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 introduced 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.