Do Germans Understand Your English Ad.

I took this photo last week and puzzled about what it meant. Yesterday, I got on the U bhan and it was packed like Sardines (I taught Idioms today) When I reached my destination, I was informed that there is a big building trade show in Munich.

Now this billboard makes a little more sense. I guess they are some kind of heavy equipment company. OK... now comes the problem. They are using English in the advertisement. Of course I don't mind when things are in English, especially when they make sense but it has been proven that most Germans do not know enough English to follow the ads.

One story that I heard recently is about the company Douglas, which is a perfume store here in Germany.
This company had a slogan that was in English and it was "come in and find out." The problem was that people were coming in and looking for the exit. They didn't translate it as come in and find out what our store is about/sells but rather come in to our store and find the exit. The company changed their slogan to "makes life nicer" in German of course... I think they learned their lesson. I personally think they should have put a big Exit sign next to some kind of perfume special so that people would laugh at the misinterpretation.. but that would mean that the company would have to have my sense of humour and be willing to make fun of themselves.

OK. Back to the billboard. It is in English. It is specifically for the trade fair. Is it a good ad? It isn't bad. I know they are at the trade fair. I know their location and I know their name. It is one big business card. I also don't mind the words in English... With a dictionary, there really is no way of confusing what those words are saying.

Oh btw I was informed today that Google is now the most valuable Trademark beating out Coca Cola. Now that is interesting. How many years did Coke stay at the top? how many years before Google is toppled?