What is Digg?82 Comments
- goeatsmsht, on 10/10/2007, -0/+75"Moronland" is right
Chevy Nova - False
http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp
Coke "bite the wax tadpole" - Not quite
http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/tadpole.asp
Gerber Baby Food - Nope
http://www.snopes.com/business/market/babyfood.asp
Just a couple quick ones I noticed. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+35When the Honda Fit was first marketed in Sweden they said
”Honda Fitta – liten utanpå men stor när man kommer in.”
translates to... the Honda Vagina, little outside, but big when you get inside - dbhaley, on 10/10/2007, -1/+31Snopes, is there anything it can't do?
- anaesthetica, on 10/10/2007, -1/+29"Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent 'kokoukole', translating into 'Happiness in the Mouth.'"
Oddly enough, that was my dating slogan for a while. - ButterBuddha, on 10/10/2007, -5/+3313) When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to have read, "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you." The company thought that the word "embarazar" (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: "It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant."
12) Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: "Nothing Sucks like an Electrolux."
11) 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."
10) Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea."
9) Pepsi's "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave" in Chinese.
8) When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the smiling baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the labels of what's inside, since many people can't read.
7) Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.
6) Frank Perdue's chicken slogan, "It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken," was translated into Spanish as "it takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate."
5) When American Airlines wanted to advertise its new leather first class seats in the Mexican market, it translated its "Fly In Leather" campaign literally, which meant "Fly Naked" (vuela en cuero) in Spanish.
4) 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).
3) The Dairy Association's huge success with the campaign "Got Milk?" prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their attention the Spanish translation read "Are You Lactating?"
2) General Motors had a very famous fiasco in trying to market the Nova car in Central and South America. "No va" in Spanish means, "It Doesn't Go".
1) The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Kekoukela", meaning "Bite the Wax Tadpole" or "Female Horse Stuffed with Wax", depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent "kokoukole", translating into "Happiness in the Mouth." - resplence, on 10/10/2007, -0/+25I also found no french porn magazine named Cue :(
- dvsbastard, on 10/10/2007, -1/+21"Top 13 Worst Slogan Translations Ever" translates to "Posting old, inaccurate, forwarded email lists" in Digganese...
- MasterThief117, on 10/10/2007, -0/+17These were preinstalled on the Internet when it first came out.
- Irfit, on 10/10/2007, -3/+19In Chile mitsubichi launched a car model called " mitsubichi pajero". In chilean slang pajero means 1) someone who masturbates often 2) Something slow. Soon after the pajero was renamed to montero.
It was really fun to see mitsubichi pajeros over here. - dotlizard, on 10/10/2007, -1/+16re: electrolux -- whether or not that was a foreign ad is questionable, but (during my brief tenure as an electolux sales person) 'nothing sucks like electrolux' was like, our battle cry. which we thought was quite clever.
look i'm not proud of that. just stating the facts. - TheFBI, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12The 90's are here, they want their chain mails back.
- runep, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12Obligatory xkcd strip: http://xkcd.com/250/
- danlovejoy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11Nevertheless, excellent advice.
- wbeck, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9ah, humorous translations! there was a certain Spanish furniture company who marketed their line, "Notable Furniture" here in america. little did they realize, "no table" means "no hay una mesa" in english!! needless to say, we didn't buy much of their furniture! silly marketers!
- Error601, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9Oh come on, most of those are just old jokes and urban legends.
- demodawid, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8I live in a spanish-speaking country. The brand "Colgate" sells pretty well, even though it means "go hang yourself". Also, mcdonald's translated its "I'm loving it" campaign for the equivalent of "I love it", which doesn't sound nice at all...
- paul2112, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7are you lactating?
- mythicflux, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7It may have been intentional. A slogan which contains a bit of self deprecating humor (if you think of it the right way) can be a good way to get people to remember your brand. Assuming your product doesn't actually suck then it makes it all the more funnier.
- lucask, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6Actually Colgate translates to "hang yourself" in Spanish.
