A salesman returns from his assignment in Saudi Arabia, where he went to sell a new brand of Coca-Cola.
Seeing his downhearted face, a friend asks him, “Why the long face?”
The salesman replied, “I failed in Saudi Arabia, the campaign was a complete failure.”
“Why is that?” asked the friend, “I thought you had a good campaign running.”
“Well, when I got posted there, I was very confident that I would make a great sales pitch to the Saudis. But I had a problem – I didn’t speak Arabic, so I planned to convey the meaning of the message with the use of three images:
First poster: A man lying in the hot desert sand in utter exhaustion, he has fainted.
Second poster: The man is drinking the new Coca-Cola brand.
Third poster: Our man is now totally refreshed and feeling great.
I had these posters pasted all over the place. You couldn’t go anywhere without seeing them.”
“That’s great, that should have worked,” said the friend.
“That was what I thought,” said the salesman. “Only no one told me they read from right to left!”
Leave a Reply