Slogans Gone Wrong

Slogan Mis-translations from American Advertising Compaigns in Other Countries

In Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" came out in Chinese as Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the grave.

Coors translated its slogan "Turn it loose" into Spanish, where it was read as Suffer from diarrhea.

Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.

The Microsoft ad slogan, as translated into Japanese: If you don't know where you want to go, we'll make sure you get taken.

When Chevrolet developed the Chevy Nova, they decided to market it heavily in Mexico, where the name translates as doesn't go. The car was later renamed Caribe.

The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as something that when pronounced sounded like Coca-Cola: Ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the characters used meant bite the wax tadpole or female horse stuffed with wax, depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, Ko-kou-ko-le, which can be loosely translated as happiness in the mouth.

The Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan finger-lickin' good came out in KFC’s first Chinese campaign as eat your fingers off.

An American tee-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market, promoting the Pope's visit. Instead of the desired I saw the Pope! (el Papa) Thousands of shirts proudly proclaimed in Spanish I saw the Potato! (la Papa).

In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water.