LIST OF AMERICAN SLOGAN TRANSLATIONS INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Here is a look at how shrewd American business people translate their
slogans into foreign languages:

1. When Braniff translated a slogan touting its upholstery, "Fly in
Leather," it came out in Spanish as "Fly Naked."

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

3. 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."

4. When Vicks first introduce its cough drops on the German market, they
were chagrined to learn that the German pronunciation of "v" is f - which
in German is the guttural equivalent of "sexual penetration."

5. Not to be outdone, Puffs tissues tried later to introduce its product,
only to learn that "Puff" in German is a colloquial term for a whorehouse.

6. The Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish speaking countries. No Va"
means "It Does Not Go" in Spanish.

7. 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."

8. Then when Coca-Cola first shipped to China, they named the product
something that when pronounced sounded like "Coca-Cola." The only problem
was that the characters used meant "Bite The Wax Tadpole." They later
changed to a set of characters that mean "Happiness In The Mouth."

9. 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.

10. 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 actually is inside the container since most people can not
read.
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I thought you would be interested in an addition to your list of humorous
translations from English into other languages. MENSA, the organization for
the extremely intelligent (and from time to time the extremely arrogant),
is the Spanish word for stupid (gender female).

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More slogan goofs:

Bacardi concocted a fruity drink with the name "Pavian" to suggest French
chic...but "pavian" means "baboon" in German.

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."

Jolly Green Giant translated into Arabic means "Intimidating Green Ogre."