Great Translation Errors

Cracking an international market is a goal of most growing
corporations. It shouldn't be that hard, yet even the big
multi-nationals run into trouble because of language and
cultural differences. For example...

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

**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."

**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."

**Also 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," got translated in the Japanese market into "When
smoking Salem, you feel so refreshed that your mind seems to
be free and empty."

**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.

**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."

**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."

**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.

**In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated
the name into Schweppes Toilet Water.

**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

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