CROSS-CULTURAL BLOOPERS

• Coors put its slogan, "Turn it Loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea."
• Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick," a curling iron, into Germany only to find that "mist" is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the "manure stick".
• Scandanavian vacuum manufacturers Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: Nothing Sucks Like An Electrolux.
• The American slogan for Salem cigarettes, "Salem-Feeling Free", was translated into the Japanese market as "When smoking Salem, you feel so refreshed that your mind seems to be free and empty."
• When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the U.S., with the beautiful 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 English.
• Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.
• 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).
• In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into "Schweppes Toilet Water".
• Pepsi's "Come Alive with the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave," in Chinese.
• 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".
• 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".
• Did you know people in the Dominican Republican are very animated and freely use gestures in conversation. In El Salvador that is considered poor manners. Czechs consider the home to be very private. They do not visit each other unannounced, and even spontaneous visitors call ahead. In Guinea, to pass by a friend's home without stopping briefly is an insult.

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