It Pays To Research Before Advertising

International Marketing Faux Pas - These are some of the many reasons to hire
a good Marketing Consultant!

1. The Dairy Association's huge success with the campaign "Got Milk?" prompted
them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their attention
the Spanish translation read "Are you lactating?"

2. Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it was read
as "Suffer from diarrhea".

3. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an
American campaign: "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux".

4. 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".

5. When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same
packaging as in the US, with the smiling baby on the label. Later they learned
that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the labels of what's
inside, since many people can't read.

6. Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a
notorious porno magazine.

7. 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).

8. Pepsi's "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi
brings your ancestors back from the grave", in Chinese.

9. The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Kekoukela", 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 "kokou
kole", translating into "happiness in the mouth".

10. 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".

11. 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". 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".

12. When American Airlines wanted to advertise its new leather first class
seats in the Mexican market, it translated its' "Fly in leather" campaign
literally, which meant "Fly naked" (vela en cuero) in Spanish.