IJMC - Cracking the Language Barrier

Kind of interesting to me that last night I said I wasn't sure if I'd 
have anything to say in these little messages to you, the readers. 
Tonight I find I have more than enough to say.  

To begin with, tonight marks the 2nd birthday of our ancient web page. 
Yes, we actually have one. For the past few weeks we've also had a new 
and updated page which I'm still working on. But since today is the old 
page's birthday, I figured I should let you all have a look at where the 
new site is going as well as the older page if you haven't seen it. To 
check out what we've got already, point a browser at http://www.ijmc.com/

Somewhat related to the new site, is a slow search engine which I've been 
using to check on submitted material. I'm trying to keep the number of 
re-runs down since we've sent out over 400 posts. But, I've been failing 
occassionally as the searches don't always turn up the posts I'm looking 
for. Now, why do you care? Because I think tonight's post is a repeat, 
but I can't find it through the search engine...and it's good enough that 
I'm sending it again anyway.

Well, enough of my rambling, read on about the troubles slogans can cause 
in foreign languages and then check out the new web site!           -dave







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...

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

The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la.
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."

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."

Also 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 wont 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.