Language Lessons

• Share

Tsunami is a Japanese word, of course, but it's been included in the Oxford English Dictionary since 1897. But since last month's tragedy, which left an estimated 160,000 dead, the term has taken on a whole new gravity—and manufacturers and advertisers have quickly adjusted. As Global Language Monitor's Paul Payack puts it, "The word tsunami will be the subject of considerable discretion before being used in anything other than a most serious manner." Here are some changes since the disaster.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Toyota Canada's special edition Celica Tsunami, available in color schemes like "thundercloud" and promising a "new wave of bold style," was renamed the Celica Sports Package last week out of sensitivity to the tsunami victims. Across the Atlantic, South African food franchise Mugg and Bean dropped its bacon-and-Thai-sauce Tsunami chicken burger (although it plans to revive a renamed sandwich in April).

BACKWASH
On the airwaves, Pepsi ads with David Beckham and other star soccer players were withdrawn because of their surfing themes. American Express nixed a commercial featuring surfer Laird Hamilton's gushing about big waves, and British Airways suspended a month's worth of holiday-package ads.

RE-COVERED
First-time novelist Susan Barker's book on salarymen and geisha in Osaka, Tsunami Nights, was all the rage at Frankfurt's book show in 2003; post-disaster, publisher Doubleday picked a new moniker: Sayonara Bar.

MAKING A NEW PLEA
While advertisers remain sensitive to the plight of the tsunami victims, travelers are being encouraged to come back to stricken destinations; officials are calling tourist dollars a direct form of aid. The Sri Lanka Tourist Board's new slogan reads, IF YOU WANT TO SAVE US, COME AND VISIT US.