funny adverts

[pillj123]

Advert bloopers

The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-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."

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."

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

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."

When General Motors introduced the 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.

Ford had a similar problem in Brazil when the Pinto flopped. The company found out that Pinto was Brazilian slang for "tiny male genitals". Ford pried all the nameplates off and substituted Corcel, which means horse.

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 company mistakenly thought the spanish word "embarazar" meant embarrass. Instead the ads said that "It wont leak in your pocket and make you pregnant."

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."

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."

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.

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

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

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.

In an effort to boost orange juice sales in predominantly continental breakfast eating England, a campaign was devised to extoll the drink's eye-opening, pick-me-up qualities. Hence the slogan, "Orange juice. It gets your *** up."

[starone]

I never liked the name Sloggi for underwear, although I buy them and like them. It sounds too much like a slang word for poop. LOL at the joke.

[zebo]

Didn't JFK's famous speech Ich bin ein Berliner translate from the German as I am a doughnut? He should have left out the ein, Ich bin Berliner. Also in German, the Rolls Royce Silver Mist had to be renamed, as Mist in German is sh1t, not a good name for a car!

[MichaelZZ]

In Sweden, the letter k, when followed by a 'soft' vowel (i or e) is pronounced like a cross between sh and ch.

Small wonder therefore that Rowntrees could never manage to sell their Kit-Kat bars in Sweden.

[heathfield]

I rather suspect that the GM Nova story isn't the only urban myth listed above.

http://www.snopes.com...ess/misxlate/nova.asp

Some maufacturers can go to great lengths to prevent any misunderstanding over their product labels. For example, Unilever's ''Omo'' washing powder, (long gone from UK supermarket shelves, but still sold in Australia), was reputedly given its name after an exhaustive search by Unilever for possible words or acronyms that didn't mean anything derogatory in any of the world's languages. The nearest it comes to meaning anything is apparently ''Oh my gosh!'' in Korean. This, is seems, was felt to be acceptable!

[heathfield]

Oh! Just remembered when ''Wonderloaf'' sliced white bread was introduced, it caused someone to remark ''If it's a good loaf, it's a Wonder!!''

See, too, Bella's post in Food and Drink...

http://www.theanswerb.../Question1114042.html

[sandyRoe]

The Toyota MR 2 needed renamed before it was sold in France.

[EDDIE51]

I heard a story about a business man making his first visit to China.
He started his speech by saying '' I am tickled to death to be here''
The interpreter translated it as '' This poor man scratches himself until he dies , just to be with us''
Legend has it that housewives who made a bit of extra cash by working as part time prostitutes would advertise that they were 'available' by putting a packet of OMO in the window, it was supposed to stand for 'On My Own' or 'Old Man Out' . I have heard that one from several places but it is probably an urban myth.

[whiskeryron]

I can vaguely remember reading about an English company who were advertising in an Arab country & they put up a before & after bill board forgetting that in Arabic you read from right to left & of course the result was hilarious.

WR.

[eastern]

Wasn't there something to do with the name of the oil company "ESSO" in Japan, somebody told me it roughly translated as F*c*, don't know it its true.