Top 10 Funny Blunders From Multilingual Marketing Campaigns
I am pleased to bring you our first comic post of 2009 — along with some serious advice.
As the world gets flatter, clueless marketing folks around the world provide clients and onlookers with disastrous/comedic campaigns. Here are my favorite hilarious translation disasters:
- Coors. I guess the beer guys were probably using their product when they translated their “Turn It Loose” campaign into Spanish. It read: “Suffer from Diarrhea.” Gross.
- Parker Pen. The pen is mightier than the sword, but it’s not a contraceptive. When Parker translated their “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you” campaign into Spanish, they translated the word embarrass to embarazar which means “to impregnate.” Final product: “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.”
- Electrolux. The Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux definitely piqued interest in America when they ran this vacuum cleaner campaign: “Nothing Sucks like an Electrolux.” Wow.
- Clairol. This hair care product company introduced their Mist Stick curling iron in Germany. Too bad they didn’t do their homework: “mist” is slang for manure in German. Gee, your hair smells horrific!
- Pepsi. They translated their slogan “Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation” into Chinese as “Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave.” Might have worked if Dr. Frankenstein was from China…
- Colgate Palmolive. They tried to take porn mainstream early on when they introduced a toothpaste in France called “Cue,” which also happens to be the name of a famous, sizzling porno magazine printed there.
- Perdue. Their marketing geniuses had the slogan “It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken,” translated into Spanish as “It takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate.” Another giant leap for translation software.
- American Dairy Association. The campaign they launched to push their dairy products in Mexico probably didn’t reach the desired audience when they translated “Got Milk?” into Spanish as “Are You Lactating?”
- American Airlines. AA almost created the excitement and new business they needed when they launched their “Fly in Leather” campaign in the Mexican market. While they meant to highlight upgraded leather seats, they instead used a literal translation, “Vuela en cuero,” or “Fly Naked!”
- General Motors. GM decided to market their Nova model to the Spanish-speaking market without researching the name. Too bad: “no va” in Spanish means “It Doesn’t Go.” I guess the marketing folks knew something back then that we all know now.
I often warn people to be careful about who you choose to work with when it comes to multilingual marketing. Besides ending up on my funny list, you risk alienating an entire culture or sometimes a nation.
How do you make sure this doesn’t happen to you? Fear translation software and stay away from hack agencies that don’t involve native speakers in their marketing and translation campaigns. 
If you are taking your product/service global, then make a solid investment in native translation services. Cutting corners and going with the “cheap” solution almost definitely results in disaster. The amount of money you save is definitely not worth losing your reputation.
I’ll leave you with a true classic… an English sign in a Tokyo barber shop read “Customers will be promptly executed!” Sweeney Todd, anyone?
