Marketing Translation Mistakes

People forward translation and cultural mistakes to me, and I
love them. I hope you enjoy these as well.
Often I receive the same ones
over and over. Please only send me ones that are not listed here. (Please search
this page first.) Also if possible, please provide a reference with your
submission. I try to research and confirm these before posting.

Also, take these with a grain of salt...They may be contrived and not
true, or if true, unrecognizably transformed.

The site About
Spanish Language indicates many of these are patently untrue. Snopes, and
other urban legends sites also have articles on some of these items. I suspect
reality lies somewhere in between total truth and total falsehood.

Acknowledgements: Some of the original sources are credited
here.

Tex "I am a jelly doughnut" Texin
Copyright © 1999-2006
Tex Texin. All rights reserved.
Do not copy this page!

Also see: Product Instructions Snafus,
Hotel
Signs,    Odd
Signs,    Newspaper Headlines

But why bother with apocryphal stories, when you can read absolutely true
ones? See:
True
Incidents and Japanese For "That Poor
Woman".

Content and
Product Globalization

Translations That (Allegedly) Embarassed Their Marketing Departments

Body Bags    2006-03-05
Almost as good as the
confusion among English speakers over the term Fanny
Pack, is the humor raised by the German equivalent for knapsack.
Companies often use or "borrow" words from other languages to give their
product names a certain cachet. Sometimes their choices are a bit odd.
German makers of knapsacks refer to them as "Body Bags".
Vielen
Danke to Marc Tobias for this item.

CBS 60 Minutes    New! 2006-02-25
I use an
interpreter from time to time, so I know how difficult the job is. The
following Translator Mistake is reported on October 6, 2000 on the
CBS News Web Site among other places. Look for the side
bar on "Lost In Translation". (Which has not got to be one
of the most overused, unclever, cliche headings in the past few years.
Strike it from the language along with "without further ado".)

60 Minutes' Mike Wallace, known for his tough interviewing
style, drew a sharp rebute from Boris Yeltsin - thanks to a
translator's error. The confusion arose when Wallace asked Yeltsin
if he had a "thin skin" when it came to public criticism, but the
translation had Wallace describing Yeltsin as a "thick-skinned
hippopotamus."

Yeltsin was not amused.

"An experienced journalist like yourself," Yeltsin said, "should
express himself in a more civilized fashion. But this may be the
translator's fault, and if so, he is the hippopotamus!"
Thanks to
KKWolf

Orange    New! 2006-02-16
During its 1994 launch
campaign, the telecom company Orange had to change its ads
in Northern Ireland. "The
future's bright … the future's Orange." That campaign is an
advertising legend. However, in the North the term Orange suggests the
Orange Order. The
implied message that the future is bright, the future is Protestant,
loyalist... didn't sit well with the Catholic Irish population.

Thanks to Janet O'Sullivan

GPT    New! 2006-02-18
In 1988, the General
Electric Company (GEC) and Plessey combined to create a new
telecommunications giant. A brand name was desired that evoked technology
and innovation. The winning proposal was GPT for GEC-Plessey
Telecommunications. A not very innovative name and not suggestive of
technology and a total disaster for European branding. GPT is pronounced
in French as “J’ai pété” or “I've farted”.
Thanks to Jem
Shaw!

Life Fitness     New! 2006-01-24

Life Fitness is a maker of exercise equipment, bikes, ski machines
etc. Their logo made me laugh. I was walking around the exercise room to
stretch my legs after some strenuous biking when I first noticed it. At
first I thought it said “4F”. Now, for those of you that don't
know, the American military, when there was a draft, had a rating for
recruits. If you were “1A”, you were healthy and fit for duty. “4F”
is the code for those that are physically unfit and unacceptable to the
army. So “4F” was a rather inappropriate logo for a health fitness
machine. It took me about a minute to realize it wasn't “4F”, but “LF” the
initials for LifeFitness.

Waterpik     2004-12-24
Waterpik uses
another name in Denmark. "Pik" is the common Danish word for male
genitals. Most Danes can easily translate "water" to the danish word
"vand". And "vandpik" is a term for the morning erection.

"And you put that thing in your mouth?!?!"
Thanks to Jørgen
Lykkebo!

PepsiCo India     2004-10-06
I was visiting Bangalore, India when the local news (for
example, rediff india) was widely reporting the legal
consequences of a marketing mistake by Pepsi. Pepsi is being sued in a
Hyderabad, India city court in a public interest litigation for glorifying
child labor in a television ad. In the ad, the Indian cricket team is in a
celebratory huddle when a young boy serves them Pepsi.

Binney & Smith Crayola    2004-11-06

Crayola has changed color names over time due to the civil rights movement
and other social pressures. In 1962, Binney & Smith replaced
flesh with peach, in recognition of the wide variety of skin
tones. More recently, in 1999, they changed indian red to
chestnut. The color was not named after Native Americans, it was
actually named for a special pigment that came from India. But school
children often assumed the incorrect origin of the name. There are many
sites listing the history of Crayola colors, including Crayola's own history page.

