Advertizing Slogans Translated...
A multitude of camels be upon you... (Isaiah 60.6)
From "American Demographics" magazine, here’s a look at how
shrewd American business people translate their slogans into foreign languages.
When Braniff translated a slogan touting its upholstery, "Fly in leather,"
it came out in Spanish as "Fly naked."
Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it was
read as "Suffer from diarrhea."
Chicken magnate Frank Perdue’s line, "It takes a tough man to make
a tender chicken," sounds much more interesting in Spanish: "It
takes a sexually stimulated man to make a chicken affectionate."
When Vicks first introduce its cough drops on the german market, they were
chagrined to learn that the german pronunciation of "v" is f - which
in german is the gutteral equivalent of "sexual penetration."
Not to be outdone, Puffs tissues tried later to introduce its product, only
to learn that "Puff" in German is a colloquial term for a whorehouse.
The English weren’t too fond of the name either, as it’s a highly
derogatory term for a non-heterosexual.
The Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish speaking countries. "No va"
means "it doesn’t go" in Spanish.
When Pepsi started marketing its products in China a few years back, they
translated their slogan, "Pepsi Brings You Back to Life" pretty
literally.
The slogan in Chinese really meant, "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back
from the Grave."
When Coca-Cola first shipped to China, they named the product something that
when pronounced sounded like "Coca-Cola." The only problem was that
the characters used meant "Bite the wax tadpole." They later changed
to a set of characters that mean "Happiness in the mouth."
A hair products company, 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.
When Gerber first started selling baby food in africa, they used the same
packaging as here in the USA - with the cute baby on the label. Later they
found out that in Africa companies routinely put pictures on the label of
what’s inside since most people can’t read.