McDonald's tries to advertise in Hmong, accidentally ends up with Welsh - by ZylonBane
Ulukai on 5/9/2012 at 20:53
You trying to insult Welsh speakers or something? Doesn't look like any Welsh I've ever seen, seeing as Welsh doesn't use the letters K or V
For your reference, it would look something (approximately) like this:
Yn rhoi'r cyfle i chi Coffi Up, Brecwast Yn rhoi'r cyfle i chi Mynd.
Eshaktaar on 5/9/2012 at 22:08
More like Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, am I rite?
Shug on 5/9/2012 at 22:21
bunch of hmongs in the marketing department, more like it
june gloom on 5/9/2012 at 22:25
welsh sounds like something out of a cosmic horror story
LarryG on 5/9/2012 at 22:48
A few favorite advertising translation blunders:
* Coors put its slogan, 'Turn it Loose', into Spanish, where it was read as 'Suffer from Diarrhea'.
* The Dairy Association's huge success with the campaign 'Got Milk?' prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their attention the Spanish translation read "Are you lactating?"
* Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: 'Nothing sucks like an Electrolux'.
* 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).
* The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as 'Kekoukela', meaning 'Bite the wax tadpole' or 'female horse stuffed with wax', depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent 'kokou kole', translating into 'happiness in the mouth'.
* When American Airlines wanted to advertise its new leather first class seats in the Mexican market, they translated their 'Fly in Leather' campaign literally, which meant 'Fly Naked' (vuela en cuero) in Spanish.
* Honda: In 2001, Honda intended to release an automobile known as the Fit in Asian markets as the Honda Fitta on the European market. However, in Swedish and Norwegian, fitta is a crude reference to female genitalia, and the vehicle was rebranded Honda Jazz.
* During its 1994 launch campaign, the telecom company Orange had to change its ads in Northern Ireland. "The future's bright … the future's Orange." That campaign is an advertising legend. However, in the North the term Orange suggests the Orange Order. The implied message that the future is bright, the future is Protestant, loyalist... didn't sit well with the Catholic Irish population.
Scots Taffer on 5/9/2012 at 23:02
Hahaha those are gold
faetal on 6/9/2012 at 10:33
"Come alive with Pepsi!" was mis-translated in China to "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead!".
Not fully determined by snopes, but I want it to be be true, so it is.
demagogue on 6/9/2012 at 10:45
I was thinking about that too and nixed posting it after looking at Snopes.
But the other one I recall was the Ford Nova being marketed in Mexico before somebody realized it sounds like "No Go" in Spanish.
