Posted by OnBelay on October 23, 03 at 08:01:49:
Hey Beavis-he said "Lacrosse" hehe, hehe!
"GM finds out LaCrosse not just a team sport in Quebec
Paul Brent
National Post
Thursday, October 16, 2003
General Motor's plans to rechristen the Canadian-built Buick Regal passenger car as the Buick LaCrosse have hit a snag: In Québécois youth culture, the word is slang for masturbation, among other things.
U.S. focus groups said the name lends the car a sophisticated European air, but the world's largest automaker discovered in focus groups in Quebec that it generated giggles among young participants.
"I speak French as taught in Switzerland and as taught in France, I spent three years in Paris functioning in the French system, and I thought I knew every expression existing in the French language for self-gratification, including the crudest ones known to man," said a GM vice-chairman.
"The Regal will disappear in the United States and be replaced by LaCrosse, which is a very elegant upper-class field sport, but in Canada the new name is as yet undecided," Bob Lutz, 71, said.
Stew Low, a GM Canada spokesman, said in Quebec youth culture the word is a slang term "that means a couple of things, either to masturbate or 'I just got screwed,' or 'I just got taken.' "
The LaCrosse name, which has previously adorned a General Motors concept show car, would likely fail to cause a stir among Buick's main buyers, regardless of what language they speak. The average age of Buick owners in the United States is 65, a number that has stubbornly refused to drop even with the hiring of golf sensation Tiger Woods as a Buick spokesman.
Still, with General Motors spending US$3.2-billion relaunching the Buick brand and hundreds of millions invested in the Regal/LaCrosse itself, the company decided not to court controversy in Canada.
"We have a number of [middle-aged] Quebecers [at GM Canada] and it wasn't a big deal," said Mr. Low. "It wasn't until we got feedback from the youth culture that this could be an issue."
General Motors has not said where the LaCrosse will be built, in Oshawa or elsewhere in North America, or when it will debut. Industry reports say it will be built next year and appear as a 2005 model."
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