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„Scrabble“ officially turns into „Letter YOLO“ in Germany

El-Suave

El-Suave

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,829
Germany has a long board game tradition, but that didn't keep Mattel from officially renaming "Scrabble" into "Buchstaben YOLO" in Germany for its 70th birthday,
vwfwhfjmhsc9xw62aslp.jpg

https://news.mattel.de/pressrelease...scrabble-heisst-jetzt-buchstaben-yolo-2705578

It's meant to recflect the changing of language and to incorporate youth jargon into the game. They even hired a rapper who was popular for a few minutes five years ago to promote it.

Edit: Youtube commercial


Edit 2:
As some of you suspected, this turned out to be a marketing stunt by Mattel to get people talking about Scrabble for its birthday. So they hired an agency to produce this cringeworthy campaign and enjoyed the enormous social media presence they got in Germany.

https://www.horizont.net/agenturen/...ckt-hinter-dem-scrabble-prank-von-dojo-169973
 
Last edited:
Son Lamar

Son Lamar

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,238
Alabama
El-Suave said:
Germany has a long board game tradition, but that didn't keep Mattel from officially renaming "Scrabble" into "Buchstaben YOLO" in Germany for its 70th birthday,
vwfwhfjmhsc9xw62aslp.jpg

https://news.mattel.de/pressrelease...scrabble-heisst-jetzt-buchstaben-yolo-2705578

It's meant to recflect the changing of language and to incorporate youth jargon into the game. They even hired a rapper who was popular for a few minutes five years ago to promote it.
Click to expand...
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They also used a word from 8 years ago lol
 
convo

convo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,365
I am out of the loop of german media and pop-culture despite living here, discussing weird language trends like teen talk has been part of german classes like forever though. I can see teachers bringing that shit into classes to say how aware they are of the latest trends in speaking.
 
Borgnine

Borgnine

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,160
How do you even play Scrabble in german. The rack doesn't even have enough letters for one word.
 
DrKelpo

DrKelpo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,861
Germany
it's kind of amazing how corporations almost always manage to screw up when it comes to trends and youth culture/language.

also, from the press release
"...für die gesamte Family Crew ..."
"... for the whole family crew..."

good lord....
 
OP
OP
El-Suave

El-Suave

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,829
Here's the Youtube promo for it - it even has Fidget Spinners!

I'll include it in the OP
 
Alucrid

Alucrid

Chicken Photographer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,413
i don't know much about german culture but i feel like that was a very german commercial
 
so1337

so1337

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,476
Why does the packaging look like something you'd fish out of the bottom of a palette at Lidl?

It's disgusting.
 
LL_Decitrig

LL_Decitrig

User-Requested Ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,334
Sunderland
iksenpets said:
As an English-speaker, I feel like Germans need the English phrase to convey the playful tone, otherwise running around yelling MAN LEBT NUR EINMAL just sounds like you're quoting weird 19th century philosophy or something.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Reminds me of a song John Peel used to be fond of playing in the late seventies on his BBC radio show. The words consisted solely of a German rendition of Ludwig Wittgenstein's "On that which we cannot speak, we must remain silent." The music, if I recall correctly, was a men's marching choir complete with glockenspiel. The comic effect was quite inviting to my English ears.
 
Sanox

Sanox

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,533
Next up UNO becomes dab

When down to your last card you dab at the other players
 
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