Glossary entry

Czech term or phrase:

konfrontacni reklamni kampane

English translation:

confrontational advertising (campaigns)

Added to glossary by Radovan Pletka
Apr 18, 2007 08:15
17 yrs ago
Czech term

konfrontacni reklamni kampane

Czech to English Bus/Financial Business/Commerce (general) banking product
Hope someone can help with this. On the face of it is quite simple but I am not so sure now. A bank launches a "konfrontacni reklamni kampane" for a low-interest loan but then soon afterwards goes bust. I am wondering whether konfrontacni here is a false friend... If you have a confrontational advertising campaign then it presumably has to be confrontational against someone -for instance in political campaigns, but I am not sure if a bank can have a confrontational advertising campaign? They are unlikely to be dishing out the dirt on rival banks (which is slightly what I read in to a confrontational advertising campaign). What I am wondering is whether the konfrontacni here does not mean that the campaign was confrontational (aggressive?) as such, but implies that there was a contrast between launching an advertising campaign and then shortly afterwards going bust. I note from my slovnik spisovne cestiny that konfrontacni can be used in the sense of porovnavaci.

Discussion

Charles Stanford (asker) Apr 18, 2007:
Thank you to everyone for their input. I think I will get away with it judging by your reactions - I thought that it was somehow possible that the konfrontacni referred to the contrast between the new product on the one hand followed shortly afterwards by the bank's bankruptcy. I found konfrontacni somewhere translated as contrastive and started to get a bee in my bonnet. I don't suppose there is too much difference in point of fact between a confrontational advertising campaign and a comparative one - essentially you are doing the same thing. Here is the whole sentence for Maria's benefit but please do not worry too much anyone - I might have been making a mountain out of a molehill...
Jeste minuly tyden si lide mohli zavolat na bezplatnou linku banky. V ramci konfrontacni reklamni kampane lakala na novy a hlavne dlouhodoby produkt. V patek ale banka spustila rolety a hned po vikendu zridila linku kde se jejich klientu muze informovat, o kolik penez vlastne prijdou
Maria Chmelarova Apr 18, 2007:
Charlie, whole sentence will help...

Proposed translations

+2
4 hrs
Selected

confrontational advertising (campaigns)

bank will do confrontational advertising for cheap loans by advertising that their rates are lower than rates of the XY bank. In US this happens quite often in advertising - for example coke and pepsi wars are usually confrontational. Just do some reading about advertising, confrontational advertising has about 50 hits
Peer comment(s):

neutral Pavel Blann : a literal translation may not be applicable in this context // did you study it/made living with it in the czech rep.???
6 mins
I studied advertising and did it for living, I know what I am talking about. If you go after cheap loans, you confront others with your lowest rates.
agree Dana Hollcroft
13 mins
dik
agree vic voskuil
42 mins
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
8 mins

bold advertising campaign

Hi there Charlie! What about "bold advertising campaign" in this context, has about 1,150 hits.

Another option would be "controversial advertising campaign" but I am not quite sure whether that would be appropriate here.

Take care :-)

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Note added at 13 mins (2007-04-18 08:29:06 GMT)
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The term "AGGRESSIVE ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN" instead of "bold" would be quite apt and would describe it rather well.
Peer comment(s):

neutral Radovan Pletka : bold is not correct translation here, it cchanges the meaning, aggresssive is the same case
4 hrs
Something went wrong...
+1
1 hr

confronting advertising campaign

I think the right term is "confronting", although "confrontational" is fine as well, but I would not use it in this context. To explain what possibly happen - in advertising use of a "confronting" campaign means that you would risk a little bit of your reputation because you confront your own customer and force them to make a decision to either like or hate your proposition... Latest example could be the recent Aussie tourism campaign in the UK with slogan "Where the bloody hell are you?" which backfired in a similar way :-)

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Note added at 3 hrs (2007-04-18 11:46:15 GMT)
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Well, Charles, obviously the majority view is the same, and I think that is what happens. As someone who done a bit of work in advertising I know that you only go bold/confronting/provocative if you are targeting a niche market, otherwise you will go against the majority and that is what might have happened here...
Note from asker:
I just cannot imagine a bank getting confrontational/confronting about a loan product!!
Peer comment(s):

agree vic voskuil
3 hrs
Something went wrong...
2 hrs

provocative advertising campaign

This should cover it pretty well ìf the content of the ads themselves is konfrontacni. But I can imagine they might want to have linked this to the subsequent bankruptcy as well. Any idea what the ad was about?

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Note added at 2 hrs (2007-04-18 10:46:58 GMT)
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@Asker: Well, anything goes in advertising ;)
But you are right, it is difficult to know what they mean here, and Pavel could well be on the right track with his suggestion.
Have you tried googling (e.g. video.google.com) for further info on the ad? If it was provocative someone is bound to have commented on it somewhere...

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Note added at 5 hrs (2007-04-18 13:25:36 GMT)
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...sometimes the solution is closer than we think... http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?sourceid=Mozilla-searc...
...note the entry under c ;)

even though people may interpret it differently, at least the dictionary is on your side regarding confrontational :)
Note from asker:
unforutnately no idea what the ad campaign was about, but I just cannot imagine a bank using confrontational advertising for a loan. That is why I am worried that the konfrontacni may be being used more in the sense of "contrastive" if that is possible with "konfrontacni"
have tried googling it but it is from 2003 and cannot find it anywhere.
Peer comment(s):

neutral Radovan Pletka : provocative is not confrontational
2 hrs
sure it is, but confrontational is not necessarily provocative ;) at any rate, your answer (or really Mike's sub-answer) is the one to go for here.
Something went wrong...
17 mins

comparative advertising campaign

I think confrontation here means comparison of rates, charges, etc. with some other banks (in a table format, e.g.)

No. of hits: 2820

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Note added at 7 hrs (2007-04-18 15:59:39 GMT)
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One bank can confront the other banks by setting its rates lower and by advertising a comparison with the other banks' rates.

However, by setting its rates lower it can go bankrupt because of high demand for such loans (the bank can run out of cash and can't fulfill other obligations) and/or by not making too much profit from them, e.g.
Peer comment(s):

neutral Radovan Pletka : again confront and compare are two very different animals
4 hrs
the meaning of "konfrontační" may be shifted in this context
Something went wrong...
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