Little Caesars is a global leader of pizza brands. For over a decade Babel Linguistics has created the Spanish copywriting for their seasonal nationwide marketing campaigns aimed at the Latino community in the U.S and Canada. A few samples of our work:
This ad was inspired by The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson. This 1886 best-seller is a vivid portrayal of a split personality, split in the sense that within the same person there is both an apparently good and an evil personality each being quite distinct from each other. Little Caesars intended to keep this visual image but needed to have a functional message phrased for the Spanish-speaking consumer, for whom Dr. Jekyll is truly an unknown character. This weird message indicates that consumers may have a “normal” side and a slightly crazy side, but at Little Caesars both sides can be pleased: in one mood, you can order pizza, and in the other, you may order bread. Babel Linguistics chose to convey the message with clarity, humor too, and sacrificed the rhyming of the original: “¿No te decides?… ¡Complace tu doble personalidad!” (“Can’t decide?… Treat your double personality.”)
Again, another literary reference that challenges communication for a completely different language and culture. This ad content was inspired by the 19th century legend of The Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving. This story would not really translate for the Latino community in North America, unless we make it more idiomatic while keeping its humor for the Halloween season: “Pierde la cabeza con esta oferta tenebrosa”. Which literally means, “Lose your head over this scary-good deal”.
Thanksgiving Day is only celebrated in Canada and the US. But Latinos would rather do a roast pork. The idea of emphasizing pizza fits better here, because this segment seldom eats, let alone cooks, turkey. We chose a Spanish euphemism for a live turkey (“guanajo”), a term listed in the Spanish dictionaries. The Spanish ad became, “¡No seas guanajo, come pizza!” Usually, the Spanish for “turkey” is “pavo”; however, this term also means “homosexual” in the slang, particularly that of Mexico! It is a fact that Mexicans are the largest Hispanic community in the areas where Little Caesars would launch these ads. Our Spanish substitute (i.e. to be a “guanajo”) means to be silly, foolish, dumb… Hence the transposed meaning of our message in Spanish: “Don’t be a fool, eat pizza!”
More about our projects in featured work.