Top 10 Most Brilliant Marketing Screw Ups?

Question

1. Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it
was read as "Suffer from diarrhoea."

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

3. Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick", a curling iron, into German only to find out that "mist" is slang for manure. Not too
many people had use for the "manure stick."

4. When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the U.S., with the beautiful Caucasian baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the label of what's inside, since most people can't read.

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

6. 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).

7. Pepsi's "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave", in Chinese.

8. 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."

9. The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Ke-kou-ke-la", meaning "Bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax", depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent "ko-kou-ko-le", translating into "happiness in the mouth."

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

Answer 1

Brilliant!
It makes me laugh how people get paid so much money and still make c*ck-ups like that!
Thanks for the laugh, have a star in return! x

Answer 2

British Telecom wanted to bring it's image into the 21st Century and employed a marketing company to come up with a new logo. A few million pounds later, and there were hundreds of BT vans around the country with the logo painted on the sides.

The picture was a representation of the ancient god Mercury The messenger. Rather apt, until you find out that your main competitor in the market is actually called Mercury. Whoops.

A few hundred thousands pounds later, and all the vans have been re-painted.

Answer 3

The biggest one has to be when Chevrolet tried to market the " Nova " in Spanish Countries without considering the fact that " no va " means " doesn't go or don't go " in Spanish.

Answer 4

The instructions on Mum deodorant used to say 'remove cap and push up bottom.'

Answer 5

the car name for the Ford "Pinto" was changed in Portugal I believe, because it was slang for a man with a tiny penis.

Who would want to buy a car like that?

Answer 6

gave me a smile thats got to be worth a star at least.

Answer 7

Mitsibushi Pajero in not sold in Spain! "Pajero" translates to "Wanker"

Answer 8

hahahahha
love the pepsi one

Answer 9

thank you for the laugh - I've always known that there must be more to language...

Answer 10

I dont know of any in aust