- TheKingOfHell, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Inaccurate, I live in Mexico and the Parker pen slogan is very different. As for the "No va", inaccurate, The word NOVA is pretty common as we call Newfoundland: TERRANOVA. and the American Airlines, that was on purpose and exploited by the marketing campaign, resulting in some really amusing and funny ads.
COLGATE in Argentina does mean hang yourself, we all know that and exploit it.
Buried, or in spanish, muerto y enterrado. - jcastle, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Buried as inaccurate. I worked @ Coors for 3 years, never heard such a story.
- satx, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5It would have been nice to include more of the translations for those of us mouth-breathers who know other languages.
- Tunguska, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Err.... the electrolux slogan was intention.
And it wasn't a translation.
fail. - Bamborzled, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3It was taken down because people (like me) buried it for being a crappy fake photoshopped mockup.
- SamKellett, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Dugg for number 9, I'd definitiely buy Pepsi because of that slogan.
- tejota, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3It does in Argentina and Colombia where the use of the pronoun "vos" is common ... as in "vos ... andá colgate". So lucask is right.
- Kenelm, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3And I've never seen a toohpaste named "Cue" in France either.
- CarlosReyes, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Not really, it's actually "Cuélgate. " Close enough I guess.
- aquadoctorbob, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4I don't blame them. It's a really cool word.
- hmunkey, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4No it doesn't.
- connor0314, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2snopes really likes the word apocryphal
- pseudononymist, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2The pronunciation of Coca-Cola is wrong, it should be ke kou ke le (可口可乐). As for saying that it once sounded like biting the wax tadpole or female horse stuffed with wax is stupid even if it's true, because those characters could sound like a lot of different things if people don't see the way they're written.
- Sornos, on 10/10/2007, -0/+27) Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.
If you speak French, that is particularly funny. For a translation, cue is ass. Would you want to brush your teeth with Colgate Ass? - TheFBI, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2What's wrong with that? I prefer my vaginas that way.
- drphaser, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1it's true and a very funny one. cause pajero is not "someone who masturbates often", its "someone who masturbates A LOT". hahaha
- JEdwardFuck, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1the phonetic equivalent is not "kokoukole" it's "koukekele" = "mouth thirsty happiness"
- mahdaeng, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Both old and inaccurate. Dugg down.
- yoshihama, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I've heard of the "Pepsi Generation", but never "Come Alive with the Pepsi Generation". What I had heard that was similar was GE translating their slogan "We bring good things to life", which came out the other end as "We resurrect your dead loved ones".
- awsaws, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I'm French: (1) I've never heard of a notorious porno mag called "cue" or even "cul" (which would be the correct spelling for "ass")... (2) I've never heard of a toothpaste called "cue"... I think this story is (at least partly) fake.
But yeah, calling your toothpaste "cue" in France would be a bad idea... - Radan, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Well, a Swedish company that makes chain saws somehow managed to translate "Don't stop the chain with your hands or other parts of your body" into "Don't stop the chain with your hands or genitals".
- christkv, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1When they decided that
Austin Powers, the spy who shagged me
was to dirty in Norway, they came up with the translation
Spionen som spermet meg (The Spy Who Ejaculated on Me)
Go figure. - HanSolo69, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I don't know what "Turn It Loose" means in English.
And the Electrolux slogan is pretty clever. - rightmindx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1It's kind of like Engrish, in reverse.
- Kookami, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1They're still labelled as Pajero here in Australia, and reasonably popular too. I laugh.
- Nilsneo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1It was intentional - here is the actual advertising poster: http://commercial-archive.com/node/139238
- Nilsneo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Nothing sucks like an electrolux was actually a real poster in the UK, and the pun was intentional. See the poster here: http://commercial-archive.com/node/139238
- tjrc, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Whenever I see a list like this, I look right away for the Nova and Coke entries. If they have them (with the Coke story being represented as an actual marketing name from Coca-Cola, not some local guy working out phonetics), I can pretty much discard the article.
- 883XL, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1"Ke Le" can mean any brand of coke
- metamethod, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Bimbo Bread
a mexican brand - themastersb, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Who gets the copy cat pepsi? O.o
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