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

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

3. Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick", a curling iron, into
   German only to find out that "mist" is slang for manure.
   Not too many people had use for the "manure stick."

4. When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they
   used the same packaging as in the US, with the beautiful
   Caucasian baby on the label. Later they learned that in
   Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the label of
   what's inside, since most people can't read.

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

6. An American T-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).

7. Pepsi's "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" translated
   into "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave",
   in Chinese.

8. 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."

9. The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Ke-kou-ke-
   la", 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 "ko-kou-ko-le", translating into "happiness in
   the mouth."

10. When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its
    ads were supposed to have read, "it won't leak in your
    pocket and embarrass you." Instead, 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."

Submitted by Maury Cagle - maury_cagle@ccMail.Census.GOV