( Go back, forward )

Internationalization When Braniff translated a slogan touting its upholstery "Fly in Leather" it came out in Spanish as "Fly Naked." When Coors put its slogan "Turn It Loose" into Spanish it was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea." Chicken magnate Frank Perdue's line "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken" sounds much more interesting in Spanish: "It takes a sexually stimulated man to make a chicken affectionate." When Vicks first introduced its cough drops on the German market, they were chagrined to learn that the German pronunciation of "v" is "f" which in German is the guttural equivalent of "sexual penetration." Not to be outdone Puffs tissues tried to introduce its product only to learn that "Puff" in German is a colloquial term for a whorehouse. The Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish speaking countries. "No Va" means "It Does Not Go" in Spanish. When Pepsi started marketing its products in China they translated their slogan "Pepsi Brings You Back to Life" pretty literally. The slogan in Chinese really meant "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave." When Coca-Cola first shipped to China they named the product something that when pronounced sounded like "Coca-Cola." The only problem was that the characters used meant "Bite The Wax Tadpole." They later changed to a set of characters that mean "Happiness In The Mouth." Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick" curling iron into Germany only to find out that mist is slang for manure. When Gerber first started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as here in the USA - with the cute baby on the label. They later discovered that in Africa companies routinely put pictures on the label of what actually is inside the container since most people can not read.