Financial Asia Times    2004-05-13
Nick Lord
writes a story for Finance Asia: "Rudi Pecker taking the head job and top
slot at Misys". Do you think Nick or the editors at Finance Asia
might have had an idea about the double entendre? If the article link goes
away, you can read about Mr.
Pecker's rise up, here.
Thanks to Carlos Silva!

Panasonic     2004-05-13

According to the EE Times, October 8, 1996 (and numerous web
sites), Matsushita Electric was promoting a Japanese PC for
internet users. It came with a Japanese Web browser courtesy of
Panasonic. Panasonic had licensed the cartoon character "Woody
Woodpecker" as the "Internet guide."

The day before a huge
marketing campaign was to begin, Panasonic stopped the product launch. The
reason: the ads featured the slogan "Touch Woody - The Internet
Pecker." An American at the internal product launch explained to the
stunned and embarrassed Japanese what "touch woody" and
"pecker" meant in American slang.
Thanks to A. Vine for
pointing me at this!

Port Wallhamn    2004-05-08
Port Wallhamn is
a Swedish
port. The companies that surround it used to give their employees ties
with the logo "W" and an anchor. The combination forms a very nice rebus
for Wanker, much to the chagrin of the British workers who had to
wear it.
Thanks to Hendrik Demol!
If someone has a tie and could
send me a photo of it, that would be much appreciated!

Gerber    2004-05-08
Gerber, the name of the
famous baby food maker, is also the French word for vomiting. It
becomes a bit limiting when you go global... Gerber is therefore not in
France, and although Gerber has a French Canadian web page, it says "Les
aliments pour bébés Gerber ne sont disponibles pour l'instant qu'aux
États-Unis" (French for: The baby food ain't here, try the U.S.)

Thanks to Hendrik Demol!

Bastard or Baathist?    2004-04-03
The newspaper The Australian
had to apologize for changing a Senator's use of "Baathist" to
"Bastard".

A story headlined 'Syria seeks our help to woo US' in
Saturday's Weekend Australian misquoted National Party senator Sandy
Macdonald. The quote stated: "Syria is a country that has been a
bastard state for nearly 40 years" but should have read "Syria is a
country that has been a Baathist state for nearly 40 years."

The Australian's editorial staff then drowned their sorrows at the
local pub with several "Suffering Baathists".

My thanks to Rick C for his pointer to Samizdata's blog report for this item.

Latte Anyone?    2004-03-16

Latte means milk in Italy. In English, Latte is a
coffee-drink. Many folks like to head to Starbucks or other coffee shops
to take early morning latte breaks...

In Germany, Latte is a well known word for an erection. So,
"morning latte" is when you wake up in the morning with an
erection! The word "break" means "destroy", so taking that "morning
latte break" is destroying that erection. I'll leave the details to
your imagination, as well as all the puns on how you take your steaming
hot drink.

This item is thanks to Jochen Gumpert, a standup guy! Apparently,
Germans are amused at American morning television shows called "Morning
Latte" and book's like the popular Amanda Hesser's book "Cooking for Mr. Latte"!

Yellow Transportation    2004-3-8
Some will think it a mistake. I think it's brilliant. The logo
for Yellow Transportation says the name "Yellow" in bold black letters on
hey, wait-a-second... that's not yellow! Right it is orange. And orange is
all over their trucks, collateral, etc. It's good marketing that stops and
makes you take a second look or makes you wonder. Apparently they named the company Yellow, and later sought out the safest
color for their trucks. Collaborating with Dupont they came up with
"Swamp Holly Orange".
OK, it doesn't take an Einstein to figure out you don't want to rename the
company Swamp anything. Nevertheless, I like their commitment to
safety while maintaining their identity and having a cool marketing
strategy, which goes back to the 1930's.

Oh, you wanted mistakes.
See the next item.

IKEA FARTFULL    2004-3-8

IKEA sells this workbench as the FARTFULL. Although IKEA's web page says FARTFULL is not for sale on the
web, I still enjoy recommending it as the perfect gift suggestion for
various people.

Swedish is a Germanic language, and "Fährt" is German for travel, so I am
sure "fartfull" is being used here to suggest mobility, given the
desk's wheels and design. Swedish has several words for fart, but one of
them is "Fjärt", which
strikes me as close enough that their marketing department knew what it
was doing. If even bad press is good public relations, then this is a case
of allowing an ill wind to blow some good.

Ford Pinto, Ford Corcel    Updated! 2004-1-12
Everyone, get out your web erasers!
This popular story is debunked.
Marcelo de Castro Bastos
informs us (and confirmed elsewhere):
Ford Pinto (under any
name) wasn't ever sold in Brazil, except maybe as a low-volume import. The
Ford Corcel was a totally unrelated product, the result of a joint
project by the Brazilian subsidiary of Willys Overland and French
automaker Renault (Willys used to make Renault cars, like the
Dauphine and Gordini, under license in Brazil.) When Ford
acquired Willys's Brazilian operation, they inherited the almost-finished
project and decided to launch it under their own brand. They MAY have
considered to use the "Pinto" brand on it, but saner heads prevailed and
decided on the "Corcel" name in order to keep to the "horse" theme Ford
seemed to like at the time. The "Pinto" name was never used in Brazil.

