Every once in a while, even big corporations conduct marketing with questionable wording. This is especially painful, when a blatant translation error is prominently displayed on packaging.
Here is a recent example, brought to you by the German coffee retailer Tchibo (https://www.tchibo.de), which over the years has expanded their product offerings significantly. Nowadays, they sell everything from kitchenware to clothing and insurances.
This case in point is in part based on the love of Germans for English words, in particular when it comes to product names. That in itself is not a problem. However, it can become a serious issue when big companies omit their due diligence when developing new products and getting them ready for market launch. Whoever decided to name this bag a “body bag” probably thought that since this is a bag one can carry on the body, “bodybag” would be a good name. Notably, this is not the first company to come up with this word for a bag. In all of these cases, the marketing teams failed to consult a native English speaker.
It will be interesting to see how long it will take Tchibo to pull this product from their website or—at the very least—rename it. Unfortunately, from a Linguist’s and professional translator’s view, the Germans’ Love for English repeatedly leads to incorrect terminology without any sign of correction. Here are a few other examples that have become standard “German” words or Scheinanglizismen (pseudo-anglicisms): Handy (cell phone), Oldtimer (vintage car), and public viewing(watching a soccer game on a big screen in a public space). If you want to avoid the risk of falling victim to misnomers, you definitely want to hire a professional translator before sending your marketing text to the printer.
NB: Since the creation of this post, Tchibo has replaced this product name with a more descriptive Variable Umhängetasche (shoulder tote bag). And apparently they have done so within just a few days, which is wunderbar.