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Translation Bloopers

Translation customers, like all customers, are wise to heed the advice:

"Let the buyer beware."

When contacting translation services, make certain you are working with accredited, professional translators. After all, you never have a second chance to make a good first impression.

• The 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 as "When smoking Salem, you feel so refreshed that your mind seems to free and empty."


• Posted in the office of a doctor in Rome: Specialist in Women and other diseases.


• 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.


• A water park in Cancun advertises with a brochure which grandly proclaims "Let Your Wet Dreams Come True."


• From the brochure of a car rental company in Tokyo: "When passenger of foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet him melodiously at first but if he obstacles your passage then tootle him with vigor".


• 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 translator mistakenly thought the Spanish word "embarazar" meant embarass (which it is not). In fact, the ads said that "it won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant."

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