"Corcel" was a huge success, and remained in production for
more than a decade, spawning a station wagon version called
"Belina", a second-generation "Corcel II", a luxury version
called "Del Rey" and a light pick-up version called "Pampa".
In the early eighties, almost the entire production of Ford Brazil's
automobile division was comprised of Corcel-related vehicles.

DEBUNKED!
Ford's Pinto didn't do well in Brazil.
Pinto is Brazilian slang for "male genitals". Ford renamed
the car the Corcel, which means horse or steed.

Note 1: If it were my translation marketing department I would have
renamed the car "Dear God, I hope my gas tank doesn't
explode!"
Note 2: "Pinto" is reported all over the web, along
with this story, as meaning "tiny male genitals" or a "man with small
genitals". According to Luiz Pryzant, it just refers to "male genitals".

SEPR Ersol    2004-1-11
Bill Leahy sends this gem:
Saint-Gobain is a large French glass and ceramics company. Their
subsidiary, SEPR, invented a material used in the bottom of
furnaces that melt glass. The product was named "Ersol" which comes
from "Electro Refractaire Sol".
Sol is the French word for bottom (of
the furnace). Electro Refractaire refers to it being refractory (resists
softening at high temperature) and so is made by electrically melting it.
A sensible name, until they introduced the product into the United
Kingdom.
Ersol sounds too close to arsehole!
However, when alerted to the language problem the company decided not to
change it.

Combine the name with the product's bottom position,
and you can see why some product descriptions might read inappropriate to
the British:
"contraction which occur during the solidification
process must be carefully controlled, as it affects the homogeneity of the
piece, the volume and location of the shrinkage cavity, and the residual
stress."

That said, I noted several companies named Ersol
on the web.

Aussie Nads    2004-1-10
Boxes labeled Aussie
Nads caught my attention in the local Walgreens. In my limited
vocabulary "Aussie" means Australian and "Nads" is colloquial for
gonads, in particular testicles. So my first thought was that the box
contained the international version of "Rocky Mountain Oysters" or
"Prairie Oysters". (Here are some testicle recipes.) But I wasn't in the food aisle.

My second thought was that these were replacement parts... After
all, I get an e-mail every 15 minutes offering me either viagara or organ
extensions, so it's not such an unreasonable conclusion. But the idea that
some very macho Australians, no doubt from the Outback, decided
they were man enough to sell one of their parts and still have enough left
over to make out ok (pun intended) was implausible. Closer
inspection of the box reveals that Aussie Nads is a hair removal product.
Another
well-named product is "Nad's for Men" and don't forget to order
"Nad's Wand" the "facial applicator wand". Seems like they
are penetrating many new markets and so very soon they will be in a store
barely a stone's throw away from you.

Glen Thomas points out that
there is a well-known greyhound named "nads" in Australia, frequently
spurred on by the crowd yelling "Go Nads".

Intimidate Dating Service    2004-1-10
Israeli
radio and press ran ads for the Intimidate Dating Service. Now you
might think that Intimidate tries to match up sadists with masochists.
However, Hagit Rozanes informs us that "Intimi" is the Hebrew word
for intimate. (Hmmm. Better hope your date speaks Hebrew or you are
in for a rough night...)

Liebfraumilch Wine    2004-1-10

Several people wrote me about Germany's most exported wine:
Liebfraumilch. "Lieb" means "dear" or "beloved" sometimes a
reference to "God" or "holy". "Frau" is "woman", and "Milch" is "milk".
Hence "beloved woman's milk", also translated as "Milk of the
Virgin" or "Milk of Our Lady". E-mails also offered
translations of "women love milk", and "loves woman milk".

The
name comes from its origins in about the 16th century in the vineyards of
the Liebfrauenkirche ("Church of Our Lady") in Worms, Germany. (Worms
Wine would also have been a Marketing Mistake!) (Read more in
the Food Dictionary.)

It would probably be a
Marketing Mistake for Liebfraumilch to produce a variation of the
Got Milk? ads with
paintings of a woman's breast and the milk mustache on it, next to their
wine bottle. (Maybe pencil in a mustache in this El Greco...)

Götzen    2004-1-10
The european hardware store
chain "Götzen" opened a mall in Istanbul. "Göt" means "ass"
in Turkish. They changed the name to "Tekzen".
Thanks to Hakan
Turan!

Wang Cares    2004-1-10
In the late '70s, the
American computer company Wang was puzzled why its British branch refused
to use its latest motto "Wang Cares". However, to British ears the
motto sounds too close to "wankers". (masturbaters)
Thanks to
Malcolm Howlett!

Opel Ascona    2004-1-10
General motors made a car
named "Opel Ascona". This model sold poorly in Galicia, the
northwestern region of Spain. In the galician and also portuguese
languages, the term is similar to the term for female genitalia.

Thanks to Anjo.

Inferno Undertaker    2004-1-4
The 1990's saw the
emergence of private-owned companies and the re-introduction of
cremation in Estonia.
Kai Redone reports that during
that period an undertaker in Tallinn, Estonia named itself Inferno,
causing several raised eyebrows.

I didn't see the problem right away. I thought inferno's meaning is "a very intense and uncontrolled
fire" or conflagration. However, although that is one sense for the
word, inferno's major usage is "hell", "purgatory" or
"perdition".

