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Very unfortunate name for a company that wanted to expand in Brazil. In Portuguese, Koo is homophonous with the word for a**hole, so it's not a surprise it didn

Very unfortunate name for a company that wanted to expand in Brazil. In Portuguese, Koo is homophonous with the word for a**hole, so it's not a surprise it didn't stick. Not to say it wasn't humorous though. People had a lot of fun talking about and asking others about their Koos.

ignoramous 2y ago
Koo, I believe, is named after: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo#Calls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo#Calls > People had a lot of fun talking about and asking others about their Koos. You just might enjoy the opening sequence of this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yek4hrl25qU&t=23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yek4hrl25qU&t=23
- aapoalas 2y ago
  Perhaps this as well: https://youtu.be/hwRNWQ2FwvQ?si=aLE4F7VCmo5cEJNd https://youtu.be/hwRNWQ2FwvQ?si=aLE4F7VCmo5cEJNd
- overtomanu 2y ago
  like bird tweets and cuckoo koo's
rdtsc 2y ago
For targeting Brazil it seems like they didn't do the basic marketing 101 check to see if that one syllable words is by chance something to stay away from in that target market. > Not to say it wasn't humorous though. People had a lot of fun talking about and asking others about their Koos. Probably helped with some initial hype with some people just to be able to joke about it. Is it a bit like Mastodon's "toots", I guess. It was funny for a bit, then it was just eye rolling. On the other hand in Russian and ex-Soviet space, "koo" would a great reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin-dza-dza https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin-dza-dza! a movie by Georgiy Daneliya. > The natives of the planet appear human, with deceptively primitive-looking technology and a barbaric culture, which satirically resembles that of humans. They are telepathic; the only spoken words normally used in their culture are "ku" (koo) and "kyu" (kyoo), the former stands for everything good, the latter being a swear word that stands for every bad thing.
LunaSea 2y ago
Audi made the same mistake with their "E-tron" car which means "Audi turd" in french.
- makeitdouble 2y ago
  It is, but it's not a widely used word either, and French are mostly fine with this kind of collision. Given the number of words with "bit/byte" for instance there's a point they just let it go.

ignoramous 2y ago

Koo, I believe, is named after: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo#Calls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo#Calls > People had a lot of fun talking about and asking others about their Koos. You just might enjoy the opening sequence of this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yek4hrl25qU&t=23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yek4hrl25qU&t=23

aapoalas 2y ago
Perhaps this as well: https://youtu.be/hwRNWQ2FwvQ?si=aLE4F7VCmo5cEJNd https://youtu.be/hwRNWQ2FwvQ?si=aLE4F7VCmo5cEJNd
overtomanu 2y ago
like bird tweets and cuckoo koo's

rdtsc 2y ago

For targeting Brazil it seems like they didn't do the basic marketing 101 check to see if that one syllable words is by chance something to stay away from in that target market. > Not to say it wasn't humorous though. People had a lot of fun talking about and asking others about their Koos. Probably helped with some initial hype with some people just to be able to joke about it. Is it a bit like Mastodon's "toots", I guess. It was funny for a bit, then it was just eye rolling. On the other hand in Russian and ex-Soviet space, "koo" would a great reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin-dza-dza https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin-dza-dza! a movie by Georgiy Daneliya. > The natives of the planet appear human, with deceptively primitive-looking technology and a barbaric culture, which satirically resembles that of humans. They are telepathic; the only spoken words normally used in their culture are "ku" (koo) and "kyu" (kyoo), the former stands for everything good, the latter being a swear word that stands for every bad thing.

LunaSea 2y ago

Audi made the same mistake with their "E-tron" car which means "Audi turd" in french.

makeitdouble 2y ago
It is, but it's not a widely used word either, and French are mostly fine with this kind of collision. Given the number of words with "bit/byte" for instance there's a point they just let it go.