote word”according toSwiss - German weekly newspaper Handelszeitung . Redditors sayit ’s closer to the c - word . Coca - Cola reportedly needed to expend around one million Swiss francs , or about a million dollars , to rename the product and remake the publicity for the Swiss - German mart .
“ We did not want our brand to have the wrong meaning , so we tested the name early last year with focus groups , ” Christoph Reitmeir , a merchandising film director at Coca - Cola , told the theme . “ So it became percipient : we had to supplant the omega in Switzerland with an s. ”
At least one English - speaking Twitter substance abuser was confused :
Soo … Is it called Fusetea or Fuze Tea ? I ’m garbled or am I confuzed?@CocaCola_CH#fusetea#fuzeteapic.twitter.com / lIUAqTEeiY
— Aathi ( @thatkidaathi)January 30 , 2018
This hearkens back to the apocryphal ( butuntrue ) story about the Chevy Nova selling poorly in Latin America since its name could be read as “ no va , ” or “ does n’t go . ” Or like how if you ’re 10 geezerhood honest-to-god and show “ Phuket ” on a t - shirt , you might think it says something gamy .
Communicating is hard , and even harder when you have to maintain your # marque in dozens of countries speaking disparate languages . But honestly , I ask this . They should change the American name of Fuze Tea to “ AssTea ” or something while they ’re at it .
[ HandelszeitungviaMary H.K. Choi ]
Coca - ColaGermanswitzerland
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