I can imagine the advertisement for Inferno:
"I am sorry about the loss
of your loved one. Where is the funeral, so I can say goodbye to
him?"
"He's going to burn in the
Inferno!"

Mitsubishi Starion    2003-12-30
Andrew Harris of
Australia writes: "Mitsubishi had a very successful small car
called the Colt. They brought out a slightly larger model, but right up to
the last minute, couldn't decide on a name for it. The people here were in
a last minute conference call to the Japanese execs trying to make a
decision when the final word came through that 'Stallion' would be
a suitable 'horsey' name to follow Colt. Trouble was, the name wasn't
written, but spoken with a thick Japanese accent and the Aussie end were
mystified, but duly wrote down 'Starion'. By the time the mistake
was realised the badging and ads had been started and it was too late to
stop it."

It's a great story and Snopes categorizes it as a definite maybe. With so many
car names on this page, you have to wonder if these marketing mistakes
aren't intentional, owing to the theory that even bad press is allegedly
good marketing...

I like that Andrew's version attributes the choice of the name to
Mitsubishi's "Aussie" management. Many of the reports I receive have a
local or localized coloring. The car is of course sold internationally and
othe reports (such as in Snopes) attribute the problem due to American
(mis-)management. There is probably a U.K. version as well...

Nintendo Donkey Kong    2003-12-30
Snopes (and Nintendo) refutes the notion that
Nintendo Donkey Kong was originally to be known as Monkey
Kong, or that either a smudged fax or a typographic error resulted in
the product's actual name.

Yamaha Electric Grand Keyboard
2003-12-27
Yamaha had a mistranslation in their assembly
instructions for their Electric Grand Keyboard, circa 1993. They
should have written "screw" and ended up instead with instructions for the
over-21 crowd. (And for consistency, it should have been called a Grand
Organ...)

Irish Mist Liqueur    2003-12-27
Bad translations
using the word "Mist" in Germany keep coming my way. (See Mist Stick and
Silver Mist.)

D. Fleming reported that Irish Mist didn't do well in Germany
either. Other sources claimed it was marketed with the semi-Germanized
Irischer Mist, which would translate back to English as Irish
dung. (Babelfish translated it kindly as "Irish muck".) (German Customs should just turn "Mist" products back at the
border!)

Toaplan Zero Wing "All your base are belong to us"
2003-12-24
Toaplan was a video game maker that had a terrible,
Japanese-to-English translation of the intro to their Zero Wing
game, with great lines like: "Somebody set up us the
bomb." Although the company went out of business, the translation
and in particular the line "All your base are belong to
us" became a phenomenon crossing from the net into popular culture.
Hey, if you are gonna blow it, blow it big! A web search will find plenty
of hilarious web pages featuring the line. Here is a history page and an informative news item.

Traficante Mineral Water
2003-12-23
Traficante is an Italian brand of mineral water. In
Spanish, it means drug dealer.

Volkswagen Jetta    2003-12-20
Volkswagen
named the sedan version of Golf the Jetta. However, the
letter "J" doesn't exist in the Italian alphabet, so Jetta is
pronounced "Ietta", which means Misfortune...
Thanks to Alberto
Malin.

Omanko writes: It's true... the letter J don't exist in the Italian
alphabet but it is in use a long time. (e.g. There is also an old city
called Jesi and Italian names like Jacopo...). The word
ietta don't exist in Italian but Jella exists (yes, you
write it with the letter J!) and there are two or three words derived from
this one, e.g. jettatore/iettatore (evil-eyed man) or
jettatura/iettatura (bad luck). In neapolitan dialect Jetta
means throw, throw away!!!
Jetta has good sales in Italy.

2003-12-23 OK, I received a few confusing if not conflicting mails on
this, so I spoke with New England's Italian language translation expert,
Laura Bergamini:
'The answer from Omanko is correct. Jetta by
itself does not mean anything, nor is it associated with "bad luck" as
"jella" is. It is part of words like "jettatore".

'Additionally, ever since it was introduced, the car
was marketed with the English pronunciation of "J" so it IS called
"jay-tta" by the Italian audience.'
OK The word Jetta is
meaningless in Italian, and sales are good. Score one for VW Marketing. I
would like to say case closed, but in fairness to Alberto and the others
that wrote me that "Jettas were bad luck", translationally speaking, there
can be regional or dialectical differences, and so it may be more true in
some Italian-speaking areas. Also, as with all the entries here, I check
for other sources before posting, and did find some other mentions of it.
So perhaps it is an urban legend or a case of "You say Jetta, I say
Ietta".

OK, More mail from Italy. Francesco V. of Calabria writes
that Jetta does mean "throw away", not only in Neapolitan dialect, but in
southern Italy. Grazie Molto!

Hoover Zyklon, Umbro Zyklon, Siemens Zyklon
2003-12-20

Hoover, maker of vacuum cleaners, sells a model on the European
market, including Germany, called the Zyklon. Zyklon is the German
word for Cyclone, so it is a seemingly sensible choice for a powerful
vacuum. However, Zyklon B is the lethal gas used by Nazis in
concentration camps. I would think that the name would draw protests, but
I see German web sites currently selling the vacuums for less than 200
euro. Perhaps, if readers are aware of either protests or reasons that it
is not considered offensive, they will e-mail me.

