病人：“您在给我拔牙的时候我能吸两口总督烟么？” / Patient: "May I smoke them while you're pulling my teeth?"
“总督好味道” 有位已退休的中国广告业高管，从前在中国东北的一家国有广告公司工作。他曾跟我说起自己第一次离开大陆到香港出差的经历。当时是20世纪80年代初，中国的经理人很少有出境商务旅行的机会。 他充满好奇和热情。香港当时是英国的殖民地。 到达香港启德机场后，当地同行前来迎接。 在离开机场的公路上，一样东西让他震惊，他认为，这个东西是在放肆地对英国香港殖民总督表示公开蔑视。 他看到，公路边一座建筑的一侧，有一块巨大的路牌，上面写着几个巨大的汉字：总督好味道。 他惊问：这里的人怎么能写这样侮辱他们最高领导人的东西，还这样大胆地把它们挂到墙上？ 当地同行解释说，他看到的是总督牌（Viceroy）香烟的路牌广告。 英文广告是：“总督烟，好味道。” 中文路牌省去了“烟”字，只有“总督好味道” 。 |
Advertising in China and Hong Kong:“The Governor is Delicious!”
A retired Chinese advertising executive, formerly based at a State-owned ad agency in China’s northeast, told me about his first business trip out of the mainland proper, to Hong Kong. This was the early 1980s, when overseas business travel was rare for Chinese executives. He was full of curiosity and enthusiasm. Hong Kong was then a British Colony. Arriving in Hong Kong’s old Kai Tak airport, he was met by local colleagues. On the drive from the airport, he was shocked at what seemed to be a rude display of public disrespect for Hong Kong’s then British colonial governor. He saw a huge sign painted on the side of a building next to the road, which proclaimed in large Chinese characters “The Governor is Delicious.” How could people here write such insulting things about their top leader and then post them so boldly on a wall ? he wondered aloud. His local colleagues explained that what he’d seen was the slogan on a billboard ad for Viceroy cigarettes. The English version of the slogan was : “Viceroy tastes good, like a cigarette should.” In Chinese, the word “cigarette” was omitted. It simply said the equivalent of “The Viceroy is delicious.” The word for viceroy and governor is the same. |