Lost in Translation…
The following companies perhaps should have done additional word and translation research before launching their products in venues other than the USA. It’s in advertising campaigns as it is in NASCAR — every lap counts … so think of your audience from their perspective before you launch your branding efforts.
- Coors turned its catchphrase “Turn It Loose,” into Spanish, where it was read as “Suffer From Diarrhea.”
- “It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken,” put Frank Perdue’s chickens in the mindset of the USA’s consumers. When translated into Spanish, though, “it takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate” made for a different sort of message in their misguided marketing push.
- Remember General Motors’ Nova? Extremely popular for time in the USA, sales stalled when trying to market the Nova in Central and South America. Couldn’t have been because “No va” in Spanish means, “It Doesn’t Go”. Nah …
- When Parker Pen promoted a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to have read, “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.” Someone at Parker signed off on the word “embarazar” for embarrass. Well, no. That means “to impregnate,” so the ad read “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.” No word on whether that enhancement helped sales.
- The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as “Kekoukela” — depending on the dialect, that translated to either “Bite the Wax Tadpole” or “Female Horse Stuffed with Wax.” Not wanting that goldmine of potential drinkers to opt for other soda refreshments, Coke researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent “kokoukole”, which translated means “Happiness in the Mouth.” Smooth move.
- When Clairol introduced its “Mist Stick,” a curling iron, into Germany, someone on their team neglected to do enough digging — in German, “mist” is slang for manure. The “Manure Stick” didn’t exactly fly off the shelves.
- When the Pope visited Miami some years ago, an entrepreneurial T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the large Spanish market in that area promoting the Pope’s visit. Instead of “I saw the Pope” (el Papa), the shirts read “I Saw the Potato” (la papa).
- American Airlines’ desire to advertise its new leather first-class seats to the Mexican market looked good on paper — in English, at least. Its “Fly In Leather” slogan translated literally meant “Fly Naked” (vuela en cuero) in Spanish. No word about the problem of sticking to the seats.
- “Got Milk?” rightfully earned ad stripes and high praise for the Dairy Association. They expanded their campaign to Mexico where it was soon brought to their attention that the Spanish translation of their famous query-slogan read “Are You Lactating?”
- Chinese is obviously a tough translation for the best of the USA’s ad folks. Pepsi’s “Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation” translated into “Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave” in that venerable language.
- Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign — “Nothing Sucks like an Electrolux.”
- When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, their packaging mirrored the successful effort in the USA, featuring the beautiful smiling baby on the box. Gerber reps later learned that in Africa companies routinely put pictures on the labels of what’s inside boxes, since many people can’t read.
