Lost in Translation

  (Source: Exceter University, UK)

Failed advertising campaigns

One of the most compelling reasons to learn any language is so as to avoid the embarrassing translation errors which have afflicted many companies trying to launch their products in new and untested markets. Clairol for example introduced the "Mist Stick", a curling iron, into Germany only to find out that "Mist" is slang for manure. And Rolls Royce had similar problems in marketing their "Silver Mist"!

Of course, such howlers are not such just limited to firms trying to crack the German-speaking market. Here are many more examples of product launches into other languages which got lost in translation.

1. The American Dairy Association's huge success with the campaign "Got Milk?" prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their attention that the Spanish translation read "Are you lactating?".

2. Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose", into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer from Diarrhoea".

3. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux".

4. General Motors are probably still trying to forget the fiasco which ensued when they tried to market the Chevy Nova in Central and South America. "No va" means, of course, in Spanish, "it doesn't go".

5. When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the smiling baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the labels of what's inside, since many people can't read.

6. Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.

7. 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).

8. Pepsi's "Come alive with the Pepsi generation" translated into "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave" in Chinese.

9. The Coca-Cola name in China was first read in China as "Kekoukela", 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 "kokou kole", translating into "Happiness in the mouth".

10. Frank Perdue's chicken slogan, "It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken" was translated into Spanish as "It takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate".

11. When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its 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".

12. When American Airlines wanted to advertise its new leather first class seats in the Mexican market, it translated its "Fly in leather" campaign literally, which meant "Fly naked" (vuela en cuero) in Spanish.