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The American Dairy Association was so successful with
its "Got Milk?" campaign, that it was decided
to extend the ads to Mexico. Unfortunately, the Spanish
translation was "Are you lactating?" Electrolux, a Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer, used
this ad in the U.S.: "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."
Colgate introduced a toothpaste called "Cue"
in France, but it turned out to be the same name as a well-known
porno magazine.
When Braniff translated a slogan touting its upholstery,
"Fly in leather, " it came out in Spanish as
"Fly naked."
Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose, " into
Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer from diarrhea."
Chicken magnate Frank Perdue's line, "It takes
a tough man to make a tender chicken, " sounds much
more interesting in Spanish: "It takes a sexually
stimulated man to make a chicken affectionate."
Bacardi concocted a fruity drink with the name "Pavian"
to suggest French chic...but "pavian" means
"baboon" in German.
A hair products company, Clairol, introduced the "Mist
Stick", a curling iron, into Germany only to find
out that mist is slang for manure. Not too many people had
use for the manure stick.
When Kentucky Fried Chicken entered the Chinese market,
to their horror they discovered that their slogan "finger
lickin' good" came out as "eat your fingers
off"
When Vicks first introduce its cough drops on the German
market, they were chagrined to learn that the German pronunciation
of "v" is f - which in German is the guttural equivalent
of "sexual penetration."
Parker Pens translated the slogan for its ink, "Avoid
Embarrassment - Use Quink" into Spanish as "Evite
Embarazos - Use Quink"...which also means, "Avoid
Pregnancy - Use Quink."
When Pepsi started marketing its products in China a few
years back, they translated their slogan, "Pepsi
Brings You Back to Life" pretty literally. The slogan
in Chinese really meant, "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors
Back from the Grave."
In Italy, a campaign for "Schweppes Tonic Water"
translated the name into the much less thirst quenching
"Schweppes Toilet Water."
Chinese translation proved difficult for Coke, which
took two tries to get it right. They first tried Ke-kou-ke-la
because when pronounced it sounded roughly like Coca-Cola.
It wasn't until after thousands of signs had been printed
that they discovered that the phrase means "bite
the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with
wax, " depending on the dialect. Second time around
things worked out much better. After researching 40, 000
Chinese characters, Coke came up with "ko-kou-ko-le"
which translates roughly to the much more appropriate
"happiness in the mouth."
Not to be outdone, Puffs tissues tried later to introduce
its product, only to learn that "Puff" in German
is a colloquial term for a whorehouse. The English weren't
too fond of the name either, as it's a highly derogatory
term for a non-heterosexual.
The Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish speaking countries.
"No va" means "it doesn't go"
in Spanish.
Ford introduced the Pinto in Brazil. After watching sales
go nowhere, the company learned that "Pinto"
is Brazilian slang for "tiny male genitals."
Ford pried the nameplates off all of the cars and substituted
them with "Corcel" which means horse.
When Gerber first started selling baby food in Africa,
they used the same packaging as here in the USA - with the
cute baby on the label. Later they found out that in Africa
companies routinely put pictures on the label of what's
inside since most people can't read.
In the French part of Canada, Hunt-Wesson introduced its
"Big John" products as "Gros Jos."
It later found out that the phrase is slang for "big
breasts."
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