Horlicks – When Product Naming Goes Bad 2
Last month I wrote about “Bimbo” cookies. This month, well as they say “a picture is worth a thousand words”!

Anyone want to drink some “Horlicks“?
Last month I wrote about “Bimbo” cookies. This month, well as they say “a picture is worth a thousand words”!

Anyone want to drink some “Horlicks“?
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April 4th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
[...] The Branding Blog By Brand Identity Guru Life Experiences and Opinions From Branding Guru Scott White « When Product Naming Goes Bad 2 [...]
April 8th, 2008 at 7:12 am
[...] Horlicks [...]
April 11th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
I remember Horlicks: big in the UK, and ahead of its time in the sense that it was a hot, night-time drink that was strongly associated with helping you sleep. It owned the category for years. Strong brand. It’s pronounced “hor” as in “horticulture.”
April 12th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Not familiar with the product itself but the name in the US translates to this:
Whore-Licks
Which doesn’t mean such great things. Get it?
April 12th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Seriously? I’ve been using Horlicks (mostly in my milkshakes, seldom as a hot drink) for over 40 years, as have many of my friends, and this association between the brand name and an orally fixated sex-trade worker has never dawned on me — nor on my friends (they would have mentioned it — trust me). Now, of course, I doubt it will ever go away.
Still going to drink it, though.
October 1st, 2010 at 5:13 am
This is what happens when you don’t verify your name in diferent languages. There are naming tools which verifies that no swearwords or bad words are included in the name. Interesting that people dont allways think about it/notify it even when the name has inappropriate words in thier own language… Finally I’d like to give another example of bad naming: Honda’s car “Fitta” which means Pussy in Swedish