Ad Experts’ Epic Fail

Diagnosis: Unconnected Letters

In a spectacular display of irony, Germany’s trade association for outdoor advertising, the Fachverband Außenwerbung e.V. (FAW), was caught running a digital job ad with a complete text layout meltdown.

The ad, looking for “Public Poster Hangers,” featured Arabic text that was not only backwards but also had every single letter floating in disconnected chaos. It’s a “how-not-to” guide from the very experts who are supposed to make the ads.

Arabic text in question

Arabic text as it should be

Wanted: Public poster installers.

Literally: Wanted [are] hangers-of posters public.

Note: You don’t use diacritics (تشكيل) in everyday Arabic. We use them here to clearly explain the grammar, spelling and meaning of words. To avoid confusion, we generally ignore auxiliary vowels that are necessary for pronunciation to avoid consonant clusters.

Analysis

It looks like a double-whammy of a technical error.

• First, the Arabic letters aren’t connected, which is a classic font or rendering problem; they’re shown in their isolated forms instead of joining up as they should.
• On top of that, the entire reading direction was ignored. So, not only are the letters broken apart, but you’re also seeing them displayed from left-to-right instead of right-to-left.
• This combination makes the text completely illegible and a real puzzle to even attempt to read.

Alright, let’s quickly analyze all the words in the phrase.

About مُلْصَقٌ – مُلْصَقاتٌ: It’s the passive participle (اِسْمُ المَفْعُولِ) of the IV-verb أَلْصَقَ – يُلْصِقُ which means to to affix; to make something stick. Since it’s the passive receiver of that action, its literal meaning is “a thing that has been stuck” or “something affixed” – what we just call a poster or sticker.

The Advertiser

Ah, now that’s where the joke gets its beautiful, multi-layered irony.

• So, who’s the advertiser, the galaxy brain behind this technical triumph? It’s the Fachverband Außenwerbung e.V. (FAW).
• That QR code? It beams you straight to their official job page (https://faw-ev.de/jobs/).
• This isn’t just any company. This is the main German trade association for outdoor advertising. The people who are supposed to be the pros.
• In a country famously still figuring out this whole “internet” thing, the chief association for ads puts out a digital billboard that self-destructs.
• And the cherry on top? They didn’t just break German text. They broke Arabic – a language spoken by a massive part of the population they’re presumably trying to reach.
• It’s a perfect storm of “Oops, our systems can’t handle 1980s-level text rendering,” and “Wait, other languages exist?” All from the very people who sell advertising space for a living. You couldn’t write a better satire.

Oh, and just in case you’re thinking, “Maybe it was just a one-time glitch on that specific digital billboard?”
Nope.

The exact same garbled image is proudly featured on their official website. This confirms that apparently no one in the entire chain – not the ad agency that designed it, nor the “Fachverband” that approved it – had the faintest clue about Arabic.

With so many Arabic speakers working in countless kiosks and Imbiss shops across Berlin, they didn’t even bother with the simplest quality check: finding one and asking, “Hey, does this look like anything?”

Source: Real Place
Time the picture was taken:  2025-11-05

Location: Germany
Warschauer Brücke – 10243 Berlin – Germany
Latitude: 52.5068475
Longitude: 13.4497724

Credit
Picture credit: Gerald Drißner
Added: 11/07/2025 by Gerald Drißner

←

Rage Against the Machine

Creaking ATM

→