Here are some of the best advertising screw-ups.
The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la.
Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover until after
thousands
of signs had been printed that the phrase means 'bite the wax
tadpole' or 'female horse stuffed with wax,' depending on the
dialect. Coke then
researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic
equivalent, 'ko-kou-ko-le,' which can be loosely translated as
'happiness in
the mouth.'
In Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan 'Come alive with the
Pepsi Generation' came out as 'Pepsi will bring your ancestors back
from
the dead.'
Also in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan 'finger-lickin'
good' came out as 'eat your fingers off.'
The American slogan for Salem cigarettes, 'Salem - Feeling Free,'
got translated in the Japanese market as 'When smoking Salem, you
feel so
refreshed that your mind seems to be free and empty.'
When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ads were
supposed to say 'It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you.'
However,
the company mistakenly thought the Spanish word 'embarazar' meant
embarrass, and the ads said 'It won't leak in your pocket and make
you
pregnant,' instead.
An American tee-shirt manufacturer in Miami printed shirts for the
Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. But instead of the
desired
'I Saw the Pope' in Spanish, the shirts proclaimed 'I Saw the
Potato.'
In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name
into Schweppes Toilet Water.
The Jolly Green Giant translated into Arabic means 'Intimidating
Green Ogre.'
Bacardi concocted a fruity drink with the name 'Pavian' to suggest
French chic . . . but 'Pavian' means 'baboon' in German.
Clairol introduced the 'Mist Stick,' a curling iron, into Germany
only to find out that mist is slang for manure.
When Gerber first started selling baby food in Africa, they used
the same packaging as in the USA -- jars with pictures of the cute
little baby on
the label. Only later did they learn that in Africa, companies
routinely put pictures on the label that describe what's inside,
since most people can't
read.
And, as America's favorite chicken magnate, Frank Perdue, was fond
of saying, 'It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken.' In
Spanish,
however, his words took on a whole new meaning: 'It takes a
sexually stimulated man to make a chicken affectionate.'
