Lost in translation.

[iggy1966]

The American Dairy Association was so successful with its "Got Milk?"
campaign, that it was decided to extend the ads to Mexico. Unfortunately,
the Spanish translation was "Are you lactating?"

Electrolux, a Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer, used this ad in the U.S.:
"Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."

Colgate introduced a toothpaste called "Cue" in France, but it turned out to
be the same name as a well-known porno magazine.

When Braniff translated a slogan touting its upholstery, "Fly in leather,"
it came out in Spanish as "Fly naked."

Coors put its 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."

Bacardi concocted a fruity drink with the name "Pavian" to suggest French
chic...but "pavian" means "baboon" in German.

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.

When Kentucky Fried Chicken entered the Chinese market, to their horror they
discovered that their slogan "finger lickin' good" came out as "eat your
fingers off"

When Vicks first introduce its cough drops on the German market, they were
chagrined to learn that the German pronunciation of "v" is f - which in
German is the guttural equivalent of "sexual penetration."

Parker Pens translated the slogan for its ink, "Avoid Embarrassment - Use
Quink" into Spanish as "Evite Embarazos - Use Quink"...which also means,
"Avoid Pregnancy - Use Quink."

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."

In Italy, a campaign for "Schweppes Tonic Water" translated the name into
the much less thirst quenching "Schweppes Toilet Water."

Chinese translation proved difficult for Coke, which took two tries to get
it right. They first tried Ke-kou-ke-la because when pronounced it sounded
roughly like Coca-Cola. It wasn't until after thousands of signs had been
printed that they discovered that the phrase means "bite the wax tadpole" or
"female horse stuffed with wax," depending on the dialect. Second time
around things worked out much better. After researching 40,000 Chinese
characters, Coke came up with "ko-kou-ko-le" which translates roughly to the
much more appropriate "happiness in the mouth."

Not to be outdone, Puffs tissues tried later to introduce its product, 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 non-heterosexual.

The Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish speaking countries. "No va" means
"it doesn't go" in Spanish.

Ford introduced the Pinto in Brazil. After watching sales go nowhere, the
company learned that "Pinto" is Brazilian slang for "tiny male genitals."
Ford pried the nameplates off all of the cars and substituted them with
"Corcel" which means horse.

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.

In the French part of Canada, Hunt-Wesson introduced its "Big John" products
as "Gros Jos." It later found out that the phrase is slang for "big
breasts."