Found in Translation

Shampoo to Promote Hair Loss
Many Americans know the Pert brand of shampoo. Before launching it in France, however, the
savvy marketers changed the name to prêt, which means “ready.” Why? The word perte means
“loss” in French, and the company understandably wanted more favorable connotations associated
with their brand.
MAC, Makeup, and Mexico

---

A lavender-lovely Fergie asks us to enter a new kind of dreamscape, to feel the “Yes, we can!”
of tomorrow, and to push forward on behalf of every man, woman and child affected by
HIV/AIDS.
If your heart doesn’t go out to the translator who has to render this statement
into another language, we need to check to make sure it’s still beating. This
creatively worded sentence, from a campaign for the ultra-hip MAC Cosmetics
brand, is full of translation challenges. Not only must the translator reckon
with the compound word lavender-lovely but also with the Yes, we can! slogan
popularized by Barack Obama. Oh, and did we mention that the target market
consists of 113 million people whose elected leader is not Obama, but Felipe
Calderón?
This is the kind of prose that Eleonora Cisneros González, a Spanish
translator based in Mexico, translates for MAC all the time. MAC is well
known for the training that it provides to its makeup artists all around the
world, and even though she isn’t a makeup artist herself, Cisneros González
knows this material in great depth. She translates all the material for basic
training for makeup artists and the continual stream of training updates on all
new collections and products. She also translates the company’s manual for its
makeup artists.
14
But the inspirations behind the collections present some of the most
complicated challenges for the translator. As in the example given at the start
of this section, creative writers of the English text include frequent references
to people or concepts that are popular only in America. Another challenge is
that they often play with words in such a way that the product names rhyme,
create puns, or even seem poetic. Sometimes they use slang, or even invent
new words for product names.
Translating for the cosmetic industry also requires a lot of research. You’ll
not only find dictionaries and glossaries in Cisneros González’s library but
bilingual makeup books too. Internet research is critical, because it’s more
current and likely to have information on new trends. Web pages and blogs for
which professional makeup artists and fans write and share their knowledge
are important sources of information that can help her come up with the best
translation. In addition, she also goes into the shops to look at products and
read labels to stay current. “Whenever I have a magazine in my hands, I never
put it down without reading the makeup section, because it’s very relevant for
my job,” she says. She has also compiled her own glossary based on the many
years she has worked for MAC.
Looking at magazines as part of your work? Trying on cosmetics in
department stores in the name of research? This kind of translation helps

---

companies like MAC sell their products in other markets. And, it just goes to
show that there is a job out there for every young girl (or boy) who loves
playing with makeup, so long as she (or he) also loves to play with words.
And, in case you’re wondering how to say a lavender-lovely Fergie in Spanish,
Cisneros González conveyed this as “una Fergie encantadoramente envuelta en
colores lavanda.” (The back-translation? “A Fergie charmingly wrapped in
lavender hues.”)