Some people claim they are slaves to fashion. Recently, Spanish fashion retailer Mango was forced to apologise after they took the saying too far by advertising “Slave style” jewellery on their website.
The two bracelets and a necklace were removed after Change.org launched a petition titled “Slavery Is Not Fashion” in regards to the jewellery bearing the description “Esclave,” meaning “Slave” in French.
After the petition attracted more than 5,800 signatures, Mango issued their apology via Twitter, stating that the labels were the result of a translation error. Actresses Aïssa Maïga and Sonia Rolland, who started the petition wrote, “This jewellery is meant to make an object of fantasy and fashion out of slavery. Mango is trivializing tragedies – that still today have an impact on millions of human beings across the world.”
Frankly, there should be no space for mistranslations in the e-commerce market. A global retailer of Mango’s stature attracts customers from all corners of the world, making its multilingual communication streams a vital component of its business. Had the right strategy and precautions been in place, such a serious mistranslation would never have occurred.
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