The new Ikea store in Thailand came close to selling products named after sexual acts, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Ikea launched its fifth-largest superstore in Bangkok, Thailand, last year and put four years worth of research into their trademark Scandinavian product names and what they meant in Thai.
What the team found is pretty astonishing: In Thai, Ikea's product names aren't so innocent.
For example, Ikea's Redalen bed is named after a Norwegian town. But in Thai, Redalen resembles a Thai word for to getting to third base — if you know what we mean.
Jättebra, an Ikea plant pot, resembles a slang term in Thailand for sex.
"The Swedish…words are important because they bring a unique character to the brand," Ikea team member Natthita Opaspipat told the WSJ.
"We've got to be careful," Opaspipat said. "Some of them can be, well, a little rude."
Now, read about how Ikea successfully expanded into America >
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