Marca Chancho

Hello Everyone!

Today, I’d like to talk about one popular phrase used by the Chileans. It is “Marca Chancho” (Pig Brand)

The pig is an animal that is using for a lot of thing in the Chilean vocabulary. For example in the domino, to name the card that has both sides the same number (in Spanish “Chancho 6”,), or like a synonymous of a belch (in spanish, "tirarse un chancho").

                               

Specifically, “Marca Chancho” it’s a phrase to use to describe an article that it brand is unknown or it is of bad quality.

There are many theories that explain this phrase. One of these say that the term "Marca chancho" would come from an economic beer sold in Chile in 1830, and apparently, was the cheaper and lower quality. The bottle would have been of clay, and the people would compare it with the popular pigs of Pomaire.

But the fame of the phrase would arrive in the first half of the XX century, with a cigarette brand. It is “Marca Chancho cigarettes” that showed in the label a funny pig wearing a suit. Also, in the label there was a note who said: “Aseguramos que estos cigarrillos valen mucho más de lo que cuestan” (“We ensure that these cigarettes are worth much more than they cost”). No doubt that there is a direct relationship between the concept of “Marca Chancho” and the cigarettes.

I have a collection of old cigarettes labels, and fortunately, I have one of these labels, that are very limited in the market of the collections.

I hope that you enjoy this little part of our Chilean history!

Regards!

Bye!