Fun with Languages
Interesting Commercial Sayings
Coca-Cola
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."
Pepsi
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."
K.F.C.
Also in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan
"finger-lickin' good" came out as "eat your fingers off."
Salem Cigarettes
The American slogan for Salem cigarettes, "Salem - Feeling
Free," got translated in the Japanese market into "When smoking
Salem, you feel so refreshed that your mind seems to be free and
empty."
Cars
When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South
America, it was apparently unaware that "no va" means "it
won't go." After the company figured out why it wasn't
selling any cars, it renamed the car in its Spanish markets
to the Caribe.
Ford had a similar problem in Brazil when the Pinto
flopped. The company found out that Pinto was Brazilian slang for
"tiny male genitals". Ford pried all the nameplates off
and substituted Corcel, which means horse.
Parker Pen
When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint 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. Instead the
ads said that "It wont leak in your pocket and make you pregnant."
T-Shirt Sales Fell
An American t-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the
Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead
of the desired "I Saw the Pope" in Spanish, the shirts
proclaimed "I Saw the Potato."
Tender Chicken
Chicken-man Frank Perdue's slogan, "It takes a tough man
to make a tender chicken," got terribly mangled in another
Spanish translation. A photo of Perdue with one of his birds
appeared on billboards all over Mexico with a caption that
explained "It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused."
Sales Improve...
- Hunt-Wesson introduced its Big John products in French
Canada as Gros Jos before finding out that the phrase, in
slang, means "big breasts." In this case, however, the
name problem did not have a noticeable effect on sales.
- Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the
name of a notorious porno mag.
Don't Drink this stuff
In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated
the name into Schweppes Toilet Water.
Where do I sign up
Japan's second-largest tourist agency was mystified when
it entered English-speaking markets and began receiving
requests for unusual sex tours. Upon finding out why,
the owners of Kinki Nippon Tourist Company changed its name.
Now I understand
In an effort to boost orange juice sales in predominantly
continental breakfast eating England, a campaign was
devised to extoll the drink's eye-opening, pick-me-up
qualities. Hence the slogan, "Orange juice. It gets your
pecker up."
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