Meanwhile, CNN.com reported on August 28, 2002, that British shoe
maker Umbro received many protests for its running shoe the Zyklon.
Umbro apologized and renamed it. Apparently, the shoe had been named the
Zyklon since 1999, but they had not written the name on the shoe until
recently.

A week later, BBC News reported that Bosch Siemens Hausgeraete
(BSH) was withdrawing its trademark application for the name Zyklon.
BSH had filed two applications with the US Patent & Trademark Office
for "Zyklon" across a range of home products, including gas
ovens.

Reed Business News    2003-12-20
A few years back
Reed Business News relaunched itself with the branding: "If it's news to you, it's news to us.".
It was
replaced after a couple of days...

Thanks to Adam Rutherford.

Hong Kong Tourist Board     2003-12-20
According to
TravelBiz.com.au
in April, 2003 the Hong Kong Tourist Board tried to either pull
their ads or have their slogan changed. But it was too late to change the
campaign that was on billboards throughout Hong Kong and in British
versions of Cosmopolitan and Conde Nast Traveller.

The slogan that was running "Hong Kong: It will take
your breath away." unfortunately coincided with the SARS epidemic
that resulted in numerous deaths. Shortness of breath is one of the main
symptoms of SARS.

(OK, I know it is not a
translation mistake, just bad timing, but it caught my attention
anyway.)

Sharwoods    2003-11-18
MediaGuardian.co.uk reports: Sharwoods £6m
campaign to launch its new Bundh sauces received calls immediately from
numerous Punjabi speakers. "bundh" sounds like the Punjai word for "arse".

Sharwoods has no intention of changing it. "We hope that once they
understand the derivation of the Bundh sauce range and taste the delicious
meals they can produce, they will agree that it is miles apart from the
Punjabi word that is similar but spelled and pronounced differently (with
a long "u")."

Thanks to Paul Kerins for this.

Peanut Chocolate Bars
Anyone know the name of the peanut-packed
chocolate bar that lost out in the Japanese market because many Asians
believe peanuts and chocolate cause nosebleeds?
Both peanuts and
chocolate (actually caffeine) cause allergic reactions. I didn't find
reports on the web of their causing nosebleeds specifically, but I did
find pages where individuals are avoiding them to prevent nosebleeds.
Also, asian diets are very different from western diets and so tolerances
differ.

General Motors Buick LaCrosse    2003-10-22
Reuters
reports: General Motors Corp. will rename its Buick LaCrosse
in Canada because the name for the car is slang for masturbation in
Quebec, embarrassed officials with the U.S. automaker said on Thursday. GM
officials, who declined to be named, said it had been unaware that
LaCrosse was a term for self-gratification among teenagers in
French-speaking Quebec.

GM officials in Canada are working on a
new name for the car...

Pizza Hut P'Zone     2003-06-23
Pizza Hut is
advertising their new dish, a calzone they named the P'Zone. It is
pronounced like "pezón", the Spanish word
for "nipple". Susana says the Pizza Hut PR dept. in Texas told her they
knew about this before launching the campaign.
Maybe we shouldn't file
this under mistakes then, and instead put it under interesting marketing
strategies!
Muchas gracias to Susana C. Schultz
of Strictly
Spanish for this report!

Honda Fitta/Jazz/Fit     2003-04-06
Car maker Honda
introduced their new car "Fitta" in the Nordic countries during
2001, only to find out that "fitta" is an old word, currently used in
vulgar language to refer to a woman's genitals in Swedish, Norwegian and
Danish. It was renamed to "Honda Jazz" for the Nordic market.

According to newspaper articles, Japanese ads said that "[Fitta] is
small on the outside, but large on the inside". It's now called the Honda
Fit in Japanese markets.
My thanks to Peter Karlsson for this report!

SEGA     2003-04-05
In Italy "sega" is the
unofficial but most popular name for the act of male masturbation. So, the
popular videogame makers SEGA Enterprises, attempting to disassociate SEGA
from sega, changed the pronunciation to "see-ga" in their ads, as if to
educate Italians about proper English (or Japanese?) pronunciation.

Many Italians are surprised to learn that SEGA is not pronounced
see-ga, but say-ga, outside of Italy.
Also alleged, is that when the
SEGA-sponsored Arsenal Gunners soccer team was to play the Italian
Fiorentina team for the Championship (circa 1999), the Arsenals argued to
play the game in the U.K.   Apparently, their away flag displays
the sponsor prominently and it might inspire, er I mean offend the Italian
TV audience.

American or Braniff Airlines
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!

Some
reports say it was Braniff not American. About Spanish Language (part 2) says 'The idiom for
"buck naked" is "en cueros", not "en cuero". Even a beginning translator
would realize that a word play such as "in leather" might not work in a
literal translation.'

Interestingly, Castaways Travel
of Spring, Texas thought flying naked was a good idea. See these articles:
Houston Business Journal: Inaugural flight makes nudes
headlines and errtravel.com: Berrly Flying

American Motors Matador
The Matador did not do well in
Puerto Rico where "matador" has the connotation of "killer".
(Bull-fighting was abolished on the island more than 100 years ago, when
the U.S. took control of Puerto Rico.)

