Forgetting their English

Berlin

International brands have begun using German slogans in Germany, rather than the hip English phrases they long preferred, the Institute for German Language said this week. McDonald’s, for example, recently replaced its longtime slogan, “Every time a good time,” with “Ich lieb’ es” (“I’m lovin’ it”) after it determined that customers couldn’t understand the old phrase. Mitsubishi dropped its tag line, “Drive alive,” when a study found that most Germans misinterpreted the phrase as an admonishment to wear seat belts. “A much smaller percentage of people in Germany speak English than is generally assumed,” said the institute’s Tobias Mindner.