In our modern, technologically enhanced society, becoming a multinational company is much more common than it was 50 years ago. You could start a business today and immediately start selling your products to people around the world. Although reaching international markets is more accessible, there are still some hurdles you will need to jump if you want to succeed in another country.
One of these hurdles is translation. Let’s say you want to sell your products in Italy, China, or India, but your first language is English. You will need to translate your product descriptions, tagline, slogan, and branding materials. That doesn’t sound too bad, right? Maybe your website designer knows a little Spanish and could do the translation?
Hopefully, this is not a mistake you would make! Unfortunately, many large-scale corporations have made the mistake of not trusting a professional translation company to do the work resulting in some major translation fails!
Mistranslations can be offensive, inappropriate, and do significant damage to your brand. Just look at the following 10 examples that prove translation should be left to the pros.
- General Electric’s “I farted” European partnership.
General Electric quickly became a target of toilet humor after an unfortunate mistranslation and lack of review from a French speaker. GE was launching a partnership in Europe and would be using the acronym GPT – sounds pretty harmless, right? Well, when those letters are pronounced in French, it says “J’ai pété,” which translates to “I farted” in French. That’s a stinky translation error!
- Pepsi “brings dead ancestors back from the grave” in China.
Remember the Pepsi slogan, “Pepsi brings you back to life”? Although it was a bit zombie-esq in English, it is really bringing back the dead in China. When Pepsi was entering the Chinese market, they, of course, had their slogan translated. As you guessed, it was a fail. The translation became “Pepsi brings dead ancestors back from the grave.” Quite creepy and definitely not as catchy!
- Clairol (beauty brand) and Canadian mist (whiskey) sell “manure” in Germany.
No, these two brands weren’t branching out into a new industry by selling manure in Germany. Unfortunately, they were unaware that the word “mist” means “manure” in German. Canadian Mist became “Canadian Manure” – not something you want to sip on the rocks. And Clairol was marketing their “manure stick,” which was actually a curling iron.
- Schweppes “toilet water” now available in Italy.
Schweppes is a pretty well-known brand known for their ginger ale, soda water, tonic, and (thanks to a significant translation fail) toilet water. When the brand first started marketing its tonic water in Italy, Schweppes translated it very literally. Maybe they thought Google translation could handle the two words. They were unfortunately mistaken, as the literal translation in Italian means “toilet water.” I don’t imagine a gin & toilet water will catch on.
- Kentucky Fried Chicken claims “We’ll Eat Your Fingers!”.
Chicken restaurants usually sell chicken fingers, but rarely do they tell you they’ll eat your fingers. KFC is the exception. Their slogan, “Finger-lickin’ Good,” could easily become lost in translation so you’d think they would test this before going to market, but unfortunately, they did not. When KFC launched in China, they proudly proclaimed “We’ll Eat Your Fingers!” as they tried to entice customers to their restaurants. It’s a bit too cannibalistic for my taste.
- In Belgium, “Every car has a high-quality corpse” with Ford.
Uh-oh, Ford seemed to make a big translation booboo when they translated their slogan, “Every car has a high-quality body.” The meaning of this slogan was lost in translation, and once again, it was missed before presented to the public and telling them they could find a dead body in their car if they purchased a Ford. I’m sure this didn’t do anything to boost Ford sales in Belgium!
- The American Dairy Association wants to know, “Are you lactating?”
The American Dairy Association has an incredible marketing team. Anyone who lived through the 90s remembers the “Got Milk” ads. The team may have been great at coming up with catchy slogans and advertisements, but they weren’t great at translation. When they started marketing in Mexico, they translated the slogan to Spanish. Unfortunately, it was translated to “Are you lactating?” – a very odd and personal question that doesn’t entice you to buy milk!
- “It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused,” according to Perdue Chicken.
As you will continue to see on this list, there are plenty of mistranslations when going from English to Spanish. Perdue Chicken started to advertise in Mexico and translated their slogan “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken” into Spanish. It was a huge fail, as they started telling potential customers that “it takes a virile man to make a chicken pregnant” and “It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused.” Confusing, to say the least.
- In Spanish, drink Coors Light and “suffer from diarrhea.”
The beer Coors Light may be known for many things but wasn’t notorious for diarrhea until they translated their slogan to Spanish. The original English slogan was “turn it loose,” but unfortunately, they missed the mark on translation, and their slogan became “suffer from diarrhea” in Spanish.
- Parker Pens “won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.”
When people look for a new pen, they often want quality ink that won’t leak or smudge and will last. Rarely are people concerned that their writing device will get them pregnant. Still, customers were reassured in Mexico when Parker Pens mistranslated their slogan “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you” to “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.”
Although funny, we know these mistranslations cost these companies A LOT! Pulling products and marketing materials, recreating them, and putting their public relations team into overdrive would significantly hurt their bottom line. It would have been a lot easier if these companies sought a reputable translator like MP Language Solutions!