Mercedes Benz disco groovin' chicken commercial

Nothing whatsoever to do with France except that the commercial featured below can be seen here if you have access to German television channels.

Question

What do you get if you mix German car manufacturer Mercedes Benz with a couple of chickens and the 1980 "Upside down" hit from Motown legend Diana Ross?

 Answer

Well, if you're a smart creative executive in an advertising agency working on the Mercedes Benz account, it's a 45-second commercial promoting "Magic body control", the system in the S-class which is apparently "capable of detecting road surface undulations in advance" and thereby providing you with a smoother drive.

(screenshot from Mercedes Benz commercial)

The commercial is currently airing on German telly (no comment on whether it's better than the scheduled programmes) and a reason not to pop off to the loo during the break.

And the chickens - in so far as they are able to - don't look too fazed by the experience.

Cluck!

Jean-Marc Ayrault's "productively awful" German gaffe

It can happen to the best (and the worst) of us can't it?

A slip-of-the-tongue while speaking another language - or even our own come to that.

Usually it's both amusing and perhaps a little embarrassing; a quick smile and a laugh will make light of it though.

But sometimes there's maybe something more...er...significant about the mistake...as though subcosnciously we're really thinking what has inadvertently just come out of our mouths.

Take the case of the French prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, during his two-day trip to Germany this week.

He came out with a gaffe that could be...well revealing?

Jean-Marc Ayrault (screenshot TF1 clip)

Now as we all know relations between France and Germany are not the easiest at the moment.

The so-called two powers of the European Union - well at least the Euro - seem to have been dancing the unprettiest of jigs around one another, at least since François Hollande became president of this country.

To the rescue comes Ayrault, a former German teacher, ergo fluent in the language and well capable of reading out a prepared statement (yawn) in German in front of the invited entrepreneurs.

Not!

Because he clearly either couldn't read his own handwriting or actually wanted to say what he did when he substituted the word "fructbar" (literally "fruitful" or "productive") with  "furchtbar" ("terrible" or "awful") in describing how he wanted the discussion and exchange of ideas with the German chancellor Angela Merkel to proceed.

He didn't even bother correcting himself!

Er M. Ayrault, a word of advice perhaps.

Stick to French the next time and let the interpreters do their work.

Schönes Wochenende

En Allemagne, Ayrault parle de la France… en allemand (vidéo) Vidéo LCIWAT sélectionnée dans Actualité