15 Unfortunate language translation failures

People often make the mistake of thinking translations can be done by anyone who knows two or more languages.

But it’s not quite as simple as that.

Just because someone knows a second language doesn’t mean they’re competent at using it.

The truth is that professional translation is a highly specialised field and should only be practised by people with proven language skills.

But even some of the biggest global brands have got it wrong and paid a heavy price for their mistakes. From cringeworthy embarrassment, to huge financial losses and reputations left in tatters.

1. California dairy industry

In the mid 1990s, the California dairy industry commissioned a campaign to promote cow’s milk. Its slogan was ‘Got milk?’.

The campaign was successful and increased milk sales across America. But when they tried to replicate that success in Mexico, they hit a rather embarrassing problem.

Because when ‘Got milk?’ was translated into Spanish, it became ‘Are you lactating?’

2. Canadian Mist

Canadian Mist is a brand of blended whiskey from Canada. But the name of the brand became an issue when they tried to introduce the product in Germany.

In German, ‘mist’ means ‘manure’, which doesn’t sound very appetising.

3. Coca Cola

When Coca Cola launched in China, they soon found that the pronunciation of the Coca Cola name sounded very similar to the Chinese phrase ‘female horse with wax stuffing’.

This wasn’t quite the image they wanted for their refreshing drink, but there wasn’t much they could do about it, since Coca Cola was their name, rather than just a slogan.

The brand ran into problems again more recently when they attempted to combine English and New Zealand’s native Mãori language.

The project was to create a slogan for their vending machines in New Zealand. And they settled on the phrase ‘Kia ora, Mate’.

It was only after the slogans were in place that they discovered the Mãori translation was ‘Hello, Death’.

Coca Cola became the subject of online ridicule and suffered serious embarrassment.

4. Coors

Coors is a US beer brewer, famous for its ‘Turn it loose’ slogan.

But when the slogan was translated literally for the Spanish market, it suggested the beer would cause diarrhoea.

5. Electrolux

Some translation fails are due to cultural rather than language differences — as Swedish manufacturer, Electrolux, found.

In the 1960s they had successfully marketed their vacuum cleaners in the UK, using the slogan ‘Nothing sucks like an Electrolux’. But when they tried this in America, they got a very different response. Because, in America, ‘to suck’ means to be bad or unpleasant.

6. Ford

When Ford launched the ad campaign for its latest vehicle in Belgium, used the slogan ‘Every car has a high-quality body’.

Unfortunately for them, this was mistranslated as ‘Every car has a high-quality corpse’.

7. General Electric

In 1988 General Electric and Plessey Co merged their telecoms businesses, creating GEC Plessey Telecommunications and using the acronym GPT.

But the merger was less well received in France. Because, in French, GPT is pronounced ‘Jai pété’, which translates as ‘I farted’.

8. General Motors

General Motors faced embarrassment when it launched its popular Chevy Nova in Latin America without checking the translation of its name.

In Spanish ‘No va’ means ‘not going’, which is not the greatest name for any kind of motor vehicle.

9. HSBC

In 2009, the global bank’s campaign used the slogan ‘Assume nothing’ to say it didn’t make assumptions about the expectations of its customers. But in many languages, the translation was closer to ‘Do nothing’, which was problematic, as you can imagine.

Thanks to its translation blunder, the bank had to spend $10 million on a global rebrand to become ‘The world’s local bank’.

10. KFC

KFC’s ‘Finger-lickin’ good’ slogan had been used in America since the 1950s. But when the brand decided to expand into Asia in the 1980s, they hit upon a problem.

In China, the translation of ‘Finger lickin’ good’ was ‘Eat your fingers off’. Clearly this was never going to work.

Thankfully, KFC were virtually unknown in China at the time. They fixed their slogan quickly and went on to become one of the country’s most popular Western fast foods.

11. Mead Johnson

Mead Johnson is a manufacturer of baby formula. In 2001, a translation error meant the company had to recall 4.6 million units of their product. The cost of the recall alone was more than $10 million, plus untold damage to the company’s reputation and sales.

What could possibly have gone so badly wrong?

The Spanish mixing instructions on the side of the can had been translated wrongly and would have resulted in a dangerous ratio of formula to water. If consumed, the mixture could have caused seizures and even fatalities.

12. Parker Pens

Parker Pens’ advertising slogan was ‘It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you’, which worked perfectly in English.

However, when the company translated its ad into Spanish, it was wrongly presumed that the Spanish for embarrassment is ‘embarazar’.

The Spanish version of the ad read ‘It won’t leak in your pocket and get you pregnant’.

13. Pepsi

In the 1960s, Pepsi was sizing up against its rival, Coca Cola. The brand introduced a new advertising campaign with the slogan ‘Come Alive, You’re in the Pepsi Generation’.

The campaign was a huge success in America, but not so much in China. Here the translation was understood to say ‘Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From The Dead’.

14. Schweppes

Schweppes ran into problems when it launched its signature tonic water in Italy.

Because the literal Italian translation of ‘Schweppes Tonic Water’ was ‘Schweppes Toilet Water’.

15. Sharp

A bad translation caused a 10% fall in stock for Japanese electronics manufacturer, Sharp.

The company had made a statement about its negative cash flow. But, while the Japanese version of the statement was full of confidence and optimism, this hadn’t translated to the English version. In fact, in English, the statement implied that Sharp’s future was in doubt.

And though a corrected statement was given a few days later, it was too late to stop the damage.

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