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 Joke Pages |
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Joke Pages |
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The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la.
In Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation"
Also in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan "finger-lickin'
The American slogan for Salem cigarettes, "Salem - Feeling Free,"
When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America,
Ford had a similar problem in Brazil when the Pinto flopped.
When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, its ads were
An American t-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the spanish
Chicken-man Frank Perdue's slogan, "It takes a tough man to make a
Hunt-Wesson introduced its Big John products in French Canada as
Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a
In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name
Japan's second-largest tourist agency was mystified when it entered
In an effort to boost orange juice sales in predominantly continental
When Braniff translated a slogan touting its upholstery, "Fly in
Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish, where it was
When Vicks first introduced its cough drops on the German market,
Not to be outdone, Puffs tissues tried later to introduce its
A hair products company, Clairol, introduced the "Mist Stick", a
When Gerber first started selling baby food in Africa, they used
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...
Unfortunately, the Coke company 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 40,000 Chinese
characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, "ko-kou-ko-le,"
which can be loosely translated as "happiness in the mouth".
came out as "Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead."
good" came out as "eat your fingers off."
got translated in the Japanese market into "When smoking Salem,
you feel so refreshed that your mind seems to be free and empty."
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".
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.
supposed to say "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you."
However, the company mistakenly thought the spanish word "embarazar"
meant embarrass. Instead the ads said that "It wont leak in your
pocket and make you pregnant."
market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of the desired
"I Saw the Pope" in Spanish, the shirts proclaimed "I Saw the Potato."
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."
"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.
notorious porno mag.
into Schweppes Toilet Water.
English-speaking markets and began receiving requests for unusual
"special" tours. Upon finding out why, the owners of Kinki Nippon Tourist
Company changed its name.
breakfast eating England, a campaign was devised to extoll the drink's
eye-opening, pick-me-up qualities. Hence the slogan, "Orange juice.
It gets your pecker up."
Leather," it came out in Spanish as "Fly Naked."
read as "Suffer From Diarrhea."
they were chagrined to learn that the German pronunciation of "v"
is f - which in German is the guttural equivalent of "sexual penetration."
product, only to learn that "Puff" in German is a colloquial term
for a whorehouse.
curling iron, into Germany only to find out that mist is slang for
manure. Not too many people had use for the manure stick.
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 actually is inside the container since most people can not read
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