Obviously bad translation is damaging for any business but there are some that really tickle the funny bone. If you’d rather your business made headlines for something other than a translation fail, stay well away from automatic computer translations.
Here are our top five fails!
Coors
The well-known beer developed the slogan “Turn It Loose” which was translated into Spanish as “Suffer from Diarrhoea”. That might encourage the Spanish to stick to sangria!
Clairol
Launching a mist stick, they failed to realise that the German translation marketed it as a manure stick.
Pepsi
Pepsi planned to market their drinks in China using the slogan “Come alive with the Pepsi generation”. Sadly, the Chinese translation read: “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave”.
Parker
Parker launched a pen in Mexico telling the native population it “won’t make you pregnant”.
KFC
KFC emerged as more than finger-licking good after their slogan was translated as “eat your finger off” in Chinese.
It just goes to show it really is best to research the local dialect along with the national language!