Bacardi Pavane/Pavian
Popular story these days is that
Bacardi marketed a drink called either Pavane, which sounds like
Pavian, or it marketed a drink called Pavian. The latter sounds plausible,
if they wanted to go after the healthy, aristocratic, pure water drinkers,
as it sounds like the brand "Evian". Either name would have given the
fruity drink a French mystique. The claim is the Bacardi drink doesn't do
well in Germany where "Der Pavian" means "the Baboon" auf Deutsch...

Chevy Nova, Vauxhall Nova, Opel Corsa     Updated
2004-01-19
When General Motors introduced the Chevrolet (aka 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.

This one is untrue. For more background on this, see:
About Spanish Language (part 1),
http://www.urbanlegends.com/products/chevy_nova_mexico.html,

http://www.tafkac.org/products/chevy_nova_mexico.html,
and
http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.htm.

Steven Marzuola wrote me: "I grew up in Venezuela, and there were
Novas all over the place. I have also learned that it did rather well in
Mexico. It was not offered in many other countries, for a variety of
reasons, but none of them having to do with the name."

Steve
Checkley informs me that in mainland Europe, the GM car known as the
Vauxhall Nova in the United Kingdom, is known as the Opel
Corsa. This is true as I have confirmed it elsewhere. The European
Novas were launched in 1983. However, the American version ran from 1961
(starting with the 1962 model) through to 1979. The pictures that I have
seen of the European Novas don't look like the American Novas. There may
have been some similarities under the covers of course. But I think the
cars were different generations and probably only related by name. Here is
a history of the American Nova and a history of the Vauxhall Nova 1983-1993

For
related items, see Vauxhall Nova
and Noah's Chevy Nova

Clairol Mist Stick
Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick", a
curling iron, into German only to find out that "mist" is slang for
manure. Not too many people had use for the "manure stick".

Actually, this is not quite right and confuses the curling iron story
with the Rolls
Royce Siver Mist example. The German word “Miststück” (pronounced
similarly to Mist Stick) is how you might call a woman a bitch or slut.

(And now you know what to get your ex-wife for Christmas!)
Thanks
to Peter Hofer for correcting this.

Coca-Cola Fresca
In Mexico, Fresca is a term for
Lesbian. Jokes abound, but sales weren't hurt. (Despite what you
read elsewhere on the web.) There are many fruit drinks named Agua
Fresca (fresh water).

Coca-Cola, Ke-ke-ken-la, Ko-kou-ko-le
The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as
Ke-ke-ken-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."
For more
background on Coke in China, see:  Snopes.com or www.kekoukele.org/kekoukele.htm.

Colgate Cue
Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called
Cue, the name of a notorious porno mag.

I have
received several mails saying that they don't know of a French magazine
named Cue. This story goes back to the early '90s so Cue might have
existed and gone out of business since then. Others have written that they
do know of a magazine named Cul, which is pronounced like cue (e.g.
"kyu").
Personally, I don't give this story much credence. However,
from the mails I get, a lot of people are out searching for this magazine.
If anyone wants to join me in publishing a French porn magazine named Cue,
there is a ready market for it!

Coors
Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose" into Spanish,
where it was read as "Suffer from diarrhea".

Electrolux Vacuum
The Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux
tried to sell its goods in America but didn't help itself with this
slogan, "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."

Ford Comet, Ford Caliente
Ford's Comet, was called
"Caliente" in Mexico. "Caliente" literally means "hot" (as in
temperature), but colloquially it is also used for either "horny" or
"prostitute".

Ford Cortina
Ford's Cortina is translated as "jalopy".

Ford Fiera
Ford's Fiera doesn't do well with
Spanish-speaking Latin-Americans, since "fiera" means "ugly old
woman".

Gerber Baby Food
When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa,
they used the same packaging as in the US, with the beautiful Caucasian
baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely
put pictures on the label of what's inside, since most people can't read.

Snopes dismisses the African baby food story as an
example of "cultural prejudice". I am a big fan of Snopes, but in this
case I am a little disappointed. I don't mind if the story is totally
false and completely fabricated, but it would be nice if Snopes offered
some evidence such as interviews with someone(s) from Africa, or perhaps a
statement from Gerber or other companies selling baby food in Africa, that
they continue to market the product with baby pictures on the label. Hmm.
OK I'll write to Gerber and see if I can get a statement from them and
post the result back here.

Hyundai Pony
Richard Seamon reports: Hyundai had problems
with the Hyundai Pony. In Cockney rhyming slang, "Pony" is short for "pony
and trap", meaning crap. It didn't deter Hyundai, they still marketed it
in the UK (circa 1982). (Mentioned in Independent.co.uk.)

Hunt-Wesson Big John, Gros Jos
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.

International Wine Glass Symbol
Stevadores in an unnamed African
port, seeing the international --but evidently not universal!-- symbol for
'fragile' (a wine glass with snapped stem) presumed it meant that
some idiot had sent a cargo of broken glass. So they obligingly pitched
all the cases overboard into the harbour!
(As reported some years
ago in Print, the journal for graphic design, and submitted by Margaret
Tarbet.)

