When Indians speak English, there is occasionally a tendency to say “few” when what is meant is “a few” or to say “little” when the intended meaning is “a little”. The indefinite article “a” does not exist in languages such as Hindi. Often this little nuance causes Western executives to mis-interpret the meaning of a thought completely. For example an Indian distributor might say “We have few customers this quarter for your new machine, Mr. Jones.” The intent might be to celebrate that “a few customers” had already bought the product within weeks of its launch. But poor Mr. Jones thinks that his launch in India has failed due to too few customers!
Historically, India’s Advertising Agencies and Public Relations shops have in-house proofers that prevent such mistakes in print, television, billboard ads and in press releases. But BBDO‘s India counterpart really goofed up in this print and billboard campaign for top fabric maker Raymond. With too “little style” their customer will surely make a big negative impact. Uh-oh. (This ad is one of many in print; I also saw the same message on billboards in multiple Indian cities last month).
