The importance of translation: international branding gaffes
Wednesday, 18th February 2009

When devising a new product name, or advertising slogan, it is unlikely that the first consideration on many people’s list would be the suitability of its translation into other languages.
For global companies whose international sales are just as important as their domestic ones though, perhaps it should be…
Take for example, the Toyota MR2. Had the team at Toyota not been sharp enough to realise that when pronounced in French, MR2 sounds like ‘est merdeux’ (fr: is terrible, hell), sales of this particular model in France would have been unlikely to break any records. Fortunately, the car was sold there only as the MR, avoiding any offence, and ensuing downturn in sales.
Below are some other commonly-cited examples of translation ‘oversights’ that have not been realised quite as far in advance. They demonstrate perfectly why it’s worth getting your brand name or slogan checked out with ‘people in the know’ before you go ahead and launch!
- Sales of Clairol’s hair-curling iron “Mist Stick” (and also incidentally the whisky- based drink “Irish Mist") did not do to well in Germany. This was presumably down to the fact that ‘Mist’ translates in German as “manure”.
- Coors’ slogan “Turn it loose,” was reputedly mis-translated into Spanish as “suffer from diarrhea .”
- Bacardi are said to have produced a drink called Pavian, meaning “French chick“, unfortunately they hadn’t realised, when they launched the product in Germany, that it means “baboon” in German.
- IKEA once tried to sell a workbench called FARTFULL - enough said really!
- Parker Pens’ slogan “Avoid Embarassment - use Quink,” when translated into Spanish came out as “Avoid pregnancy - use Quink.”
- Rumour has it that in Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” came out as “Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead.” Not what anyone would be expecting from the purchase of a thirst-quenching drink, I’m sure!
Tags: translation, language, languages, germany, france