| TRANSLATION HORROR GALLERY |
| The Work of Bilingual Charlatans! |
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Electrolux, a Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer, used this ad in the U.S.: "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."
Colgate introduced toothpaste called "Cue" in France, but it turned out to be the same name as a well-known porno magazine.
Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer from diarrhea."
Perdue - 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."
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."
Puffs tissues tried to introduce its product, only to learn that "Puff" in German is a colloquial term for a whorehouse. The English weren't too fond of the name either, as it's a highly derogatory term for a non-heterosexual.
Ford introduced the Pinto in Brazil. After watching sales go nowhere, the company learned that "Pinto" is Brazilian slang for "tiny male genitals." Ford pried the nameplates off all of the cars and substituted them with "Corcel" which means horse.
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."
The 4x4 Montero was named "Pajero" and touted as the perfect “man” truck in non-US markets, including Australia, where a large number of Argentineans & Uruguayans live –"Pajero" in their colloquial Spanish means "Masturbator".
And the most infamous and well-know example...
The Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish speaking countries. "No Va" means "Won’t Go" in Spanish.
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