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When Braniff translated a slogan
touting its upholstery, "Fly in leather," it came out in Spanish
as "Fly naked."
Coors translated its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish,
where it was read as "Suffer from diarrhea."
Chicken magnate Frank Perdue's line, "It takes a tough man
to make a tender chicken," sounds much more interesting in
Spanish: "It takes a sexually stimulated man to make a chicken
affectionate."
The Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish speaking countries.
"No va" means "it doesn't go" in Spanish.
When Pepsi started marketing its products in China a few years
back, they translated their slogan, "Pepsi Brings You Back
to Life" pretty literally. The slogan in Chinese really meant,
"Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave."
When Coca-Cola first shipped to China, they named the product
something that when pronounced sounded like "Coca-Cola." The
only problem was that the characters used meant, "Bite the
wax tadpole." They later changed to a set of characters that
mean "Happiness in the mouth."
When Gerber first started selling baby food in Africa, they
used the same packaging as here in the USA - with the cute
baby on the label. Later they found out that in Africa companies
routinely put pictures on the label of what's inside since
most people can't read.
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