Teaching at a business school means it's helpful when one of the biggest corporations in the region makes a ridiculous mistake that inadvertently drives home the basics of Composition Studies. But it isn't always pretty.
One of the things I strive to teach in my classroom is this: Effective communication starts by attempting to understand your audience and then crafting a message that is appropriate for them.
When Gazprom announced its new venture in Nigeria, the executives in charge failed to anticipate how a global audience might react to the name Nigaz.
Nigaz is the name of the new Russian-Nigerian oil firm.
I thought maybe the Daily Mail article was a joke, but here's the BBC report.
I'm not outraged or angry. I don't think the naming was motivated by racism.
In a way, I'm happy about the misstep. This firm's name will make an excellent real-world example of how a writer's intentions can be obscured by the reader's frame of reference. Thanks, Nigaz.
(And thanks to Dan for spotting the story.)
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