Fw: 12 Prospects for the Chevy Nova Award

My new job is in marketing for a company that translates
software, websites and other documents.  The bloopers below
actually happened.  Not particularly on topic, but I think
you'll enjoy it anyway.

>	     These are the nominees for the Chevy Nova Award.
This is given
>in honor of  GM's fiasco in trying to market this car in
Central and
>South America.
>		"No va",  of course, means, "It doesn't go".
>
>
>1.	The Dairy Association's huge success with the campaign,
"Got Milk?"
>prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon
brought to their
>attention that the Spanish translation read, "Are you
lactating?"
>
>
>2.	Coors converted its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into
Spanish, where it
>means, "Suffer From Diarrhea."
>
>
>3.	Scandinavian vacuum cleaner manufacturer - Electrolux -
used the
>following in an American ad campaign: "Nothing sucks like an
Electrolux."
>
>
>4.	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 a "Manure Stick."
>
>
>5.	When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they
used the same
>packaging as in the US -- with the smiling baby on the label.
Later they
>learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on
their labels of
>what's inside, since many people can not read.
>
>
>6.	Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called "Cue",
which is the
>name of a pornographic magazine.
>
>
>7.	An American tee-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for
the Spanish
>market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of, "I saw the
Pope" (el
>Papa), the shirts read, "I Saw the Potato" (la papa).
>
>
>8.	Pepsi's "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation"
translated into "Pepsi
>Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave" in Chinese.
>
>
>9.	The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as
"Kekoukela", meaning
>"Bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax",
depending on the
>dialect.  Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a
phonetic
>equivalent "kokou kole", translating into "happiness in the
mouth."
>
>
>10.	 Frank Perdue's chicken slogan, "It takes a strong man
to make a
>tender chicken" was translated into Spanish as, "it takes an
aroused man to
>make a chicken affectionate."
>
>
>11.	 When Parker Pen Company marketed a ball-point pen in
Mexico, it's
>ads were supposed to have read, "It won't leak in your pocket
and embarrass
>you".	The company thought that the word "embarazar" (to
impregnate) meant
>to embarrass, so the ad read: "It won't leak in your pocket and
make you
>pregnant!"
>
>
>12.	 When American Airlines wanted to advertise its new
leather first
>class seats in the Mexican market, it translated its, "Fly In
Leather"
>campaign literally, which meant "Fly Naked" (vuela en cuero) in
Spanish.