The following is some real life product marketing\branding humour. Here's a look at how some not so shrewd business people translated their slogans into foreign languages:
When Braniff translated a slogan touting it's upholstery, "Fly in leather," it came out in Spanish as "Fly naked."
Coors put up it's slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer from diarrhea." 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."
When Vicks first introduced it's cough drops on the German market, they were chagrinned to learn that the German pronunciation of "v" is "f"- which in German is the guttural equivalent of "sexual penetration."
Not to be outdone, Puffs tissues tries later to introduce it's product, only to learn that "Puff" in German is a colloquial term for a whore house. The English weren't too fond of the name either, as it's a highly derogatory term for a non-heterosexual.
Toyota MR2 was marketed in France where it is pronounced "emm err deux", which is a near homonym for "emmerde", which means dung (manure). It is now marketed as simply MR.
The Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish speaking countries. "No va" means "it doesn't go" in Spanish.
Ford had a similar problem in Brazil with the Pinto. Pinto was Brazilian slang for "tiny male genitals". Ford renamed the automobile Corcel, meaning "horse".
When Pepsi started marketing it's 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."
Of course 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 meant "Bite the wax tadpole." They later changed to a set of characters that meant "happiness in the mouth."
A hair products company, Clairol, introduced the "Mist Stick", a curling iron, into Germany only to find that mist is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the manure stick.
When Gerber first started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as here in the USA - with the cute baby on the label. Later they found out that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the label of what's inside since most people can't read.
How about a Scandinavian company calling their toilet paper CRAPP in the UK?
UK based machine company introducing a new model of what is referred to in the US as a drill press gave it the UK designation ... "screwing machine."
Here's one from Finland, Canon has a camera called OES. Finns that are in marketing research use "OES" as an acronym for "I cannot say" or "I don't know", in Finnish "en osaa sanoa."
"Irish Mist" Irish whisky marketed in Germany, where "mist" is an alternative word for manure.
Brand confusion: Durex is the best selling brand of condoms in the UK and a popular brand of adhesive tape in Australia. Watch out for confused Aussies in England and vise versa.
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", was translated into the Japanese market as "When smoking Salem, you will feel so refreshed that your mind seems to free and empty".
Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.
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).
In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into "Schweppes Toilet Water".
Hunt-Winston introduced Big John products in French Canada as Gros Jos. Later they found out that in slang it means "big breasts".
When Parker Pen marketed a ball point pen in Mexico, it's ads were supposed to have read, "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you". Instead, the company thought that the word "embarzar" (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: "It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant".
U.S. cosmetics firm Clinique pulls a print ad for it's Elexir perfume after Thailand's government (the foreign ministry) sent a letter of protest to the company complaining the ad was "an insult" to Buddhists. The ad, which ran in Vogue and other U.S. fashion magazines, depicts a snake crawling over the head of an image of the lord Buddha (note: in Thailand, the head is the most revered part of the body). Clinique has reportedly pulled the ad and sent a letter of apology to the Thai ambassador in Washinton, in Which it expressed "shock to hear about the possible negative perceptions that would be put on this picture." Interestingly, the ad campaign ran only in the USA and caused global problems.
