5 of the Funniest Translation Mistakes Made in Ads
KFC
KFC uses the slogan "Finger lickin' good." In 1987, they opened a restaurant in Beijing, China. This meant they had to find a translation of "Finger lickin' good." They thought that had succeeded only find out that their slogan translated to, "We'll eat your fingers off." That doesn't sound very pleasant, and it definitely isn't what is wanted for a chicken restaurant.
Coors
Coors Beer uses the slogan "Turn it loose." They wanted to market the product in Spain. They thought that there would be no problems translating "Turn it loose" to Spanish. However, the translated slogan ended up being, "Suffer from diarrhea." It seems that some people think drinking Coors Beer will cause this to happen.
Clairol
In 2006, Clairol started selling a product called the "Mist Stick." The Mist Stick was a curling iron. The company wanted to sell the product in Germany. However, they did not try to translated "Mist" to the proper German word and ended up trying to sell the "Manure Stick." Not surprisingly, the product didn't sell. Most Germans didn't want to put manure in their hair. The correct translation was "Nebel Stick."
Parker Pens
Parker Pens uses the slogan, "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you." The company made the mistake of using the wrong Spanish word and Mexicans read the slogan, "It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant." It has never been determined that a pen can make somebody pregnant, unless science has found a way to conceal sperm inside of the ink barrels of pens.
Coca-Cola
Most people know how Coca-Cola tried to find a phonetic name in China to sound like Coca-Cola and how "Ke-kou-ke-la" translated to "bite the wax tadpole." However, another dialect of Chinese translated this as "female horse stuffed with wax." They finally found "ko-kou-ko-le." This translates to "happiness in the mouth."
Source:
10 Funniest Badly-Translated Ads - Oddee.com (mistranslations, engrish). (n.d.). A Blog on Oddities: the odd, bizarre and strange things of our world! | Oddee.com . Retrieved May 30, 2011, from http://www.oddee.com/item_97
Published by Bridget Ilene Delaney
Bridget Ilene Delaney is the author of "This is My Bucket." She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism. She writes many articles on a variety of other subjects. She is interested in diabetes compli... View profile
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3 Comments
Post a CommentNice job needed a good laugh thanks Laura Everly
LOL - fun read.
good job:) - always need a translator first to avoid snafus.