Updated 11:32 AM EDT, Tue, Apr 16, 2024

Duo Makes $15,000 a Month from Colombia-Columbia Misspelling: How They Did it

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Two Colombians hit two birds with one stone after deciding to make a profit out of the common mistake of misspelling the name of their country.

Carlos Pardo and Emilio Pombo, both hailing from Colombia, launched a company called "It's Colombia Not Columbia," which aims to educate the world on the proper spelling of their homeland's name, Miami Herald reported last week.

According to Pardo, they did not plan to make money out of the mistake, but they are happy about how it turned out.

"We never intended for this to be a business, we always wanted this to be a campaign about a concept. The business has been an accident -- but we're happy that it's happening," he told Miami Herald.

With their good fortune, Pardo and Pombo are now earning almost $15,000 per month by producing "It's Colombia Not Columbia" tank tops, baseball tees, long-sleeve tees, hoodies, and phone cases printed in a wide array of colors.

The duo started their company in 2013, but it appears that they have not made a dent on everyone. The lastest blunder was committed in connection to Steve Harvey and of the most-watched pageants.

 "It's an error that's committed every day. I don't think we'll ever be able to eliminate it completely," Pombo admitted.

In December, "Miss Universe" host Steve Harvey crowned Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutiérrez instead of Miss Philippines Pia Wurtzbach in a mistake he immediately corrected.

Right after the event, he took to Twitter to apologize for his mistake, only to make another one: spelling Colombia as "C-O-L-U-M-B-I-A."

While he did correct it, the mistake caught the attention of netizens who were closely watching him and the two beauties involved in the most controversial "Miss Universe" Crowning Night.

Hollywood Life noted that even if it was just a small mistake, it still fueled more criticism of the famous host-comedian.

While many have made such a big fuss about this, some are not very keen on wasting their time on correcting the misspelling.

"I've never heard anyone complain that the French call us 'Colombie' or that the Germans call us 'Kolumbien.' If [we're] so worried about the spelling of our name then why aren't [we] taking issue with them also?" Alejandro Giraldo, a media relations officer at the Javeriana University in Bogotá, said.

He also noted that Colombians should pay less attention to such petty matters, since their country is already "suffering from low self-esteem."

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