Translation Faux Pas
Across they globe one thing that is always certain is that if a mistake can be made, it probably will be. It a global market it is not always easy to get it right first time, and many companies have to live with their marketing faux pas.
If you’ve come across an interesting faux-pas then why not submit it to our list: info@localizationworks.com
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Africa
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Due to the large amount of people who cannot read in Africa most products have pictures of what is inside printed on the label. Africans where very confused when Gerber the baby food company release their products. It contains a picture of a baby on the label. |
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America
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When Electrolux released its vacuum cleaners in the US, they translated their Scandinavian slogan to “Nothing Sucks Like and Electrolux”. |
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Brazil
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Ford sales of its Pinto car was a disaster in Brazil. Pinto was Brazilian slang for “small male genitals”. They had to completely rebadge all the cars with a new name “Corcel” which means horse. |
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Canada
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Hunt-Wesson when releasing its Big John product range in French Canada named the product Gros Jos – a direct translation of Big John. However the term ‘Gros Jos’ is slang for “Big Breasts” in French Canada. |
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China
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Coca-Cola initially translated their name as Ke-kou-ke-la. Sadly the failed to check that this means “bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse stuffed with wax” depending on the dialect of Chinese. However there was a happy ending as it was re-interpreted as ko-kou-ko-le “happiness in the mouth”. |
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The original translation for the Kentucky Fried Chicken motto “finger lickin good” was badly interpreted as “eat your fingers off”. |
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France
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“Cue” the toothpaste introduced by Colgate to France shared it names with a leading pornographic magazine. |
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Germany
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Clairol “Mist Stick” curling iron failed to excite its German customers. Mist is german slang for Manure!.Irish Mist – a liquer, spotted the same issue and safely renamed its product before launch. |
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Japan
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Panasonic Japan had plans to translate its new web-browser to the worldwide market. It license the “Woody Woodpecker” character for its mascot. However it translation its marketing slogan for the US appeared as “Touch Woody – The Internet Pecker”. The campaign was pulled before released. |
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Mexico
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GM Chevy Nova car failed to make an impact on sales in South America. GM marketing discovered why when they found that “no va” meands “it won’t go” in Mexican. It quickly renamed the cars “Caribe”. |
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Parker Pens Ballpoint original slogan in Mexico was supposed to read “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarass you”. The translation team mistakenly tought “Embarazar” meant embarass and used it incorrectly. The new slogan became “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you Pregnant!“ |
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During the Popes visit to Miami T’Shirts where printed supposedly saying “I saw the Pope”. However the translation read “I saw the potato”.
“Papa” with a capital P means “Pope” wheras
“papa” with a small P means “Potato” |
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American Airlines advertising its new first class seats mistakenly translated its slogan “fly in leather” to “Fly Naked” – Vuela en cuero in Spanish. |
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Coors badly translated its slogan “turn it loose” into Spanish to reveal the interesting “Suffer from diarrohea” |
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Taiwan
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Pepsi’s original slogan of “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” was badly translated to “Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead” |
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