What's in a name?

You can learn a lot by looking around at the graphic design around you. As I road the subway yesterday in downtown Osaka, I came face to face with this Mcdonald's ad posted to the inside glass of the train (below). When you see this, what comes to mind? I sometimes jumble letters at first glance so what I "saw" in that first instant was not McWrap but "M-crap." The c-r-a-p stood out to me. Perhaps because the company—which has 10,000 stores in the USA and over 17,000 more in 171 countries—is often the object of culinary ridicule (not all of it fair), I found the product name and the text placement in this ad to be just tad ironic. I'm not the only one. Many visitors to Japan are now adding McWrap to other local product names that give them pause, such as Pocari Sweat (sports drink), Creap (non-dairy creamer), and Pecker Mechanical Pencils.


A tip for Mickey-D's — never but your "M-c" anywhere near an "r-a-p."


At a glance, this is how I first saw the sign. Perhaps this is due to the placement of the "c" above the "r"?

The product name in Japanese (the katakana below the English type) is pronounced "Makkurappu" which sort of sounds like "Mac Wrap" but it sounds something close to "Mai Crapu" as well to non-Japanese speakers (listen for yourself). And even if you pronounce it "McWrap" perfectly in English? Well, say that three times fast. The name is not really inappropriate, however, for Japan; it's easy to say. And Snack Wrap—the original name used in some English-speaking countries—couldn't be used as "Snack" doesn't work for several reasons for this product in Japan. The only problem I see is the placement of the "c" in proximity close to the "rap."  In the urban dictionary you can find two enteries for "McCrap." This is not a knock against Mcdonald's at all, but it seems that the firm would want to avoid making it easy for detractors to use this unfortunate Mc-monicker, even overseas.

As I investigated McWrap further in Japan I found that they got help from one of Japan's top hip-hop groups, Rip Slyme. So what happens when you put Rip Slyme and McWrap together? You get Wrap Slyme. I know what you're thinking—yum. If the association with "crap" didn't wet your appetite for the product, perhaps the connection with "slyme" will. (Who are Rip Slyme? Here's a sample video. Not for young kids...).


(Source)

Clearly this campaign, product name, and graphical treatments are for the Japanese market only. And for this market—where the brand is still cool and very popular—it is just fine. But when we try to imagine this name and this design being used in an English speaking country where the brand often has to deal with jokes, we can see how this particular name and placement of the text—not to mention the Wrap Slyme promo—would not work well. There is nothing wrong with the name, or any of the promotion so long as it is contained in Japan. Still, it's a small reminder just how important naming is and how much little things like the placement of text in a simple design can matter.

LINKS
• History of Snack Wrap
• Mcdonald's Japan website on McWrap
• A video from Japan to the Max, a humorous video site run by an Australian graphic designer in Japan. In this video, he makes a Rammstein-style heavy rock song using the names of Japanese snack products as lyrics.
• Info in Japanese about the promotion with Rip Slyme

Comments

[Mark]

I am German and I read it as "McWrap" the first time I saw it. Maybe that is because your eyes "know" the word crap already as English is your native language?

[ssp]

Fun observation!

I'd guess the crap stood out because the M and the W together look a bit like a box separate from the text - so you took it as a graphical decoration rather than as a letter.

[Garr]

Yes, exactly, Mark.

I do not think people in, say, Germany, etc. would make the association so easily as I did (if ever). It may be just people who are quite familiar with the usage of the word "crap" -- which I *think* is more common in N. America than other English-speaking countries. Some people even find the term offensive though its usage is ubiquitous in American informal speech (I do not know so well about UK, AU, NZ, etc.). Also the term is used often by many people when referring to Mcdonald's or just fast food in general -- so maybe that is where my association came from. It is not always so negative, btw. A person might love eating fast (junk) food but also say that "...I've got to stop eating this crap..." or even about, say, a pop music song they love: "yeah, it's crap, but I love it!"

[CSW]

Is that supposed to be Bocari Sweat? There's something called Bocari Sweat here in China. Then again, I also noticed that they were selling workout gloves for women at the gym under the branding "dykes".

[Ianus Keller]

In the Netherlands we also had a lunchroom that wanted to use the word "pain" as in the french bread and do a funny wordplay with the composer "chopin" and ended up with their name "show pain":
http://www.dunglish.nl/?p=7

The other way around, as a seventeen year old, I was visiting the USA, just after they released two movies: Das Boot and Die Hard. As I speak German as well, I couldn't help but thinking that Die Hard was referring to some place in Austria:
http://www.hard.at/

[Ronan Jouchet]

The exact same thing happened in France some months ago with a Carrefour (the French Wal-Mart) campaign.
It had to last one month, and the slogan read "C'est ça l'effet du mois Carrefour !" which translates to "This is the effect of Carrefour's month !"

But due to bad placement of the exclamation mark (see picture in the link below), it was most probably read "C'est ça l'effet du MOISI Carrefour !" i.e. "This is the effect of Carrefour's MILDEW/MOULD !"

I think the comments from Mark and Garr are especially relevant here given 1. it's correct and frequently used French, and 2. Carrefour's image (huge food retailer, with questionable practices)

Image and comments (in french) : http://blog.matoo.net/index.php/archives/2007/10/04/il-est-moisi-ton-carrouf/
And there was even a Facebook group created :
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5697457363

[Garr]

Ronan,

That example in France is funny. Much better example than mine. A clear do'h! (As Homer would say). Thanks for the links guys.

[Dennis Freire]

1. I saw "McCrap" at first glance.
2. When I lived in Japan, I marveled at (and collected) fractured syntax and silly uses of English for business names.
3. But where was quality control for this American-based corp.?
4. Alternative names compatible with katana could have been? "Mickey Wraps." "Ronnie Wraps." "Ronald Wraps." "Premium Wraps." "Quarter Pound Wrap."

[Rajan Rishyakaran]

Actually, despite being a native English speaker, I saw "McWrap" the first time. Perhaps it is my Asian disposition. And in Singapore (and Malaysia), stuff like Pocari Sweat sells, despite the fact English is the main language.

If I were to guess, it is more of an American thing to find things like "McWrap" and "Pocari Sweat" and "Pecker" funny (ironically, I do have a Pecker pencil, but never thought of it that way until you said it here... pecker as a slang isn't used much in the rest of the world)

[John Rutter]

Found that an amusing observation.

Being from the UK, I also viewed it quite easily as McCrap and had to think again to read it as they intended.

That there is also a mental association between the company, it's products, and the derogatory term 'crap', means it is an easy link to make :-o

Junk food - aka Crap Food, to many