Some Global Marketing Gaffes

There are many, many cases when marketing departments of very large companies have failed to test product names and slogans in foreign markets. Below are some of the "classics".

1. Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, which was the name of a local porno magazine.
   
   
2. The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, Coke did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means “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.”
   
   
3. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American ad campaign: “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.”
   
   
4. Hunt-Wesson introduced its Big John products in French Canada as Gros Jos before finding out that the phrase, in slang, means “big breasts.” In this case, however, the name problem did not have a noticeable effect on sales.
   
   
5. In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water.
   
   
6. The American slogan for Salem cigarettes, “Salem—Feeling Free,” got translated in the Japanese market into “When smoking Salem, you feel so refreshed that your mind seems to be free and empty.”
   
   
7. Ford, many years ago, had a problem in Brazil when the Pinto flopped. The company found out that Pinto was Brazilian slang for “tiny male genitals.” Ford pried all the nameplates off and substitute Corcel, which means horse.
   
   
8. An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market to promote the Pope's visit. Instead of the desired “I Saw the Pope” in Spanish, the shirts proclaimed, “I Saw the Potato.”

Where can you go for help? As a start, contact protocol officers at embassies and consulates worldwide and ask them for a tip sheet on what to do and what not to do when conducting business in a specific foreign country. A list of embassies can be found at www.embassyworld.com. Or try the Electronic Embassy at www.embassy.org.