AIBU to find this Boden ad offensive

[SkinnyNorris]

I live in Germany and received the latest Mini Boden catalog. Granted I am an English speaker and come from a country where minorites have a long history of having negative connotations attached to them.
The German word for fist bump is Fauststoß, yet Boden chooses to use the term Ghettofaust, literal translation ghetto fist in this ad. “Ghettofaust für maschinenwaschbares Gewebe”
Please tell me, slang or not, AIBU to feel a way that Boden should have thought twice about using this term.
I wish I could post the picture but mumsnet doesn’t give me this option. This is pg 93 for anyone with the catalog.

I'm German and although I have lived outside of Germany for a while now and may not be up to date on the latest language developments I would say that Ghettofaust is the more frequently used of the two words. I don't remember ever hearing anyone say fauststoß, but I am from a younger generation that is possibly more influenced by the hip hop and reality TV culture, maybe fauststoß is more common among the older generations. In my peer group it was always the Ghettofaust. Now you've mentioned it I can see how it is offensive but until now it had never occured to me and I imagine its the same for most people, they just use the word because its cool rather than taking the time to think about the connotations.

You almost always translate from a foreign language into your native language. I would have thought that a native German speaker would know what was and wasn't pc in their own language.

There is so much "denglish" in German marketing (and generally) that I'm surprised they didn't just use the expression High 5! I have often wondered what you do in Germany if you are older and didn't learn much English, as there is so much of it used to look hip. But as a pp says, it often jars to a native English speaker.

@ucfo
I'm a translator from French and same here. Some of the casual racism and sexism I "translate out" (checking with client first) is mindblowing.
Most recent example was a big project for a women's awards scheme. Big awards for women doing really important social and environmental work. One of the headlines they had in the French original version of one of the women's profiles was something along the lines of "she belongs to this new generation of smart, caring and sexy women making a difference".

It's like come on guys, you're bleating on about empowering women and then you use "sexy" when ts completely fucking irrelevant and you wouldn't use it for men? Absolutely wouldn't wash with an English speaking audience so we took it out.

Germany is not a good place to live if you get upset about companies and people saying dumb and prejudiced things

My racism and sexism meter regularly hits red, although I've learned to pick my battles. Seriously, it's like how the UK was in the 70's in some ways. It is changing slowly and I'm grateful for that.

I think Boden were probably trying to conjure up an image of fist-bumping cool kids. It is a strange phrase for them to adopt though, as opposed to high 5.

In my area, Ghetto means the area where lots of North African,Middle Eastern and poor German people live in apartment blocks (and don't wear Boden). It's very negative and implies not working and criminality. I wouldn't use it as an adjective - it's like chav or pikey.

Maybe contact the head office in the UK to put your point across? YANBU for challenging something that you don't feel good about. YABU to be surprised at a dodgy advert in Germany, there's loads

I agree with @Marinetta. Fauststoss is not a word I have ever come across in german (i’m german), and sounds like a bad translation. Ghettofaust does sound a bit outdated to me, but I wouldn’t know what else to call it.

Absolutely wouldn't wash with an English speaking audience so we took it out.

@FloatingObject the number of times I've written a little comment saying, "You really can't say this in English!" and making an alternative suggestion, I couldn't tell you