Kentucky Fried Chicken, KFC
Also in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried
Chicken slogan "finger-lickin' good" came out as "eat your
fingers off."

Kinki Nippon Tourist Agency
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.

Locum
Locum is a
Swedish company. In 1991, they sent Christmas
cards to all of their customers. They thought they would give their
logo a little holiday spirit, by substituting a little heart for the
letter "o". For some reason, they also used all lowercase letters. The
lowercase "L" can therefore be easily misunderstood to be an "i", and the
locum logo looked like one of those "I love ..." bumper stickers, with an
unfortunate pornographic sentiment to it.
Thanks to Johan Inganni
(Sweden) for this entry.

John Severinson writes on 2003-11-16:
"Actually, it was a paper
ad in the largest papers. The image you've got there is a scan from DN
(www.dn.se), one of them. And, it was in 2001.

Locum shortly afterwards claimed 'they had no idea the ad would send
such a message but appreciates that the brand Locum is associated with
love and caring'."

Mazda Laputa, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Laputa (1819)
Mazda's Laputa seems like an odd name for a minivan. The
Mazda Laputa
was introduced in Japan in 1991. Spanish speakers immediately think of
"puta", the word for prostitute. With that in mind the ads claiming that
"Laputa is designed to deliver maximum utility in a minimum space while
providing a smooth, comfortable ride" and "a lightweight, impact-absorbing
body" are humorous. Distributors in Santiago, Chile asked Mazda to rename
the vehicle.

Japanese speakers are likely unaware of this meaning and more likely
associate "Laputa" with a popular 1986 animated film: "Laputa: Castle in the Sky". However, the film could
not be marketed in either Spain or Italy because the word "Laputa" appears
onscreen and would offend.

These are not the first uses of the word. "Laputa" is referenced in
Gulliver's Travels, where author Jonathan Swift
wrote that the astronomers of the island Laputa knew about the moons of
Mars and European astronomers did not. Meanwhile modern astronomers have
named a real asteroid (1819) Laputa.

Of course, that leaves the question of who named the asteroid... Was it
a fan of Swift's fiction, one of the many that adores Hayao Miyazaki's
animated film, a minivan enthusiast, or someone that just had an
interesting evening out? Inquiring minds want to know!

Thanks to Sokoon for this entry.

Milk
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?"

Mitsubishi Pajero, Montero
Mitsubishi had to rename its Pajero automobile because the word is a vulgar term for
a masturbating man.
This story is true, although there was no blunder
involved because the car was marketed under a different name from the
beginning. In Spanish-speaking countries, this model has been sold as the
Montero.

Nike
Nike has a television commercial for hiking shoes that was
shot in Kenya using Samburu tribesmen. The camera closes in on the one
tribesman who speaks, in native Maa. As he speaks, the Nike slogan "Just
do it" appears on the screen. Lee Cronk, an anthropologist at the
University of Cincinnati, says the Kenyan is really saying, "I don't
want these. Give me big shoes." Says Nike's Elizabeth Dolan, "We
thought nobody in America would know what he said."  (From an article
in Forbes magazine.)

Nike Air

Nike offended Muslims in June, 1997 when the "flaming
air" logo for its Nike Air sneakers looked too similar to the Arabic form
of God's name, "Allah". Nike pulled more than 38,000 pairs of sneakers
from the market.

Nissan/Mitsubishi Pachero
For their series of landcruisers, Nissan
Company invented an apparently meaningless word borrowed from the Spanish
"pajaro" (bird). They named it
"Pachero". This means wanker in South America.

Thanks to Arne Schäpers for this submission.

According to other sources, e.g. About Spanish Language (part 2) it was Mitsubishi, and
the company renamed the car to Montero before marketing it in
Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America.

Nissan Moco
Nissan's minivan Moco doesn't do so well in
Spanish-speaking markets. Especially green ones. Distributors in Santiago,
Chile asked that the vehicle be renamed since Moco is the Spanish word for
mucous.

Thanks to Sokoon for this entry.

Orange Juice
To boost orange juice sales in predominantly
continental breakfast eating England, a campaign extolled the
drink's eye-opening, pick-me-up qualities with the slogan, "Orange
juice. It gets your pecker up."

Nicholas Shearer counters "... it's a perfectly good slogan and
statement. 'keep your pecker up' is a traditional positive
get-up-and-go statement in Britain. Unlike the U.S. 'pecker', it has no
other connotations (other than maybe a birds beak). So the statement is
perfect for the English market..."
I concede, since I don't
want to start comparing peckers. Call me chicken but I don't want to
have a cock fight over it.

Parker Pen, Parker Quink Ink
When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint
pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to say "It won't leak in your
pocket and embarrass you." However, the Spanish word "embarazar" was used by mistake to mean
embarrass. The ads actually said: "It won't leak in your pocket
and make you pregnant."

Recent versions of this story claim it
was an ad for Parker's Quink Ink.

Pepsi
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."

