Articles and Stories

May 14, 2015

By Amanda Scott

Even some of the biggest companies have translation blunders. Some are funny, some are offensive, and some just don’t make any sense at all. Ad campaigns from KFC to Coca Cola have dealt with mistranslation, even after paying millions of dollars in translation services. Here are some of the top ones:

KFC’s slogan “finger lickin’ good” became “we’ll eat your fingers off” when translated into Chinese.  Cannibalism is probably not the way KFC wanted to entice the people of China to eat their chicken.

In Mexico is where Perdue Chicken’s “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken” left the locals laughing with “It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused.”

The American Dairy Association’s tag-line “Got Milk” which was so popular in the U.S. that it can be seen on everything from t-shirts to coffee cups became “Are you lactating” in Mexico.

Another Chinese mistranslation occurred with Pepsi’s “Come alive with Pepsi!” which read as “Pepsi bring your ancestors back from the dead!”

I’m quite positive that Coors did not want to advertise that their beer caused loose stools, but the slogan “Turn it loose” turned into “Suffer from diarrhea” in Spanish.

Parker Pen’s “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you” assured Mexico that they were in no danger of becoming pregnant by their pens. Translation was “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.”

In China, the Coca-Cola name was read as “Kekoukela” which depending on the dialect meant “Bite the Wax Tadpole” or “Female Horse Stuffed with Wax.” Coke finally settled with “kokoukole” translating to “Happiness in the Mouth,” much more fitting for the tasty beverage.

American Airlines introduced “Fly in Leather” to advertise its new first class leather seats, but was translated instead to the Mexican market as “Fly Naked!”

“Schweppes Tonic Water” in Italian became “Schweppes Toilet Water” and I don’t think that convinced any Italians to drink Schweppes.

Clairol introduced their curling iron “Mist Stick” in Germany. What Clairol failed to realize is that “mist” is slang for “manure” in German. It’s likely sales for the “Manure Stick” were not very high.

Most recently Taco Bell’s Japanese website had inaccurate translations when they attempted to use Google Translate instead of a professional translator. Check it out here: http://en.rocketnews24.com/2015/04/23/supreme-court-beef-and-other-translation-fails-from-the-new-taco-bell-japan-website/