Lost In Translation? Customer Discovers An Unfortunate Mistake For IKEA

Ah IKEA, we love you. You’re our go-to establishment when we’re in need of a new coffee table or a bookshelf. But there’s just one problem: you might want to rethink the names of some of your products. Why? Well they have the tendency to get a little lost in translation, as this story illustrates.

The Huffington Post reports that one curious Reddit user got a bit of a shock when they decided to translate the name of a pillow they had bought in the furniture store. The Redditor wanted to find out what the term ‘Gosa Raps’ actually meant. (Ikea’s ‘Gosa Raps’ pillow is a pillow specially designed for side sleepers).

However, if you type the words ‘Gosa’ and ‘Raps’ into Google’s translation service you’ll be told that what you’re sleeping on is actually a ‘cuddle rape’ pillow. Yes, you read that right.

According to reports, the translation of the word ‘Raps’ (which means ‘rapeseed’ in Swedish) was cut in half by Google translate. But this isn’t the first time that IKEA has gotten in trouble over the names they have for their products.

IKEA has gotten in trouble for their product names before

‘Pillowcase Skarblad’ a product named after a flower, caused controversy when it was revealed that it actually meant ‘cut blade’ in English. More disturbing is ‘Spatula Gubborar’ which translates as ‘old man touch.’

Last year, IKEA was forced to hire translators before printing their catalogue in Thai after it was found that some of their product names had completely different meanings in parts of South-East Asia.

The IKEA product ‘Bed Redalen’ apparently sounded “uncomfortably close” to a sexual word when it was pronounced in Thai. Awkward...

IKEA has been contacted by members of the media however it has yet to make a comment on the incident.