And, in the same line, Toyota attempted to sell its MR-2 car in France a few years back. Phonetically, MR-2 here means "shitbag".

They quickly renamed it MR. Just MR.

Christian

-----Message d'origine-----
De:     Joe Geiser [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Date:   vendredi 16 avril 1999 14:45
A:      [log in to unmask]
Objet:  Friday Humo(u)r




Happy Friday folks:

Subject: The Corporate Ugly American...The Perils of Being Global

The Chevy Nova Award Nominees

The following constitute the nominees for the "Chevy Nova Award". This award
is presented annually in honor of General Motor's fiasco in trying to market
the automobile of the same name in Central and South America.

Interestingly, "no va" in Spanish means, "it doesn't go" - or more
precisely, "no go" (and hence, why it was a real bust to GM in Mexico ;)


1. The Dairy Association's huge success with the campaign "Got Milk?"
prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their
attention the Spanish translation read "Are you lactating?"

2. Coors put its slogan, "Turn it Loose", into Spanish, where it was read as
"Suffer from Diarrhea".

3. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an
American campaign: "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux".

4. 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 forthe
"Manure Stick".

5. When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same
packaging as in the US, with the smiling baby on the label. Later they
learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the labels of
what's inside, since many people can't read.

6. Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a
notorious porno magazine.

7. An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market
which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of "I Saw the Pope (el Papa), the
shirts read "I Saw the Potato" (la papa).

8. Pepsi's "Come Alive With The Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi
Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave" in Chinese.

9. The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Kekoukela", meaning "Bite
the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax", depending on the
dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find an equivalent "kokou
kole", translating into "happiness in the mouth".

10. Frank Perdue's chicken slogan, "It takes a strong man to make a tender
chicken" was translated into Spanish as "it takes an aroused man to make a
chicken affectionate"

11. When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ad was supposed
to have read, "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you".  The company
thought that the word "embarazar" (to impregnate") meant to embarrass, so
that ad read: "It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant!"

12. When American Airlines wanted to advertise its new leather first class
seats in the Mexican market, it translated its "Fly In Leather" campaign
literally, which meant "Fly Naked" (vuela en cuero) in Spanish.


Cheers folks :)