Advertising Mishaps 
 
Cracking an international market is a goal of most growing 
corporations.  It shouldn't be that hard, yet even the big 
multi-nationals run into trouble because of language and cultural 
differences.  For example... 
 
The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as "Ke-kou-ke-la." 
Unfortunately, the Coke 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 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." 
 
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's mistakenly thought the spanish word 
"embarazar" meant embarrass.  Instead the ads said that "It won't 
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.