The following video is via Martino's Bikelane Diary, who is also a member of I Bike TO.
I second Martino's enthusiasm for this collection of Dutch bicycle promotion ads. They have a bit of humour. I don't think the Dutch are normally known for humour - tulips, pot, water, bikes and tolerance, perhaps - not so much humour. I was always told growing up that the Dutch are much more into slapstick than the dry wit style of the British. But not true: I love the ad with the mafiosa who laugh at the guy who rode his bike. At the end the two get into a Lincoln-style car and it explodes. It says: "Fietsers leven langer" (Cyclists live longer).
My Dutch is pretty lax so I don't know if I got the translation right for another ad:
Als we zo graag op de fiets zitten waarom staan we dan in de file?
Fietsen naar je werk. Een goede zaak.
(If we can so easily sit on the bike why do we then stand in line/traffic jam?
Bike to work. It's a good thing.
Comments
Anonymous (not verified)
Fietsen
Tue, 05/01/2007 - 09:18"Fietsen naar je work"
"Biking to your work" might be a better translation.
Anneke Oosterink (not verified)
translations
Thu, 05/08/2008 - 06:13The first tagline is
If we love to cycle so much, then why are we standing in traffic jams?
Biking to work, it's a good thing. (though note that zaak in Dutch can mean case, company, business and thing)
The song by the way is a Dutch song about biking.
The second commercial has these two guys showing off their expensive cars (one brand mentioned is Lexus) but on the intercom they hear that one of them forgot his brakes and his car is now crashing the other guys car, while the cyclist happily exits the lift.
It then says; No pain/discomforts? Take the bike!
The song basically is about her sitting on the back of the bike and being happy.
text: Everything by bike. Then you're sitting alright. (in Dutch zit in this context means both to sit and to be, so you are and you sit allright)
Well the Saddam commercial hardly needs explaining.
The CEO's racing to work says: cycling to work... make a sport out of it.
The guys in the car talk about the "music for in the car while driving to work" mix CD.
The next commercial is about car addiction, where the guy answers to every rorschach inkblot: Car. The doctor is 'curing' him, teaching him how to bike, saying how serious a problem car addiction is. He also says he has to let his patients go at some point, his final comment (while opening his car) is: Someone has to do something about these traffic jams...
The commercial with the boy stunting through the traffic says: Take the car by bicyle. This is a pun in Dutch because pakken means boke take and something like screw. So basically it says something like screw the car with your bike.
In the last commercial one of the mobsters asks how did you get here? The guy in white answers on my bike. Tagline: cyclists live longer.
anthony
Re: translations
Thu, 05/08/2008 - 08:06Thanks for the tanslations. It helps a lot to have this.
I already really enjoyed these commercials, even though I did not have the tranlastion for them. I found that the majority of the message was carried through the visuals and the acting without the translations. Now that I know the translations and puns they carry, it makes them that much more enjoyable.
Anneke Oosterink (not verified)
RE: Translation
Fri, 06/13/2008 - 05:58I have found the videoclip of the song of the first ad. It's a song sung in dialect, about a biketrip through Drenthe (a province of the Netherlands).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1bYRaihts0