Marketing is a Tough
Job!
Author Unknown
Marketing can be hit or
miss. Sometimes we think we have a hit, and we find out the hit
was on us!
These are the nominees
for the Chevy Nova Award. This is given out in honor of the GM's
fiasco in trying to market this car in Central and South America.
"No va" means, of course, in Spanish, "it doesn't
go".
1. The Dairy Association's
huge success with the campaign "Got Milk?" prompted
them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their
attention the Spanish translation read "Are you lactating?"
2. Coors put its slogan,
"Turn It Loose," into Spanish, where it was read as
"Suffer From Diarrhea."
3. Scandinavian vacuum
manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign:
"Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."
4. 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."
5. When Gerber started
selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in
the US, with the smiling baby on the label. Later they learned
that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the labels
of what's inside, since many people can't read.
6. Colgate introduced a
toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno
magazine.
7. 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).
8. Pepsi's "Come Alive
With the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi Brings
Your Ancestors Back From the Grave" in Chinese.
9. The Coca-Cola name in
China was first read as "Kekoukela", 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 "kokou kole", translating
into "happiness in the mouth."
10. 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."
11. 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." 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!"
12. When American Airlines
wanted to advertise its new leather first class seats in the Mexican
market, it translated its "Fly In Leather" campaign
literally, which meant "Fly Naked" (vuela en cuero)
in Spanish!
