Lost in translation: How Coke, Pepsi and P&G got it wrong too

Yesterday, we wrote about a few instances of big-time MNCs goofing up in foreign countries. Here's a few more, collated from the Net.

Among the goof-ups, 'lost-in-translation' seems to be the most common. Translating English into Spanish, in particular, is fraught with danger. Braniff, a US-based airline, realised this first-hand when it translated a slogan touting its upholstery, 'Fly in leather', in Spanish. It came out as "Fly naked." Imagine the embarrassment of conservative Senors and Senoritas.

Coors, a beer company, had the misfortune of its slogan 'Turn it loose' being read as 'Suffer from diarrhea' in Spanish. Now, that seemed more like a curse than an invitation to try out the beer.

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.'

And, do you know why the Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish speaking countries? Apparently, that had to do with 'Nova' meaning 'it doesn't go' in Spanish.

If translating into the Spanish language was disastrous, German was no better. When P&G first launched its Vicks cough drops in Germany, the MNC was shocked to learn that the German pronunciation of 'v' is 'f', which in German is the equivalent of 'sexual penetration'.

Then, there's the example of a hair products company, Clairol, which introduced the "Mist Stick", a curling iron, in Germany. The company discovered to its horror that 'mist' is slang for manure. Little doubt that the product didn't exactly fly off the shelves as not too many people had use for the 'manure' stick.

When Gerber first started selling baby food in Africa, the company used the same packaging as is done in the US with a cute baby on the label. Later company executives realised that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures of what's inside the container on the label, since most people cannot read in that continent.

Soft drink majors Pepsi and Coke have their own story to tell. When Pepsi started marketing its products in China a few years back, it translated the slogan, 'Pepsi Brings You Back to Life' quite literally. The slogan in Chinese meant, 'Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave.'

Coca-Cola's first experience with China was even funnier. When Coke shipped its first bottles to China, the company named the product something that when pronounced sounded like 'Coca-Cola.' Now, not too many people would find fault with that. Would they? Well, the only problem was that the Chinese characters used to pronounce 'Coca-Cola' meant 'Bite the wax tadpole.' The Chinese, like the French, may have a taste for certain organs of a frog, but biting into a tadpole is a bit too much. The company wisely changed to a set of characters that mean "Happiness in the mouth".

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