A Different View
Single letter can make one ‘L’ of a difference
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
The press release announced the launch of ‘a new men’s collection with its signature scent’ – which is fine if you know the difference between the definition of expensive scent and stored fodder.
Because those who know their fragrances will know that sillage is the word that describes the degree to which a perfume’s fragrance lingers in the air when worn – as in, “neither scent has a very strong sillage”.
Take out one letter ‘l’ on the other hand and you’re dealing with a very different smell entirely – that of fermented fodder spread across the land, a substance we know as silage.
And while it’s a smell that I strangely enjoy for some reason, I wouldn’t bet on Brown Thomas positioning a sales counter inside the front door to promote Dignified, the new signature scent by House of Silage.
Yet House of Sillage is a self-proclaimed leading name in the world of Haute Parfumerie, based at Newport Beach in California where one presumes there’s very little smell of silage.
Dignified may well do what the promotional material suggests – provoke envy and admiration, a new class of man who cares deeply to distinguish his life and the story behind it.
The scent of silage, on the other hand, is more likely to clear a substantial space around you when you drop into the pub for a pint after a hard day spreading it all over your land.
The additional ‘l’ that separates sillage from silage – not to mention the variation in aroma – should ensure nobody gets one mixed up with the other.
But sometimes you need to be very careful when choosing your brand name – and sometimes you cannot anticipate how time may give your product a very different meaning.
Take the Belgian chocolate company, famous for its pralines since 1923, which decided to change the brand name in 2013.
A year later came the implosion in Iraq – which somehow gave a whole new meaning to newly relaunched Isis Chocolates.
Chocolates for terrorists may be a niche market in some part of the world, but it wouldn’t do anything for your branding in the west – hence another name change to Libeert, the surname of the company owners.
Sometimes it’s just language that lets you down; Poo Poo smoothies may be all the rage in China, but won’t work here – unless they link up with House of Silage perhaps.
Ditto, Pee Cola in Ghana, which actually means very good cola in their language but is unlikely to appeal to the discerning tourist.
‘Barf’ means ‘snow’ in Iran – so Barf detergent didn’t seem like a bad idea; ‘fart’ means ‘lucky’ in Polish, which makes Fart Bar easier to digest. And ‘fart’ means ‘speed’ in Swedish, which is why they didn’t think it a strange name for a car magazine until they saw the tourists laughing at them.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
The only time in your life that you should ever utter the words: “Do you know who I am?” are if you’ve just had a bang on the head or you are unfortunately suffering from dementia.
Because, otherwise, the phrase ‘do you know who I am’ only serves to make things a whole lot worse.
Normally, the phrase is unleashed towards late night door staff on a wave of alcohol – and never once in the history of time has it produced the result the utterer had intended.
The doorman may well know who you are which is often the very reason you’re not getting into the place in the first instance – or if he doesn’t know who you are, he won’t be unduly influenced when he does, unless you’re a famous movie star or his long-lost cousin.
‘Do you know where I am?’ might often be closer to the phrase you’re looking for, because that would serve you well when you’re looking for a taxi.
‘Do you know who I am?’ is a threatening phrase that in truth wouldn’t frighten the cat. But if you’re anxious to dig the hole a few shovels deeper, you should follow up with ‘I’d like to speak to your manager.’
Managers can be elusive at the best of times, but they’re normally rarer than hen’s teeth when it comes to the small hours of the morning – and even if they’re there, they are most likely watching proceedings on CCTV…just so they know who you are, in case you yourself can’t remember.
‘I’d like to speak to your manager’ suggests that you and he or she are from the one social sphere which is several strata north of the one occupied by door staff.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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A Different View with Dave O’Connell
As it turned out, we were much closer to a Eurovision win than we could ever have imagined – not Ireland, of course, because we’ve now mastered the art of just sending cannon fodder to be blown out in the semi-final.
No, this was just two of us – myself and our eldest – who were lucky enough to be at Anfield for the Reds’ recent win over Brentford, where positioned in the seat right in front of us were four happy lads from Finland.
One of them, we now know, was Käärijä, the singer of the catchiest song at Eurovision, Cha Cha Cha.
But just a week before 7,000 people sung his catchphrase at the Eurovision Arena, he and two his mates – accompanied by an older bloke who had to be either his dad or from the national broadcaster – sat anonymously in the same corner of the lower level of Anfield’s Main Stand.
He was utterly unknown to us as well of course, and the only thing that saw him stand out was his green nail varnish. Live and let live, of course, but it still ensures that you make an impression even if it looks like you were just very late for St Patrick’s Day.
Käärijä may well be Liverpool’s greatest Scandinavian fan, although the bar for that is set fairly high, given that they invade the city in greater numbers every two weeks than the Vikings did just once during the first millennium.
Equally, he may not be a football fan at all – although, as the rest of the week proved, he sure loves a crowd.
Positioned as we were in the corner of the Main Stand, the next section to us, around the corner in the Anfield Road Stand – currently adding a top layer – was occupied by the visiting Brentford supporters.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
Contactless payments reached a record €17.9 billion in Ireland last year – up by 31 per cent on 2021, as people came out from under their Covid shell and appear to have left their cash behind them.
Figures from the Banking & Payments Federation found that – despite the cost-of-living increases – the Irish public made three million contactless payments a day, worth an average of €53 million in the final quarter of 2022.
Given that there are 3.8 million people in Ireland over the age of 18, that means that almost every single one of us tapped the card every day last year.
And again, on the presumption that there are a few who still prefer peeling a fifty off a wad of notes, the true figure may be even higher, as we eschew actual money every time we go into a restaurant, bar or shop.
Then comes the monthly morning of reckoning when you open your statement – electronic of course because, like paper money, banks don’t deal in paper statements anymore either – and your guilty secrets unfurl like a rap sheet before your very eyes.
Five taps of a Friday night in the local, followed by a five-ounce burger meal on the way home.
And just why did you need a family-pack of crisps when a small bag would have done? Was all that beer and wine really for a party, or a night in just for one?
Cash provided plenty of dark corners to ignore your profligacy, but there are no hiding places in the contactless world.
Worse still, until that morning of reckoning arrives, you’ve no clue how much you’ve spent, and handing over the card doesn’t hurt half as much as parting with hard cash.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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