When Coke was first introduced in China, the product name ‘Coca-Cola' was translated phonetically as ‘ke-kou-ke-la.' It was determined-but only after a mountain of marketing materials had been produced-that those sounds, translated back into Chinese, meant either ‘bite the wax tadpole' or ‘female horse stuffed with wax.' An alternative was eventually found, which both closely resembled the classic pronunciation and conveyed a more alluring image: ‘ko-kou-ko-le' which translates as ‘happiness in the mouth.' Pepsi had a similar experience in Taiwan, where the translation of their slogan “Come alive with the Pepsi generation†yielded "Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead." That's a hard promise to deliver on, and an unwelcome one for anyone who prefers that their deceased ancestors remain that way (or who is concerned about population growth). The Colonel had his problems as well with Chinese translation. "Finger-licking good" was rendered as "eat your fingers off." And "Kentucky fried" would be…? In Brazil, ‘Pinto' is slang for ‘tiny male genitals.' Ford discovered this after introducing the Pinto in the Brazilian market, with predictably disastrous results. The car was renamed ‘Corcel,' which means horse, and rebadged accordingly. General Motors introduced the popular Nova in Mexico and other Latin America markets without realizing that the name ‘Nova' = no va, which means ‘doesn't go.' And no va is just what sales did, until the name was changed to Caribe. Parker Pen's slogan, “It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you,†became “It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant†when translated into Spanish. The Society for the Prevention of Pen-related Pregnancies was appreciative. (switchey boy's personal favorite- I had to walk out of the library today from too much laughing at this one) “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken.†So says Frank Perdue, storied purveyor of chickens. Or so he says in his English-language ads. On Spanish-language billboards in Mexico, Perdue and a chicken were pictured with the headline: “It takes a hard man to arouse a chicken.†Guess that means Perdue sells randy chickens? Hunt-Wesson launched their Big John line in the French-speaking regions of Canada under the name ‘Gros Jus.' Slang translation: ‘big breasts.' Colgate's toothpaste was introduced in France as ‘Cue,' which also happens to be the name of a particularly raunchy pornographic magazine. One of Japan's largest tour companies, Kinki Nippon Tourist Company, found itself flooded with requests for exotic sex tours when it entered English-speaking markets. A name change, from Kinki to KK Tours, solved the problem.
I hate to be a bastard but this sounded like the kind of thing that people got via email a lot (or in compilation books of various types) that was only partially true or completely fabricated. The truth is that people really like to think that such things can happen, whether or not they do it knowingly or with malicious intent this stuff is spread as truth. False information is just as common as the truth, even if it is in a book. Go to http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate and check out the various things they have about mistranslated product names. They discredit as well as prove a few of the things on that list. The ones that aren't on their I'd have to guess are only partially based on truth (they were inspired but not based on actual events). People sometimes tend to think that those from other countries are so different that they wouldn't understand the general images we associate with these products, but think about it, if some asian company started selling a product here called 'ass face' most would figure out that something's wrong and either pass it by or buy it for it's novelty. The thing is, that doesn't ever really happen here (with a few exceptions) so why would this be something that occurs in other places with regularity? My general debunking is now over, I hope I didn't ruin all yer fun