New Fukishima Mascot, Fukuppy, Is The 'New Coke' Of Japanese Rebranding

You have to feel a bit sorry for that smiling little egg guy up there. Here it is, ready to welcome visitors to the website for Fukushima Industries and promise them a happy browsing experience as they look over the company's fine array of industrial cooling equipment, but it's saddled with an insufficiently researched name, "Fukuppy." The company says it had intended to combine the first two syllables of its name with "happy," but it didn't consult with any native English speakers before sending the mascot out into the world. (There's no connection between the corporation and the prefecture where the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is located -- "Fukushima" just means "lucky island." Which hasn't worked out so great either lately.)

[Malware at Happy; Link blocked for now]