Slogans From A Fast Food Place

I'm lovin' it is the current slogan for the biggest and most known fast food chain on the globe: McDonald's®. If anyone has noticed, on the bags from this restaurant, the slogan is found in numerous languages, including Chinese, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, besides English. This was launched in the latest marketing campaign of the company, simultaneously worldwide at the end of September, 2003. I have researched and confirmed with several informants in the various countries that these are indeed the slogans used in those respective nations, in those languages we are interested in: the Romance tongues. We will take a closer look at the meaning of each of these and see how they refer back to the original English phrase: I'm lovin' it. It should at least give an idea of how the marketing industry goes around deciding on how something so international, as is the McDonald's® corporation, would translate a phrase that, in the their view, could connect with the speakers of the target language.

Portuguese
-Brazil: "Amo muito tudo isso"

amo
muito
tudo
isso
I-love
much
all
that
'I love that a lot'

-Portugal: Uses the English phrase: "I'm lovin' it"

Spanish
-Spanish-speaking America (including the United States): "Me encanta"

me
encanta
to-me
it-enchants
'It enchants me' (i.e. 'I love it')

Note: This particular slogan is found all throughout Latin America, from Argentina to Mexico, and in the United States. In the U.S., McDonald's heavily advertises on Spanish-language media. Ads with this phrase are found on billboards, buses, and newspapers, and not just in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods. If you live in the U.S., tune your TV to a channel in Spanish and you won't have to wait long before you encounter a commercial saying: 'Me encanta!'.

-Spain: Uses the English phrase: "I'm lovin' it"

French
-Canada: "C'est ça que j'm" (j'm is shorthand for j'aime, both having the same pronunciation)

c'est
ça
que
j'aime
it-is
that
which
I-love
'That's what I love'

-France: "C'est tout ce que j'aime"

c'est
tout
ce
que
j'aime
it-is
all
what
I-love
'It's all I love'


Italian
In Italy, the English phrase is used as well: "I'm lovin' it".

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How interesting! I notice that the Spanish and Portuguese use the English, whereas the Americans use the appropriate Romance language--perhaps due to less fear of US imperialism?

Filius Lunae said...

@Anonymous above: I really couldn't answer that question about imperialism. In some places, it is felt as 'cool' and 'hip' to use English phrases, so this could be a case of that (in Portugal and Spain, here).
Yet, in some countries, I know for a fact they don't translate of titles of some major media works (TV shows, movies), and so the English title is used.

But you may be onto something.

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