[834] in Humor
CLASSIC HUMOR: Catchy Slogans
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew A. Bennett)
Wed Apr 19 10:11:43 1995
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 10:06:35 EDT
From: "Andrew A. Bennett" <abennett@MIT.EDU>
This one is worth another look...
-Drew
From: Big John Stud <erosenbl@CS.Trinity.Edu>
From: Yollie <ER6979A@american.edu>
This will make you realize why Americans are not taken seriously in
other countries...
Shawna
> LIST OF AMERICAN SLOGAN TRANSLATIONS INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES
>
>Here is a look at how shrewd American business pee translate their
>slogans into foreign languages:
>
>1. When Braniff translated a slogan touting its upholstery, "Fly in
>Leather," it came out in Spanish as "Fly Naked."
>
>2. Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish, where it was
>read as "Suffer From Diarrhea."
>
>3. 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."
>
>4. When Vicks first introduce its cough drops on the German market,
>they were chagrined to learn that the German pronunciation of "v" is f -
>which in German is the guttural equivalent of "sexual penetration."
>
>5. Not to be outdone, Puffs tissues tried later to introduce its
>product, only to learn that "Puff" in German is a colloquial term for a
>whorehouse.
>
>6. The Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish speaking countries.
>"No Va" means "It Does Not Go" in Spanish.
>
>7. 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."
>
>8. Then 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."
>
>9. A hair products company, 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. 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 actually is inside the container!!
>
