What is Digg?66 Comments
- AudioPhil3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+42Strangely enough, “The Internets” translates to “Freedom Tubes” in Chinese.
- Hidama, on 10/12/2007, -0/+40The Gerber Company made a genuine, albeit hilarious cultural mistake. Warning: Contents contains babies.
- dgritsko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+31#1 and #2 are BS.
Bite the Wax Tadpole:
http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/tadpole.asp
Chevy Nova:
http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp
Don't know about the others... but I wouldn't be surprised if quite a few of them were less than accurate. - Santabot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20Why hello there, are you lactating?
- D3koy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17was in the article and ...wow...mca7 possibly the most confusing comment ever...
- bloqmon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16http://www.engrish.com
-for all your poor asian translation needs. - mumblingmynah, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17Ther gerber baby story is false. Too bad, I like that story.
http://www.snopes.com/business/market/babyfood.asp - Loonacy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Yes I am, how did you know?
- D3koy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Gotta love a top 13 list....too cool for a Top 10, not cool enough for a Top 15...
- norle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Dugg down for inaccuracy. Almost all of these are urban legend and can be (un)verified at snopes.com.
- BevansDesign, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11They forgot the best one...the McDonald's campaign using the slang phrase "I'd Hit That". Which, when translated into real English, basically meant "I wanna ***** a sandwich".
- EXreaction, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1313) 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." - countmandible, on 11/15/2007, -0/+9I think 'Nothing sucks like an electrolux' is marketing genius.
- vitas33, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12"In AD2101, war was beginning...
What happen?
Someone set up us the bomb.
We get signal.
What?
Main screen turn on.
It's you!
How are you gentlemen? All your base are belong to us. You are on the way to destruction.
What you say?
You have no chance to survive make your time. Ha ha ha... "
/Sorry I'm dyslexic - Was that best translation ever? - bryxal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Agreed also i wouldn't be surprised in #12 is just marketing genius
- devindotcom, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Pretty funny, of course you could just go to your local Asian foods market and find 100 products with translations just as bad.
"Bite the wax tadpole," though, that's great. Chinese must be a really freaky language to have 3 things that sound so similar and mean things so different. - TekeeTakShak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I thought the one at the top about the pens was pretty good. How the hell did the Spanish businessmen mess up "embarezar"?! Everyone that's gone through Spanish II knows what it really means ;)
- imjustabill, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I dont care what snopes says, as a previous owner of a 78 Nova, I think the translaton is pretty dead on.
- D3koy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8so long as they know the internet isn't a truck I don't care if it is freedom or french tubes...
- lucask, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Colgate translates to "hang yourself" in varieties of Spanish that use voseo
- ThE0eNiGmA, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8While "no va" would mean "no go", "nova" is a different entity. Do you really think that people can't see the lack of a space? Besides, in that snopes article, the Mexican government had their oil labeled "nova." It is roughly equivalent to the difference between "dismember" and "dis member." Read into that what you will, couldn't think of anything else. In addition, Spanish is full of words where slight changes, such as a mark here or there, can mean create entirely different words.
- dyvbond, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I live in Japan, and pretty much every other English sign is poorly translated, http://www.engrish.com has a bunch of those.
- PathDaemon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6And "It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken" is creepy as is.
- thegsa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5You're Right
It LITERALLY Means "Hang Yourself" - dyvbond, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5http://www.duggmirror.com/offbeat_news/Top_13_Worst_Slogan_Translations_Ever/
http://www.duggmirror.com - Bartboy919, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"Fly Naked"
Awsome - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Another:
http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/tadpole.asp
And another:
http://www.snopes.com/business/market/babyfood.asp
And... well, just go to snopes. - Comatose51, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The bit about Coca Cola in China is off by a little bit. Coca Cola in Chinese literally means able to mouth abe to pleasure, thus means more along the line of it tastes good and brings happiness. Also my Chinese professor was a student of the guy who translate that into Chinese. I believe he's a professor at Columbia, if he's still alive. Apparently Coke only paid him $500 USD to translate what is easily one of the most recognized brands in China and other places with large Chinese communities.
- zonk3r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The Chevy Nova story is false too:
http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp
Makes you wonder about the rest of them... - maduin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2KFC's "Finger licking good" was translated in Chinese as "Eat your fingers off"
- rationalist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"able to mouth abe to pleasure"
Well, at least Abe is getting something out of this discussion. - 4bit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2How did a product called "Nads" not make it on the list.
- bitcloud, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Happiness in the mouth" is still pretty suspect...
- nandorocker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Add to the list Ford's failed attempt to introduce their car Pinto to the Brazilian market (in the 70s, I think). The car never took off, since that word means "penis" in Portuguese.
- Jfp221, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3On the Coca Cola one they actually got it backwards. I just got off a plane from China on Wednesday and right now the coke cans say "kekoukele“. I was wondering the whole time why they didn't say koukekoule because that would sound more correct and now I know.
- rationalist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Amazingly, "Digg" translates to "will believe anything on the Intarnets" in virtually every human language*.
*And several variants of Klingon, too. - alexkorova, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Actually, the word "suck" means both to suck and something bad in Swedish too. That was the point of the slogan."
Ehm, I can't really comprehend what you are meaning here. The word "suck" means sight (as in sight of relief) in Swedish, and "sug" (which is the translation of "suck") doesn't really mean anything bad in Swedish, people just use it the same way you use "suck" in English as a cultural reference. - MStiles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2These would be funnier if most of them were true.
Hit www.snopes.com and see for yourself. Many of them are simply false. - nandorocker, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3No va does translate from Spanish to "won't go," or "doesn't move."
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Geez, digg is becoming the misinformation capitol of the Internet. Just one of the most-commonly referred to, but totally false items in this article is debunked right here on snopes:
http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp - mutatron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Good name for a band, although possibly too reminiscent of "Toad the Wet Sprocket".
- jfkf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1In Spain they don't sell Mitsubishi Pajero because "Pajero" in Spanish is they guy who masturbates a lot.
- olexij, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12-3 years ago a foreign mineral water was very unsuccessful in Ukraine. It was called "Blue water", which means "puke" in Ukrainian.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2'manure' and 'crap'? Who da thunk it???
It also means 'droppings' and 'dung' too! Those crazy krauts and there silly multi-meaning language!!! - tilman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1To make it even better, the German word 'mist' (from Clairol's Mist-Stick) does not only mean manure, but also crap, which is probably the more common translation. See http://dict.leo.org/ende?search=mist
- andreas1999, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If this slogan is true (I doubt it) it was probably used years ago, when "suck" still meant suck in America..
Just checked Wikipedia:
In the 1950s, the company successfully marketed vacuums in the United Kingdom with the slogan "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."[1][2] British consumers took the slogan literally, because "sucks" as a term of disparagement is strictly an Americanism. However, Americans often incorrectly believe that this was a brand blunder.
The slogan has been adapted by minicomputer geeks as "Nothing sucks like a VAX", punning on the UK competitor vacuum brand Vax[3]. - astrotrain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"He no speak Engwish....."
-Benny Hill - BevansDesign, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That was from the US, but their improper use of slang is why I mention it here.
- phrodus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah of course Nova is a mistranslation!
Clearly No Va = Nova
...
...
...
Just like The Rapist = Therapist! And you know how all Americans are afraid of therapy because they are want to avoid rape!
/sarcasm - Nicolay77, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's true.
Another car with a strange brand is the new "Volante".
"Volante" means steering wheel in spanish.
Yeahh the "Steering wheel" car. -
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