Translation often
proves to be a difficult task. Translating cultures or cultural products is
even more difficult. Here is an (absolutely incomplete) list of
"international fallacies" - global marketing mistakes by global
companies. - A similar list was first published in the Sarasota Herald
Tribune, January 19.1998.
Pepsi's "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation was translated into
Chinese as "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave".
Frank Perdue's chicken slogan "It takes a strong man to make a
tender chicken" was translated into Spanish as "It takes an aroused
man to make a chicken affectionate".
The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Ke-kou-ke-la",
meaning "Bite the wax tadpole". Coke then researched 40,000 characters
to find a phonetic equivalent, "ko-kou-ko-le", translating into
"happiness in the mouth".
When Gillette marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, the ads were supposed
to have read, "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you".
Instead, mistranslation resulted in the ad reading, "It won't leak in your
pocket and make you pregnant".
In Puerto Rico, the Chevrolet Nova was accepted only hesitantly due to
its name ("no va" = "does not drive"). In the end, its name
had to be changed completely.
Nike wasted an undisclosed sum of money by having its products in Europe
endorsed by the baseball and football star Bo Jackson - who, unfortunately, was
completely unknown there.
Mac Donnel Douglas had to revoke brochures from the Indian market,
having discovered that the persons displayed were not Indian but Pakistani.
Due to the fact that newspapers are read from right to left in Arabic
countries, some readers there were puzzled about a print advertisement which
showed clean laundry being treated with detergent and coming out of the
laundromat stained.
For the World Cup in 1994, McDonald's and Coca-Cola had the Saudi
Arabian flag printed on soda cans and paper bags. Unfortunately, they failed to
realize that the flag contains the phrase "There is no God except Allah, and
Mohammed is his prophet". The use of this phrase for advertising purposes
and the fact that most cans and paper bags end up on the floor and are trampled
on were unacceptable to devout Muslims. In Japanese, the trade name
"Esso" means "a car which has broken down".
Fallacy (n.): misconception, a false idea or
belief, especially one that a lot of people believe is true - arouse (v.): excite sexually - affectionate
(adj.): loving, caring - tadpole
(n.): a small creature that has a long tail, lives in water, and grows into a
frog or toad - embarrass (v.): make 5.0. feel
ashamed, nervous, or uncomfortable - endorse (v.): if a famous person
endorses a product or service. they say in an advertisement that they use and
like it - devout (adj.): s.o. who is devout has a very strong belief in
a religion