Fast. Cool. Sleek. Advertisers spend a lot of time and money trying to plant buzz words into your head when selling you a product like an expensive car. “Rape,” for obvious reasons, has never been at the top of the list. Thanks to a little linguistic misunderstanding, however, the word has come to be associated with the Bugatti Veyron.
On Bugatti’s site, the company offers a number of customizable features for the top of the line roadster, including color choice. Until this week, one of the choices was the decidedly un-Crayola-friendly “Rape Yellow.”
The name was the result of an unfortunate mistranslation of a color derived from the rapeseed plant. The issue was brought to the attention of the French car manufacturer, which quickly–and embarrassedly–apologized.
“Although based upon the French name for the rapeseed plant, the translation is one that should have been given more thought from our side,” wrote John Hill, the carmaker’s U.S. director marketing. “We are thankful that it was brought to our attention and you will find that the name for this color has already been revised on our site.”
“Rape Yellow” has since been changed to “Traffic Yellow.”