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07:33 Sep 1, 2009
French to English translations [PRO] Marketing - General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
French term or phrase:ère du zapping
In the following sentence:
Le parfum est entré dans l’ère du zapping où les créations, parfois très éphémères, prolifèrent pour une consommation de masse et non d'exception.
This is a marketing question, so we're not looking for a phrase with any sort of negative connotation, even if that is suggested. I'd go for quick thinking rather than quick fixing; being on the ball, etc. I've also heard about zappers or sappers, i.e. zappers make things happen, sappers drain you... in other words, types of people. Just a suggestion.
I'm with Sandra on the 'zapping' thing. The ghits, OED entry and so on do show that the word exists in this sense in English, but it just doesn't work in my own experience, whereas 'channel hopping' is understood straight off the bat and is hard to misunderstand.
Incidentally, Sandra's suggestion reminds me of one I was toying with: an 'age of immediacy'. It's rather like the 'quick fixes' suggestion, but perhaps more lofty (which obviously might not work dependant on register).
I agree with Sandra. Whilst "zapping" is more or less comprehensible, it's not remotely idiomatic ("channel hopping" is what we do in the UK), and indeed is likely to be confused with the meaning signalled by Bourth with "killing" the ads, as in "zapping" an alien in Space Invaders...
I think an equivalent would be my suggestion, although it might be more difficult to insert into the sentence. Sandra's "age of quick fixes" is also an excellent option. It perfectly captures the idea of flitting from one thing to the next, even if it doesn't necessarily mark the generation in the same way.
The word certainly WAS used, Estelle. It started off as "zapping ("killing")the ads", i.e. switching channels when the ads came on. Of course when you do that, you can get engrossed in something else on another channel, and if you don't decide then and there to watch that instead, by the time you switch back to the first channel you've lost the thread, so you switch back again. So "zap" came to mean to switch channels, at whatever point. Next in the sequence is cycling through multiple channels in the forlorn hope of finding something worth watching. Now THAT IS French!
I wasn't sure either about "zapping" in English. I've always heard/read "channel hopping" and "channel surfing" although this Wiki page does refer to "zappers." In terms of personal experience though, "zapping" doesn't work for me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_surfing
In response to lianne's interesting point, I have checked in my Oxford and have found "to zap" = use a remote control to move rapidly between television channels - which I thought could be applied here in the context of perfumes. But being a native speaker of French myself, I would trust the English speakers' opinion! http://www.galactic-guide.com/articles/6R18.html http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7558262.html
Explanation: This is the best I can think of off the top of my head... we use it quite a lot to refer to this sort of dulled mentality and the desire for pleasure to be received constantly.. but I think there's probably a better equivalent in this context.
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +3
