Barbie stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken (IMDb)
Barbie is one of the most talked about movies of the moment and with its release so soon, the promotional round is on. Poster stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are revealed as the date approaches. Several international posters have been released for director Greta Gerwig. While the internet is excited to see the comic fantasy, a French poster for the film has gone viral and sparked controversy.
Were the French words “sales” on the Barbie poster intended?
Because the image rested the same as the English version with Robbie jouant the role of Barbie on Gosling’s Paul, this is the text of the affiche that suscité the controverse in the raison de la declaration with double sensibilities and du words game. The original text says “She’s everything, she’s just Kane” which, when translated into French, turns out to be an NSFW connotation and pun. The French translation of the motto reads: “She can do it all. It’s just Ken.”
The direct translation means: “She can do anything.” It’s just Ken. It may sound like a normal translation, but the pun means the original in the language. Simply put, ken means f*ck colloquially in French. So the motto technically translates to “she can do it all”. He just knows how to play. Tweets discussing the slogan went viral immediately, and while some netizens thought it was a genuine mistranslation, many described it as well thought out and planned. It appears to be a planned move by the team.
While the first part of the English motto says “Barbie is everything,” the French translation changes the words slightly and reads: “Barbie can do everything” providing the perfect context for the NSFW follow-up and clarifying the double meaning. Ken “just knows how to fuck ‘sex’.” The live translation could have avoided that, so it appears to be a deliberate move by the marketing team. “Rip to Anglophones because the luck with Ken is unbelievable,” wrote one user. »
Another said: “French Twitter have lost their minds now that they have translated the Barbie poster literally and accidentally made a pun saying ‘she knows how to do everything. “ken” is French slang for sex that can do anything… it can only be so daring if you ask me. Meanwhile, a pro threw his weight on the podium.
Chief Marketing Officer Calls Double-Meaning Words “Kind of Genius”
“It’s definitely intentional, there’s no way the French speaker won’t notice the dirty pun. It’s kind of genius, really, they put that in it,” said a French marketing executive from another studio, a Hollywood journalist. Although the studio Warner Bros. didn’t specify Whether or not the decision was deliberate on his part, the spokesperson said speculation about the marketing campaign shows there is a high level of awareness and public excitement around Barbie, which will be released on July 21, 2023.
