Top 9 Unfortunate Product Names

[Otis McNutt 395]

Marketers do a great job of convincing us to buy stuff (often stuff we don

[Skippy 82]

You also have these, not unfortunate in themselves, but international campaigns gone wrong

13. 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. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: "Nothing Sucks like an Electrolux."

11. 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."

10. Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea."

9. Pepsi's "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave" in Chinese.

8. 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.

7. Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.

6. 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."

5. 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.

4. 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).

3. 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. General Motors had a very famous fiasco in trying to market the Nova car in Central and South America. "No va" in Spanish means, "It Doesn't Go".

1. 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 "kokoukole", translating into "Happiness in the Mouth."

[ZuZu 10]

haha these are great

also courtesy of bash.org:

<`Sonny-Michaels> Oh good lord

<`Sonny-Michaels> As if www.mofo.com wasn't bad enough

<`Sonny-Michaels> You know the company Powergen?

<@Evil-PR-Director> uh oh

<`Sonny-Michaels> I'm told they're starting to move into Italy

<`Sonny-Michaels> Using the suffix Italia tacked onto the corp name

<`Sonny-Michaels> That's wrong in more ways than I want to think about

<@Evil-PR-Director> yeah...

<`Sonny-Michaels> Specially since they spelled it out for the url

<`Sonny-Michaels> http://www.powergenitalia.com/

and i cant believe you both forgot one of the biggest blunders / mistranslations, that is still around today! we all know the car the Pajero, well you should ask a spanish friend what Pajero means to them.

(wanker)

[Joshawott 7]

Don't forget about Pocari Sweat.

[SoulSwordx 0]

I'd sue the "jussipussi" if I could...

[Skippy 82]

Don't forget about Pocari Sweat.

Yeah, how could i forget that......I have to go wash the bad memories from my mouth.....blech

[Otis McNutt 395]

Don't forget about Pocari Sweat.

What is it, don't have it in the US.

[Joshawott 7]

It's a Japanese soft drink.

[AarghZombies 0]

"it takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate." Perfect.

Good list. Still laughing at no. 6.

As for Ayds, I've seen the advert for it, I'll try and dig it out of YouTube.

Zombies Delivers:

One: Here (WARNING: The web address at the bottom of the video is now a pr0n site, so please don't search for it!)

Two: Here

Talking of badly named products, this gem was launched in Britian last year.

Edited 10 May 2008 by AarghZombies (see edit history)

[LDGM 0]

lwaol

that's good

[Ganny 285]

This is good stuff. It's amazing how much common sense people lack. The common sense to read what their product actually says, the common sense to ask someone who speaks the language of the country they're launching an advertising campaign in before they mass produce it.

[Sahaqiel 1232]

Dude, you forgot one. D=

(My friend Ricky and I went to Shnucks, a nearby general store, and we found something quite amusing.)

(RICKY APPROVES THIS MESSAGE ABOUT BAWLS)

Pretty self-explanatory.

It's opened a huge gateway for an infinitely large amount of jokes.

Yus,

Sahaqiel

[Odin 0]

I'd sue the "jussipussi" if I could...

I'd eat it if I could. Yummy bread.

[SoulSwordx 0]

You are getting weirder and weirder EVERY day...

I lol'd at "Aydes" lol

[Odin 0]

You are getting weirder and weirder EVERY day...

That's the plan. and it's not a daily basis. it's an hourly basis.

AWESOME!!