Watch Your Language: Mismarketing Mitsubishi in the Southern Cone

It's an apocryphal tale that, when Chevrolet branded a new model the “Nova,” it failed in Latin America because the words “no va” meant “it doesn’t go” in Spanish. In reality, by that standard, it would have flourished in Brazil, where “nova” literally means “new” in Portuguese. In both Spanish and Portuguese, as in English, “nova” also means a star that brightens suddenly before fading.

If Chevrolet’s promotional blunder never really happened, Mitsubishi definitely made one in marketing its SUV “Pajero” in southern South America. Presumably Mitsubishi meant to market a 4WD vehicle that could conquer the Pampas and the Patagonian steppe - the Spanish word “paja” means a type of coarse bunch grass - but it didn't quite work out that way. In regional slang, “pajero” means “jerkoff” or its British equivalent “wanker.” more >>

Dewiring Punta Arenas

Chile has only a handful of distinctive cities, most notably the heartland port of Valparaíso (a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its vernacular architecture), the Atacama desert port of Iquique (with its characteristic wooden Victorians), and the Patagonian port of Punta Arenas, the gateway to Torres del Paine (for air passengers) and the fjords of Tierra del Fuego (by sea). more >>