Advertising pitfalls
IT'S A GLOBALISED marketplace these days but it has its pitfalls. Some of the multinationals have had difficulty getting across the advertising in foreign languages. Some examples:
· The brand name Coca-Cola was first rendered in China as "Ke-kou-ke-la". Unfortunately the Coke company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means "bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax", depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40 000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent: "Ko-kou-ko-le," which can be loosely translated as "happiness in the mouth."
· In Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" came out as "Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead."
· Also in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan "finger-lickin' good" came out as "eat your fingers off."
· The American slogan for Salem cigarettes - "Salem - Feeling Free" - got translated in the Japanese market into: "When smoking Salem, you feel so refreshed that your mind seems to be free and empty."
· When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America, it was unaware that "no va" means "it won't go." After the company figured out why it wasn't selling any cars, it renamed the car in its Spanish markets the Caribe.
· Ford had a similar problem in Brazil when the Pinto flopped. The company found out that Pinto was Brazilian slang for "tiny male genitals". Ford pried all the nameplates off and substituted Corcel, which means "horse" (That's more like it!).
· When Parker marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to say: "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you." However the company mistakenly thought the Spanish word "embarazar" meant embarrass. Instead the ads said: "It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant."
· An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of the desired "I Saw the Pope" in Spanish, the shirts proclaimed: "I Saw the Potato."
· Chicken-man Frank Perdue's slogan, "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken," got terribly mangled in another Spanish translation. A photo of Perdue with one of his birds appeared on billboards all over Mexico with a caption that said: "It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused."
· Hunt-Wesson introduced its Big John products in French Canada as Gros Jos before finding out that the phrase, in slang, means "big breasts." (In this case, however, there was no noticeable effect on sales).
· Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno mag.
· In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water.
· Japan's second-largest tourist agency was mystified when it entered English-speaking markets and began receiving requests for unusual sex tours. Upon finding out why, the owners of Kinki Nippon Tourist Company changed its name.
Speedway cat
JACOB and Bonnie Richter were on a trip to the Daytona International Speedway, in the US, with their beloved pet cat, Holly, when she was spooked by fireworks and ran off into the night.
The couple spent days searching for her and handing out flyers, before returning alone and heartbroken to their home in West Palm Beach, Florida.
But two months later they got an unexpected call. Holly had been found in a garden just 2km from home - having almost completed a walk of 300 km. The woman who spotted her – looking distressed and skinny – took her to a local vet who located her microchip and traced the Richters.
Fireworks really are becoming a menace. You can't even take your cat to the speedway these days.
TV cat
MEANWHILE, in Sheffield, England, vets had to operate on a kitten who had swallowed a TV aerial. It showed up on X-ray when its owner took it in after it became inexplicably ill.
They don't tell us what the reception was like.
Gravy
OVERHEARD in the Street Shelter for the Over-40s: "I never said her cooking was bad. I just asked for another slice of gravy."
Tailpiece
WHICH King of England invented fractions? Henry the 1/8.
Last word
There are people who, instead of listening to what is being said to them, are already listening to what they are going to say themselves.
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