Matshushita Electric is promoting a new Japanese PC targeted at

the Internet. Panasonic has developed a complete Japanese Web

browser, and to make the system "user friendly", licensed the

cartoon character "Woody Woodpecker" as the "Internet guide"

Panasonic eventually planned on a world version of the product.

A huge marketing campaign was to have introduced the product in

Japan last week. The day before the ads were to be released,

Panasonic suddenly pulled back and delayed the product launch

indefinitely.

The reason: the ads featured the slogan "Touch Woody - The

Internet Pecker."

An American staff member at the internal product launch explained

to the stunned and embarrassed Japanese what "touch Woody" and