|
1. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."
2. A hair accessories company introduced the "Mist Stick," a curling iron, into Germany only to find out that "mist" is slang for manure. Not too many people there wanted a "manure stick."
3. When it started selling baby food in one part of Africa, a baby food manufacturer used the same packaging as in the U.S., with the beautiful Caucasian baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures of what's inside on the label.
4. An American toiletries company introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.
5. An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of "I saw the Pope" (el Papa), the shirts read "I saw the potato" (la papa).
6. An American beer company put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer from diarrhea."
7. Pepsi's "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave" in Chinese.
8. A poultry processing company came up with the slogan, "It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken," which was translated into Spanish as "It takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate."
9. The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Ke-kou-ke-la," meaning "Bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax," depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent "ko-kou-ko-le," translating into "happiness in the mouth."
10. When it marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, an American ballpoint pen maker's ads were supposed to have read, "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you." The company thought that the word "embarazar" (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: "It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant."
|
