Here is a look at how shrewd American business people translate their slogans into foreign languages:
When Braniff translated a slogan touting its upholstery,
"Fly in Leather," it came out in Spanish as
"Fly Naked."
Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose,"
into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer From
Diarrhea."
Chicken magnate Frank Perdue's line, "It takes a
tough man to make a tender chicken," sounds much more
interesting in Spanish: "It takes a sexually stimulated
man to make a chicken affectionate."
When Vicks first introduce its cough drops on the German market,
they were chagrined to learn that the German pronunciation of
"v" is "f," which
in German is the guttural equivalent of "sexual
penetration."
Not to be outdone, Puffs tissues tried later to introduce its
product, only to learn that "Puff" in
German is a colloquial term for a whorehouse.
The Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish speaking countries.
"No Va" means "It Does Not
Go" in Spanish.
When Pepsi started marketing its products in China a few years
back, they translated their slogan, "Pepsi Brings You
Back to Life" pretty literally. The slogan in Chinese
really meant, "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the
Grave."
When Coca-Cola first shipped to China, they named the product
something that when pronounced sounded like
"Coca-Cola." The only problem was that the
characters used meant "Bite The Wax
Tadpole." They later changed to a set of characters that
mean "Happiness In The Mouth."
When Gerber first started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as here in the USA--with the cute baby on the label. Later they found out that in Africa companies routinely put pictures on the label of what is inside since most people can not read.