A forgotten Chinese script?
I‘m was betting that this is just gibberish, but the fact that they didn’t use roman letters, or even a script that I recognize is quite remarkable.
A friend found this on an imitation Red Bull energy drink can in a convenience store in a suburb (Panyu) outside Guangzhou. Here is the rest of the picture for context.
Ah-ha!
I just googled “kratingdaeng” and got the whole story. So who’s imitating who? I guess ex nihilo nisi fit.
Here’s the interesting Wikipedia article for those too lazy to google.
It’s Thai script. It’s a mangled spelling of “Red Bull”.
กระทิงแดง (red bull) is the correct spelling, but they’ve reversed the word order and placed the ending consonant of the word red at the beginning, so it reads: งแดงกระทิ (dbull re)
On a related note, I’ve bought Red Bull brand beer (clearly a knockoff) in Yushu, Qinghai. It tasted of formaldehyde. Not sure about the caffeine content.
In Canada, Rockstar–Pepsi’s competitor to Red Bull–is launching a (non-energy) beer this year.
So Red Bull beer, while a knock-off, is not so farfetched.