Excellence, but not Spelling, through Passion

I had the TV news on and I found this commercial… if you can make out the text it reads:

“4.2L V8 ENGINE THE DELIVERS 405 HP”


D'oh!! That's quite a typo. As Google points out:


Yes, the voiceover said it correctly “… engine that delivers 405…”

But it was wrong on screen.

The Maserati slogan is “Excellence through Passion.”

Seems like more passion than excellence. And certainly more passion than quality. Makes one question their commitment to kwality? I guess I'm just jealous I can't afford a Maserati.

I emailed Maserati customer service online, asking or a comment and got a form letter response back that includes:

We would like to inform you that it has been our care to forward your message to our competent department.

That makes it sound like they have only one “competent” department?? Maybe part of their marketing and brand image is the use a delightfully broken Italian-English??

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Mark Graban
Mark Graban

Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, author, and professional speaker, and podcaster with experience in healthcare, manufacturing, and startups.

Mark's latest book is The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation, a recipient of the Shingo Publication Award.

He is also the author of Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, and the anthology Practicing Lean.

Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus.

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4 Comments

  1. Yes, I already fixed that defect!!

    It still has the typo in the RSS feed?

    I've never said I am perfect :-)

  2. CNN today spelled Lonely as "Lonley" on screen for about 10 seconds, but it was fixed the second time they teased the story.

  3. Excellence in even the little things is important. Not that a typo on a TV newscast is small!

    Everything we do brands us in some way. One of my pet peeves is when people spell my name wrong, especially when they are in the people business. I suppose that brings the point home further. The little things matter.

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