Slogans Gone Wrong

In China, Kentucky Fried Chicken’s slogan “finger-licking good,” reads as “eat your fingers off.”

Coors had a tagline once, “turn it loose.” In Spain that read as “suffer from diarrhea.”

When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the U.S., with the beautiful baby on the label. Later they learned that African companies routinely put pictures on the outside of the package of what’s inside since there are too many languages and most people can’t read English. So, people thought Gerber was selling jars of curried babies.

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

In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated into “Schweppes toilet water.”

Everybody’s heard the story of GM’s Chevy Nova meaning “it won’t go” in Spanish markets. Ford had a similar problem when they introduced the Pinto in Brazil. “Pinto” is Brazilian slang for “tiny male genitals.”

Perdue’s “it takes a strong man to make a tender chicken” translated in Spanish markets to “it takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate.”

When Parker Pen marketed in Mexico it’s ads were supposed to have said, “it won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.” You guessed it. They used the wrong word for “embarrass” and the resulting ads actually said, “it won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.”

One success story: When Coca-Cola rolled out in China the name read as “ke-kou-ke-la,” which is at least close phonetically. But that translates as “bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse stuffed with wax” depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 Chinese characters to find an equivalent of “ke-kou-ke-la” that translates, thankfully, into “happiness in the mouth.”