HopefulNikki
Active Member
I found this paper the other day given to me by one of my friends a while back, and when reading through it, I found it just as utterly hilarious as I did the first time. Hope you enjoy it!
Here are some examples of how American businesses have tried to take their slogans into foreign languages:
1. When Braniff airlines translated a slogan touting its upholstery, "Fly in leather," it came out in Spanish as "Fly naked."
2. Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer from diarrhea."
3. 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."
4. When Vicks first introduced its cough drops on the German market, the company was chagrined to learn that the German pronunciation of v is f --which in German is the gutteral equivalent of "sexual penetration." Not to be outdone, Procter & Gamble later tried to introduce its Puffs tissues, 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 nonheterosexual.
5. The Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish-speaking countries. No va means "It doesn't go" in Spanish.
6. 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."
7. When Coca-Cola first shipped to China, they named the product something that when pronounced sounded like "Coca-Cola." The only problem was that the characters used meant "Bite the waxed tadpole." The company later changed to a set of characters that means "Happiness in the mouth."
8. 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.
9. When Gerber first started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the USA--with a cute baby on the label. Later they found out that in Africa, companies routinely put on the label pictures of what's inside, since most people can't read.
Here are some examples of how American businesses have tried to take their slogans into foreign languages:
1. When Braniff airlines translated a slogan touting its upholstery, "Fly in leather," it came out in Spanish as "Fly naked."
2. Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer from diarrhea."
3. 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."
4. When Vicks first introduced its cough drops on the German market, the company was chagrined to learn that the German pronunciation of v is f --which in German is the gutteral equivalent of "sexual penetration." Not to be outdone, Procter & Gamble later tried to introduce its Puffs tissues, 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 nonheterosexual.
5. The Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish-speaking countries. No va means "It doesn't go" in Spanish.
6. 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."
7. When Coca-Cola first shipped to China, they named the product something that when pronounced sounded like "Coca-Cola." The only problem was that the characters used meant "Bite the waxed tadpole." The company later changed to a set of characters that means "Happiness in the mouth."
8. 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.
9. When Gerber first started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the USA--with a cute baby on the label. Later they found out that in Africa, companies routinely put on the label pictures of what's inside, since most people can't read.
