“Barack Obama” Misspelt on Australian Mugs. Much Embarrassment.

Those of you who’ve read The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course will know that there’s a chapter on setting up and promoting your own freelance proofreading enterprise. In that chapter, I discuss attending networking events as a means of acquiring new clients. Because these networking events require you to be reasonably interesting and engaging and, superficially at least, proofreading isn’t perceived as being the most entertaining of topics, I provided you with a menu of real-life (and often amusing) proofreading blunders. Well, here’s one to add to the list.

I came across this on the BBC website today.

The gift shop at Australia's Parliament House has been forced to take 200 mugs from its shelves. The mugs were supposed to celebrate the visit of US President Barack Obama. Unfortunately they welcomed “Barrack Obama”, instead. In large, bold type.

The black and white mugs, featuring a smiling Mr Obama, retailed at $10 each. That’s $2000 down the drain. Not to mention the considerable embarrassment.

Parliamentary services secretary Alan Thompson said that his staff had learned a "valuable lesson" and that new mugs would be ordered with more attention to detail.

"It did seem a good idea at the time and I think it would have made an excellent keepsake... had the spelling been correct," he said.

Ah, for the want of a proof reader...