Apr 15, 2008 11:02
16 yrs ago
Finnish term

häntä

Finnish to English Marketing Cinema, Film, TV, Drama TV commercials
Hello,

I've often encountered a problematic term in Finnish that I'm not sure how to translate. The term is "häntä" (literally 'tail') and it refers to a shorter version of or an addition to a TV commercial, which is normally shown at the end of the same commercial break as the full-length commercial. It's supposed to reactivate the message of the commercial in the viewer's mind. Typically, the 'tail' is about 10 seconds long.

Discussion

KatjaT (asker) Apr 18, 2008:
Thank you all! Your answers were very helpful, and it's interesting to see that there is no simple answer for this question. I also found it convincing that two native speakers suggested "tag", but the term was used for a different purpose here: http://www.goldenproductions.com/content/view/8/
It was good to learn the term "bookend commercial", but the concept seems slightly different from "häntä".

Proposed translations

3 hrs
Selected

follow-up commercial

Could it be as simple as this?
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you! In the article the term is actually used in the same sense as "häntä"."
6 hrs

tag

A tag line is the line you want people to remember so, by analogy, the 'tag commercial' would refer to the short reprise of the full commercial.
Peer comment(s):

neutral Spencer Allman : This is what I would say - but is it right I wonder? Yes I know. What I meant was is it the word that is actually used?
15 hrs
"tag" has the sense of "häntä" being something tagged on!
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19 hrs

coda

This is more a musical term, but it refers to the 'reprise' at the end of a piece, very similar idea to what you're referring to in advertising.
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1 day 2 hrs

appeal

Appeal: advertisement's selling message
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1 day 3 hrs

reminder

This suggestion of mine has not anything common with the Finnish original, word-wise. But it may work as a functional translation, because that is what the "tail" is for: it reminds what was said shortly earlier.
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2 days 14 hrs

bookend commercial

Maybe that's what you are looking for.
Peer comment(s):

neutral philgoddard : This is one commercial that's shown in two parts, which is not quite the same thing
545 days
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548 days

tail

Finnish is not one of my languages, and this is a very old question, but the same term has just come up in Spanish (colita) and I found the right answer.

"Top & Tail - to 'top and tail' commercials is to have one commercial play at the start of a commercial break and a second to play at the end of the break. The commercials can vary in length to each other. Top and Tailing is an effective way to reiterate the message to listeners."
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