Brand Confusion

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 guttural 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.

More from other sources:
U.S. cosmetics firm Clinique pulls a print ad for its Elixir perfume after Thailand's government (the foreign ministry) sent a letter of protest to the company complaining the ad was "an insult" to Buddhists. The perfume ad, which ran in Vogue and other U.S. fashion magazines, depicts a snake crawling over the head of an image of the lord Buddha (note: in Thailand, the head is the most revered part of the body). Clinique has reportedly pulled the ad and sent a letter of apology to the Thai ambassador in Washington, in which it expressed "shock to hear about the possible negative perceptions that would be put on this picture." Interestingly, the ad campaign ran only in the USA and caused global problems.

How about a Scandavadian Company calling their toilet paper CRAPP (In the British Environment - well?)

UK based machine company introducing a new model of what is referred to in the US as a drill press gave it the UK designation . . . "screwing machine".

Here's one from Finland, Canon (I'm not sure about the brand) has a camera called EOS. Finns that are in marketing research use `EOS' as an acronym for `I cannot say' or `I don't know', in Finnish `en osaa sanoa'.

`Irish Mist' Irish whiskey marketed in Germany, where Mist is an alternative word for manure.

Toyota MR2 marketed in France where it is pronounced "emm err deux", which is a near homonym for "emmerde", which means dung (manure). It is now marketed as simply MR.

Brand confusion: Durex is the best selling brand of condoms in the UK and a popular brand of adhesive tape in Australia. Watch out for confused Aussies in England and vice versa.