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Should translators be expected to be advertising copywriters too?
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Thread poster: lexical

Should translators be expected to be advertising copywriters too?

Steven Capsuto

United States
Local time: 20:16

Member (2004)
Spanish to English
+ ...

Some agencies do bill differently for slogans

May 24, 2008

I know that at least some translation agencies in the U.S. bill for several hours' work to translate a sales slogan (if it's to be used widely as the centerpiece of an ad campaign).

ViktoriaG

Canada
Local time: 20:16

Member (2005)
English to French
+ ...

I have some experience with this

May 24, 2008

An agency client of mine has me regularly translate documents for a large IT company. The past few translations I made were criticized, not so much on content but rather on the time taken to deliver. The documents happened to be marketing-oriented - they were presenting technology but clearly from a sales point of view. Thus, the text was not so much technical - it was pretty embellished with buzzwords and other (proprietary) terminology. My client explained to their client that this type of text takes considerably more time - and that if they wanted to speed up the process, they need to have a contact person in their marketing department who can help define what these documents should sound like in the target language.

In my opinion, marketing texts should not simply be translated. Once the translation is done, it should be submitted to a marketing expert who will tailor (adapt) it to the client's needs. Sadly, clients are not well educated on this and most of them believe that the texts they worked so hard on to fine-tune can be simply translated and the message will still be the same. Translation alone is not sufficient for this type of text.

As translators, we need to educate our clients (and ask our agency clients to educate their clients) on how far translation can go in preserving the original message of the text. We are translators - not marketing experts. They need to know the difference.

José Henrique Lamensdorf

Brazil
Local time: 23:16

Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...

A quality-reality check

May 24, 2008

Lawyer-Linguist wrote:
I'd like to see who the same client is going to point fingers at if he's sued on the translated version of the advert.

Every third or fouth translation agency web site has exactly the same list of classic bloopers, viz. Chevy Nova in Mexico, Ford Pinto in Brazil, and so on. Two questions:
1. Who should be blamed for that?
2. Do these agencies offer formal assurance that nothing of the kind will ever happen with them?

Doesn't the end-client have anyone in the target language's homeland to give it a once-over before it's too late?

It's a matter of mission. Would the end client rather be financially successful with their product/service in a foreign country, or is their goal to make money in court on some translator's botch-up?

lexical

Spain
Local time: 02:16

Member
Portuguese to English

TOPIC STARTER

To answer Lawyer-Linguist...

May 24, 2008

No, the source text was NOT snappy and inventive - I thought it veered between pomposity and banality. My real grouse was the (small) parts of my text that grumbling marketing director took issue with only met with his approval after his creatives and I had departed totally from the source and introduced new ideas and concepts that were not there when I did the original translation.

There are some very valuable comments in this thread and I'm profiting from them as well as enjoying them.

Lawyer-Linguist

Portugal
Local time: 01:16

Member (2004)
Dutch to English

Now we're getting somewhere ...

May 24, 2008

lexical wrote:

No, the source text was NOT snappy and inventive - I thought it veered between pomposity and banality. My real grouse was the (small) parts of my text that grumbling marketing director took issue with only met with his approval after his creatives and I had departed totally from the source and introduced new ideas and concepts that were not there when I did the original translation.

There are some very valuable comments in this thread and I'm profiting from them as well as enjoying them.

... I had a feeling you'd say that, as I've seen my fair share of the type of pompous and stereotype texts you're talking about (PT»EN)

And then it's not a question of localisation, show the same text to any PT-speaking person and they'll roll their eyes heavenward as well. There is unfortunately an awful lot of that type of c*** being produced here, especially in the real estate and tourism industries. (That said, there is also some brilliantly clever advertising, but I had no problem visualising what lexical had probably been stuck with, considering we work in the same language pair).

Once the PT creative team had done the work they should have done from the outset, your work became far easier and was no longer subject to criticism. That should assure you that there was nothing wrong with the quality of your work.

So, in my view - and obviously talking now with the benefit of the facts - you could have acted differently (or consider to in the future) by pointing out how uninspiring the source text was when you delivered the original translation, and tactfully mentioning that the source text would have benefitted from the services of a PT copywriter. In that way, you would have covered yourself after trying your best within the confines of the drivel you were given.

The point is as a translator you can only work with the source you're given. Another approach would have been to ask the client before delivery for consent to inject oomph that wasn't there, but with this you need to tread carefully, making sure not to enter into the realm of false and exaggerated advertising for which you'd inevitably get blamed later. As the translator, let them inject the oomph and amend the source. It's not your job. And it shouldn't be you taking the risk.

@ José: your questions regarding the Chevy Nova type examples aren't quite on point. I was talking about a situation in which a translator takes it upon himself/herself to inject oomph into an advertising translation, which on the face of it reads great, but in fact enters the realm of false advertising when compared to the original. Not quite the type of bloopers you're referring to.

However, I'd be happy to contribute to a thread on your particular examples if you were to open one.

[Edited at 2008-05-24 17:50]

Gerard de Noord

France
Local time: 02:16

Member (2003)
German to Dutch
+ ...

When you put it like that, I withdraw my initital reaction

May 24, 2008

When you put it like that, I withdraw my initital reaction. We can't bake a cake out of a turd, as they say in Amsterdam.

Regards,
Gerard

Janet Rubin

Australia

Member (2008)
German to English

And one phrase to bind them...

May 25, 2008

Gerard de Noord wrote:
We can't bake a cake out of a turd, as they say in Amsterdam.

Boy that hits the nail on the head!!

Glenn Cain
United States
Local time: 20:16
French to English

Truth in advertising

Jun 5, 2008

The client should be told that a translator cannot replace a copywriter. If a translator advertises him or herself as a translator/copywriter, then great. Sounds like a great niche.

Also, the translation agency needs to ask what the translation is for unless it's obvious. My agency does legal translation; we would not accept advertising copy and I would refer the client elsewhere.

It's funny that many clients don't realize that they should pay as much for the foreign copy as they did for the original if they want it to work. More client education needed, as always.

Glenn Cain

[Edited at 2008-06-05 21:59]