• The Atlantic, Wednesday, March 7, 2012 10:15 AM

Coldplay named an album “Mylo Xyloto,” a play on Mylo and portmanteau (of toe and xylophone) Xyloto.  Coldplay is a global brand, whose last album, “Viva La Vida,” or “Death and All of His Friends,” was the global best-selling album of 2008.

Columnist Derek Thompson, who confesses he's a fan, but argues that while the prior album name was great global marketing as it seems to be an amalgam of Spanish, English, "and [is] practically gift-wrapped for a global tour," the Mylo Xyloto name is neither Spanish, nor English, "Nor anything really. It looks like esoterically spelled baby-speak."

"That a name that half the world can't pronounce and the other half can't even Google puts Coldplay in the shameful pantheon of global brands that majorly screwed up a global name.” He says those brands include Pschitt, a French softdrink; Fartek, a Swedish babywear product; Cat Crap, a lens cleaner in Japan; the Chevy Nova (that's Spanish for ‘no go’ or ‘doesn't go’.)”  Let’s see, I might drink Pschitt if it didn’t start with a “p”.

Read the whole story at The Atlantic »