Seer666

Don't know if these were posted before, but I didn't find them on a search, so, enjoy...



http://strangeplaces.net/weirdthings/commercials.html

These are the nominees for the Chevy Nova Award. This is given out in honor of the GM's fiasco in trying to market this car in Central and South America. "no va" means, of course, in Spanish, "it doesn't go".

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?"

Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea."

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

Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick," a curling iron, into Germany only to find out that "mist" is slang for garbage. Not too many people had use for the "Garbage Stick."

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.

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

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).

Pepsi's "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave" in Chinese.

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."

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."

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!"

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" (vuela en cuero) in Spanish.

__________________
Bad spellers of the world untie!!!

I am the one you warned me of

I seem to have misplaced the bullet with your name on it, but I have a whole box addressed to occupant.

hu-man

Those are great!
Another fun one is what was - for many years - written in the Copenhagen Airport here in Denmark, at check-in:
"We take your luggage and send it in all directions"

elfuq

Sadly many of these are not true. Fun stories, but nope. See Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/misxlate.asp

edbean0111

in new orleans louisiana theres a giant ad for pepsi that showes brittany spears and in big letters it says "pride of louisiana" but some weather problems caused the sign to rip so it now said "the ride of louisiana" might not be as funy as most of the posts in here but still deserves a chuckle.

p.s. my sister took the picture so i know its true

__________________
and there will always be stop and go and fast and slow
action, reaction, sticks and stones and broken bones
those for peace and those for war
and god bless these ones not those ones
but these ones made times like these
and times like those
what will be will be
and so it goes
and it always goes on and on
and on and on it goes

DEI37

Well, post it on up here!!! I think that'd be a funny one to see.

__________________
Generally speaking, if you were to get what you really deserve, you might be unpleasantly surprised.

CamaroRS1967

Those were great!

Jaca

According to Snopes,

-- was determined to be "a statement of undetermined or ambiguous veracity" as opposed to a "false statment"

Which reminded me of a "lost in translation" story I heard recently: That old 80's game, Donkey Kong, was named so because of the miscommunication between the marketers and the programmers, whose intention was for it to be called, "Monkey Kong".

Regardless of their basis in fact, these little bits of humor have some entertainment value after all.

Shade

Actually, that website is retarded. No va does mean "doesn't go." So I have trouble believing anything else that site says.

CSflim

You didn't read the article. It doesn't say no va doesn't mean doesn't go.

The point is the car wasn't called "no va", it was called "nova" and the two are pronounced completely differently.
Snopes likens it to someone avoiding a buying from a furniture manufacturer called Notable, on the basis that the family actually do want to buy a table.

Snopes is a very well respected, and well researched website.

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denim

The way I heard it, the original title was effectively "Ass Kong", where "ass" should have read as "jerk". It was clearly translated a little differently. (shrug)

Good game, by whatever name.

Jaca

Well, that would make sense.

Ass = Donkey (for argument's sake)
Ass = Jerk

Whatever works I suppose!

fizzledorf

all in the interpretation! Great stuff...