when gerber started selling baby food inafrica, they used the same packaging as in the us, with the smiling baby on thelabel. later they learned that in africa, companies routinely put pictures onthe labels of what's inside, since many people can't read.
當gerber嘉寶(應該是嬰兒用品商)，在非洲銷售嬰兒食品的時候，他們用了和在美國銷售時一樣的包裝，把一個正在微笑的baby標誌印在包裝上，但是稍後他們才瞭解，在非洲，商品包裝上的圖片和所銷售的商品通常是一致的，因為非洲很多人不認識字。
pepsi's "come alive with the pepsigeneration" translated into "pepsi brings your ancestors back fromthe grave" in chinese.
百事的口號"come alive with the pepsi generation"(百事新一代(產品)帶給你活力)翻譯成中文是"pepsibrings your ancestors back from the grave"(百事把你的祖先從墳墓裏帶出來)，alive也表示活着的，comealive，可以理解為重生
coors put its slogan, "turn itloose," into spanish, where it was read as "suffer fromdiarrhea."
銀子彈啤酒的口號"turn it loose"(讓他釋放吧~)，翻譯成西班牙文的時候，讀音和
"suffer from diarrhea"(腹瀉帶來的痛苦) 的西班牙讀音一樣。
clairol introduced the "miststick," a curling iron, into germany only to find out that"mist" is slang for manure. not too many people had use for the"manure stick."
伊卡璐在給德國人推廣其產品"mist stick"，一種捲髮的電棍時，令到德國人哭笑不得
,因為mist在德國俚語是表示糞肥的，沒人願意用“大便棍”來捲髮。
scandinavian vacuum manufacturerelectrolux used the following in an american campaign: "nothing sucks likean electrolux."
斯堪的納維亞吸塵器製造商伊萊克斯在美洲推廣其吸塵器時，用了這句廣告"nothing sucks like an electrolux."
#“sucks”有兩個意思，一是吸，二是糟糕的
the coca-cola name in china was firstread as "kekoukela", meaning "bite the wax tadpole" or"female horse stuffed with wax", depending on the dialect. coke thenresearched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent"kokoukole", translating into "happiness in the mouth."
可口可樂來到中國，開始時翻譯成”kekoukela“，某些方言裏就是"磕口蝌臘(吃一口蠟燭蝌蚪)"，某些方言裏也可以理解成"female horse stuffed with wax(用蠟餵飽的母馬??什麼意思?哪位強人知道?)"
可口可樂經過研究40000種語音學的特徵，最終kekoukele誕生了(ms只改動了一個字母)
kekoukele在中文裏是"口中的歡樂"的意思。
general motors had a very famous fiascoin trying to market the nova car in central and south america. "nova" in spanish means, "it doesn't go".
gm通用汽車有一個舉世皆知的失敗之舉在中南美洲(拉丁美洲)推廣'nova'車，西班牙語啊，西班牙語，"nova"表示不能動啊~~
the dairy association's huge successwith the campaign "got milk?" prompted them to expand advertising tomexico. it was soon brought to their attention the spanish translation read"are you lactating?"
the dairy association(聯合乳業?)成功的口號"gotmilk?(你今日飲左未啊...汗，我真是天才)"，迅速地發展到了墨西哥，但不幸地，又是西班牙語，翻譯成了"are you lactating?(你正在處於喂bb的時候嗎?)"的ws玩意兒。
an american t-shirt maker in miamiprinted shirts for the spanish market which promoted the pope's visit. insteadof "i saw the pope" (el papa), the shirts read "i saw thepotato" (la papa).
一間美國邁亞密tshirt製造廠為一間被羅馬教皇(pope)許下承諾要來參觀的西班牙市場印tshirt時，原本想印刷的”el papa(i saw the pope)(我看見了羅馬教皇)“被印成了lapapa(i saw the potato)(我見到了薯仔)
那間市場應該是菜市場。
when american airlines wanted toadvertise its new leather first class seats in the mexican market, ittranslated its "fly in leather" campaign literally, which meant"fly naked" (vuela en cuero) in spanish.
美航在墨西哥做其具有真皮座位頭等艙的廣告時，用了這與句口號"fly in leather(在皮革上飛翔)"，在西班牙語裏逐字翻譯就是"fly naked(vuela en cuero)" (飛翔的天體~)
frank perdue's chicken slogan, "ittakes a strong man to make a tender chicken," was translated into spanishas "it takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate."
frank perdue's chicken(雞場)的口號"ittakes a strong man to make a tender chicken(如此鮮嫩的雞肉需要一個壯男來製造)"翻譯成西班牙語就變成了"it takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate(親愛的，製造一些雞肉需要激起男人強大的情慾)"
#這一句翻譯得不怎麼好
colgate introduced a toothpaste infrance called cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.
高露潔在法國銷售一種牙膏叫做"cue",也是一本聲名狼藉的色情雜誌的名字。
when parker pen marketed a ball-pointpen in mexico, its ads were supposed to have read, "it won't leak in yourpocket 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."
當派克筆廠準備在墨西哥賣他的圓珠筆的時候,想出了1條廣告語:"派克筆不會在你口袋裏漏墨,不會惹你麻煩(embarrass you)",但是他們以為embarazar等同於embarrass,這就大錯特錯了,因為embarazar是表示to impregnate,也就是令人受"孕"(應該是在墨西哥語裏面)
這樣的廣告就有趣多了.
世界語言博大精深，各地翻譯不盡相同，稍有不慎就可能會帶來難以挽回的影響