'Bite the Wax Tadpole'
and Other International Marketing Blunders
When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America, it was unaware
that in Spanish 'no va' means 'it won't go.' The company later renamed the car to the
Caribe in Spanish markets, and the naming snafu became a classic case study in
college marketing textbooks. But as the following examples show, some students
were either absent that day, or not paying attention:
* The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered 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 as 'When smoking Salem, you feel so refreshed that your
mind seems to be free and empty.'
* When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point 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, and the ads
said 'It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant,' instead.
* An American tee-shirt manufacturer in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market
which promoted the Pope's visit. But instead of the desired 'I Saw the Pope' in
Spanish, the shirts proclaimed 'I Saw the Potato.'
* In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into
Schweppes Toilet Water.
* The Jolly Green Giant translated into Arabic means 'Intimidating Green Ogre.'
* Bacardi concocted a fruity drink with the name 'Pavian' to suggest French chic . . .
but 'Pavian' means 'baboon' in German.
* Clairol introduced the 'Mist Stick,' a curling iron, into Germany only to find out that
mist is slang for manure.
* When Gerber first started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same
packaging as in the USA -- jars with pictures of the cute little baby on the label. Only
later did they learn that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the label that
describe what's inside, since most people can't read.
* And, as America's favorite chicken magnate, Frank Perdue, was fond of saying,
'It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken.' In Spanish, however, his words took
on a whole new meaning: 'It takes a sexually stimulated man to make a chicken
affectionate.'
Is it any wonder the rest of the world finds Americans just a little bit strange?
©Copyright 1996, Relocation Journal & Real Estate News
BE1: Company Project
Marketing Blunders– (Extra Reading)
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