Rofl rofl I missed this message somehow last year? Or the year before?
Gerber is my favorite, I must say. Pretty interesting representation of the
orror a baby experiences while eating it. lol
----- Original Message -----
From: "derek Lane" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "talk2" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, July 31, 2006 10:44 AM
Subject: The Talk2 List Fw: Product Ads
missed this one's birthday as well, but only by one day.
Caitlin H----- Original Message -----
From: Vanja Sudar
To: talk2
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2004 1:55 PM
Subject: The Talk2 List Product Ads
The American Dairy Association was so successful
with its "Got Milk?" campaign, that it was decided to
extend the ads to Mexico. Unfortunately, the Spanish
translation was "Are you lactating?"
Electrolux, a Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer,
used this ad in the U.S.: "Nothing sucks like an
Electrolux."
Colgate introduced a toothpaste called "Cue" in
France, but it turned out to be the same name as
a well-known porno magazine.
When Braniff translated a slogan touting its
upholstery, "Fly in leather," it came out in
Spanish as "Fly naked."
Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into
Spanish, where 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."
Bacardi concocted a fruity drink with the name
"Pavian" to suggest French chic...but "pavian"
means "baboon" in German.
A hair products company, Clairol, introduced
the "Mist Stick", a curling iron, into Germany
only to find out that mist is slang for manure.
Not too many people had use for the manure
stick.
When Kentucky Fried Chicken entered the
Chinese market, to their horror they discovered
that their slogan "finger lickin' good" came out
as "eat your fingers off"
Parker Pens translated the slogan for its ink,
"Avoid Embarrassment - Use Quink" into
Spanish as "Evite Embarazos - Use Quink"...
which also means, "Avoid Pregnancy - Use
Quink."
When Pepsi started marketing its products in
China a few years back, 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."
In Italy, a campaign for "Schweppes Tonic
Water" translated the name into the much
less thirst quenching "Schweppes Toilet Water."
Chinese translation proved difficult for Coke,
which took two tries to get it right. They first
tried Ke-kou-ke-la because when pronounced
it sounded roughly like Coca-Cola. It wasn't until
after thousands of signs had been printed that
they discovered that the phrase means "bite
the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed
with wax," depending on the dialect. Second
time around things worked out much better.
After researching 40,000 Chinese characters,
Coke came up with "ko-kou-ko-le" which
ranslates roughly to the much more appropriate
"happiness in the mouth."
The Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish
speaking countries. "No va" means "it doesn't
go" in Spanish.
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.
Later they found out that in Africa companies
routinely put pictures on the label of what's
inside since most people can't read.
