Posted on 05/30/2008 5:41:37 AM PDT by Lucky9teen
Top 10 Most Brilliant Marketing Screw Ups….
1. Coors put its slogan, “Turn it loose,” into Spanish, where it was read as “Suffer from diarrhea.”
2. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.”
3. Clairol introduced the “Mist Stick”, a curling iron, into German only to find out that “mist” is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the “manure stick.”
4. When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the U.S., with the beautiful Caucasian baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the label of what’s inside, since most people can’t read.
5. Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.
6. An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope’s visit. Instead of “I saw the Pope” (el Papa), the shirts read “I saw the potato” (la papa).
7. Pepsi’s “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” translated into “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave”, in Chinese.
8. 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.”
9. The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as “Ke-kou-ke-la”, meaning “Bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse stuffed with wax”, depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent “ko-kou-ko-le”, translating into “happiness in the mouth.”
10. When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to have read, “it won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you”. Instead, the company thought that the word “embarazar” (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.”
He needs a 6 pack of Bud.
Chevy tried to market the old Nova in Mexico. No va in Spanish means “no go”.
I remember hearing a similar story about Osco Drug Stores in Mexico. I guess “osco” is slang for “puke.”
When translated into Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan “finger-lickin’ good” came out as “eat your fingers off”
In a Hong Kong supermarket: “For your convenience, we recommend courageous, efficient self-service”.
Outside a Hong Kong tailor’s shop: “Ladies may have a fit upstairs”.
In an advertisement by a Hong Kong dentist: “Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists”.
On the box of a clockwork toy made in Hong Kong: “Guaranteed to work throughout its useful life”.
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.
In a Paris hotel elevator: Please leave your values at the front desk.
Outside a Paris dress shop: Dresses for street walking.
In a Bed & Breakfast in France: The genuine antics in your room come from our family castle. Long life to it.
In a Bed & Breakfast in France: Please avoid coca watering, cream cleaning, wet towels wrapping, and ironing drying.
In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water.
Instructions on a packet of convenience food from Italy: “Besmear a backing pan, previously buttered with a good tomato sauce, and, after, dispose the cannelloni, lightly distanced between them in a only couch.”.
In a Rome laundry: Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time.
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”
A warning to motorists in Tokyo: “When a passenger of the foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet at him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage, then tootle him with vigor.”
Panasonic developed a complete Japanese Web browser, and to make the system user-friendly, licensed the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker as the “Internet guide.” Panasonic eventually planned on a world version of the product. The day before the ads were to be released, Panasonic decided to delay the product launch indefinately. The reason: an American staff member at the internal product launch explained to the stunned and embarrassed Japanese what the ad’s slogan, “Touch Woody - The Internet Pecker”, might mean to English speakers.
In a Tokyo bar: Special cocktails for the ladies with nuts.
In a Tokyo hotel: Is forbitten to steal hotel toweles please. If you are not person to do such thing is please not to read this notice.
In a Japanese hotel room: Please to bathe inside the tub.
In a Japanese hotel: You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid.
In an Acapulco hotel a sign read “The manager has personally passed all the water served here”.
bump
My dad was a prolific photographer, with a love for religious architecture, so we spent a lot of time in little towns out in the middle of nowhere (probably not even remotely safe today, but it was great back then).
In one little village, we stopped at the Plaza for him to take photos of the town's church, and a group of local kids crowded around to see who we were. They pointed at our car and laughed.
Well, my dad was pretty proud of his new car, and it bothered him. So he and my mother asked them what was so funny. They pointed to the sign on the fender, and said, “Nova: “no va means ‘it doesn't go’”. Apparently, Chevy found out the same thing a few years later when they tried to sell Novas in Mexico, and they had to change to name so people would buy them.
"Someone set us up the bomb"
"For great justice"
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