International

Marketing Blunders
I love international marketing
blunders. Sometimes they are
mildly amusing and other times
they are laugh out loud funny.
What follows is a collection of
some of the more infamous.
In the late '70s, Wang computer
company launched a new motto
"Wang Cares“ which the British
branch refused to use

Oops…
To British ears the motto
sounded like "wankers"
(masturbators).
Coors translated its catchy
slogan, "Turn it loose" into
Spanish.

Oops…
It read as
"Suffer from Diarrhea".
Seeking the Chinese market,
Coca-Cola phonetically
translated into "Ke-kou-ke-la“

Oops…
Depending upon the dialect,
that worked out the be
“Bite the wax tadpole”
or
“Female horse stuffed with wax”
Nissan's Moco didn’t sell so
well in Spanish-speaking
markets… especially the green
ones.

Oops….
Moco is the Spanish word for
mucous (booger).
Toyota’s MR2 caused a few
snickers in France

Oops…
MR2 pronounced in French
sounds like "merdé" or spelled
'merdeux‘ which means
"crappy".
"Götzen", a European
hardware chain, opened a
store in Istanbul.

Oops…
"Göt" means "ass" in Turkish.
They had to change the name
to "Tekzen".
Clairol introduced the "Mist
Stick“ curling iron, into
Germany.

Oops.
“Mist" is German slang for
manure.
Parker pens attempted translate
their slogan into Spanish "It
won't leak in your pocket and
embarrass you.”

Oops…
The translation worked out to be
"It won't leak in your pocket and
make you pregnant"
Japan's 2nd largest tourist agency
entered English-speaking markets
and began receiving requests for
unusual sex tours.

Oops…
The Kinki Nippon Tourist company
quickly changed its name.
The Mazda Laputa Minivan
was not a success in South
America.

Oops…
Spanish speakers immediately
thought of "puta", the word for
prostitute.

It probably didn’t help that ads claimed that

"Laputa is designed to deliver maximum utility
in a minimum space while providing a
smooth, comfortable ride" and "a lightweight,
impact-absorbing body“. Snicker, snicker.
Expanding to Mexico, The Dairy
Association's hugely successful
"Got Milk?" campaign translated
into Spanish

Oops…
The translation turned out to
mean "Are you lactating?"
Pepsi’s attempt to translate their
slogan “Come alive with the Pepsi
Generation” to Chinese

Oops…
It worked out to be “Pepsi brings
your ancestors back from the
dead”
Powergen Italia, an Italian
maker of battery chargers
registered the obvious internet
domain name.

Oops…
www.powergenitalia.com was
rich with unintended English
language associations.
Honda introduced their new car
"Fitta" into Nordic countries in
2001.

Oops…
In Swedish, Norwegian and
Danish "fitta" was a vulgar word
used to refer to a woman's
genitals. In the end they
renamed it "Honda Jazz".
GEC and Plesssey formed a
joint company in France
named GPT.

Oops…
GPT pronounced in French
sounds like “Jay-Pay-Tay”
which is similar J’ai pete, which
means ” I have farted.”
Marketing Puffs tissue in
Germany did NOT go very well.

Oops…
Puff means “brothel” in
Germany. Brothel paper plus
lotion. Snicker, snicker.
Perdue chicken, expanding to
the Hispanic market translated
the slogan, "It takes a strong
man to make a tender chicken"

Oops….
The Spanish came out as "It
takes an aroused man to make
a chicken affectionate."
To commemorate its initial
flights from Hong Kong, United
Airlines handed out white
carnations to the passengers.

Oops…
For many Asians white flowers
represent bad luck and even
death.
Ford Motors launched a car under
the name "Pinto" in Brazil

Oops…
It turned out that “Pinto” in Brazil
meant "small male sex organ" (like
the bean).
The Italian mineral water
"Traficante" became very
popular in Spain's underworld.

Oops…
In Spanish it translated as
"drug dealer".
Chevrolet, disappointed in sales to
a key Hispanic demographic
investigated why.

Oops…
Nova in Spanish is “no-va“ or
It Won’t Go
Schwepps, expanding into
the Italian market, translated
“Tonic Water” into –

Oops…
“Water from the toilet”
An American T-shirt maker in Miami
printed shirts in Spanish for the
Pope's visit. They wanted "I saw the
Pope" (el papa)

Oops…
They got a bunch of shirts that read
"I saw the Potato" (la papa)
Scandinavian vacuum
manufacturer Electrolux
used the following in an
American campaign …
In Africa, with a high level of
illiteracy, most companies put
pictures of what's inside on
the label.

Oops…
Gerber Baby Food did not
sell well.
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