Pepsodent

Teeth-Whitening Toothpaste vs. Betel Nut Chewers and
Teeth-Blackening
Pepsodent's teeth-whitening toothpaste didn't
fare well in Southeast Asia where many cultures value chewing Betel Nuts
which darkens the teeth. Chewing Betel Nuts is alleged to strengthen teeth
(it may have anti-bacterial qualities) and is associated with various
rituals and ceremonies (depending on the particular culture and changing
over time) including the coming of age of women. Many cultures
historically blacken teeth since only savage beasts and evil demons show
their white fangs. (Why am I thinking of some marketing folks right
now...)

In Japan, in the 12th century, blackening was associated with coming of
age. Later in the 18th it was associated with nobility and Samurai. In the
19th century, it was used by married woman. ("I can't tonite honey, I have
to blacken my teeth.") See the article on ThingsAsian.com by Barbara Cohen
on Healthy Black Smiles.

The product slogan was racially offensive to some as well- "You'll
wonder where the yellow went..."

Perdue Chicken
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."

Pope T-shirt
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."

Andrew Sheh explains: Capital P "Papa" means "Pope". "papa" means
potato. Finally, "papa" with an accent on the last "a" means father.

Beardo writes: el Papa (masculine) is the Pope; la papa (feminine) is
the potato. VI EL PAPA. VI LA PAPA.

Powergenitalia, www.powergenitalia.com
No, Powergenitalia
is not the company responsible for all that spam offering to help you with
organ extensions or to invigorate you with Viagara-powered vitality. It is
also not the Italian division of energy giant Powergen. When
numerous English-speakers on the web took note of the web site http://www.powergenitalia.com/, Powergen felt obligated
to announce that they had no connection with the site and in fact had no
Italian offices, so that people would not think that it was their
Translation Marketing Mistake. No, they left that distinctive honor
to the marketing folks at Powergen Italia, an Italian maker of
battery chargers. Perhaps they were shocked to learn its a World
Wide Web. The website now switches you over to the more aptly named for
English-speakers, http://www.batterychargerpowergen.it/.
(Reported by
many places including Ananova.)

Puffs Tissues
Puffs tissues allegedly had trouble in
Germany due to their name being a colloquial term for a house of
ill-repute (prostitution). I always say "Gesundheit" when someone around
me sneezes. I am afraid that now when I hand them a tissue, I will be
thinking "Gesundheit" means "Thank you for that blow job".

If you go to the Puffs website, their pages are very North
American-centric, being in English and French only. The Puffs
History page mentions their relatively recent (1999) expansion into
Canada. Seems unlikely they tried Germany, but maybe if it was a bust they
opted not to refer to it anywhere.

Rolls Royce Silver Mist, Silver Shadow
Rolls Royce changed
the name of its car the Silver Mist to the Silver Shadow before entering
Germany. In German, "Mist" means manure (to put it nicely).

Salem Cigarettes
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."

Samarin
Lars Bergquist tells us: Samarin is a Swedish
over-the-counter remedy for upset stomachs. (Like Alka-Seltzer.) A few
years back they used ads that looked like comic strips with no text. There
were three pictures. The first was a man looking sick, grasping his tummy.
On the second picture he drank a glass of Samarin and on the third picture
he was smiling again. The ad campaign was a success in Europe.

However, when the company ran the ad in Arabic-speaking newspapers they
did not do too well. I guess that they didn't know that in those countries
people read from right to left.... (See the I18nGuy page on User Interfaces For
Right-To-Left Languages.)

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

Toyota MR2
Marcel Rigadin reports that Toyota makes the
MR2, which in France is pronounced "merdé" or spelled 'merdeux', means
"crappy". (Mentioned in Dave Taylor's Global Software.)

Vauxhall Nova, Opel Corsa, Chevy Nova

Interesting that an article in MediaGuardian.co.uk also alleges that
Vauxhall (UK for Chevrolet) tried to sell Nova in Spain. Apparently
this is the British version of the failed Chevrolet Nova
in Spanish-speaking Latin America.

Actually, the first
Vauxhall Novas were manufactured in Zaragoza, Northern Spain (for sale in
the UK). They are sold as the Opel Corsa in Mainland Europe. See
the section on Chevrolet Nova
above and the history of the Vauxhall Nova 1983-1993.

Signs

From a Japanese information booklet about using a hotel air
conditioner:
"Cooles and Heates; if you want just condition of warm in
your room, please control yourself."

From a brochure of a car rental firm in Tokyo:
"When passengers of
foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet him melodiously at first,
but if he still obstacles your passage, then tootle him with vigor."

Two signs from a Majorcan shop entrance:
- English well talking.

- Here speeching American.

Sign in a Bombay hotel (where water is still routinely fetched from
the Ganges potentially giving you diarrhea or worse):
All water has
been personally passed by the management.
(Thanks to Arne Schäpers for
this submission.)

Note for the internationally minded: The Ganges is
some 600 miles from Bombay. -
Tex

If you like these signs, try this page of Odd Signs.

Acknowledgements

David A. Ricks' book "Big Business Blunders - Mistakes in
Multinational Marketing1" (ISBN
0-256-02850-8, 1983 now out of print.) and Dave Taylor's Global Software
published many similar items. See Taylor's chapter online.

1See instead Ricks' "Blunders in International Business" (ISBN: 0631217762, 2000 in
its third printing.)

I18nGuy Home Page

Send comments to Tex
This page last
updated 2006-03-05.
Top of page