Mirela
Even the biggest global brands and institutions don’t always get translations right. The results are often hilarious (as we can see below), sometimes confusing… and other times downright disastrous. Check out these famous mistranslations and let’s see where the brands stumbled in their attempt to localize content.
Pepsi’s Chinese slogan
One of the most notorious localization blunders involves Pepsi’s advertising campaign in China during the 1960s and 70s. The slogan “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” was intended to capture youthful energy. However, when translated into Chinese, it reportedly became something akin to “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave.”
This is proof that idioms, especially those involving metaphors or spirituality, don’t always cross linguistic or cultural boundaries cleanly. In this case, what was meant to be invigorating came off as supernatural and disrespectful.
KFC’s Chinese slogan
KFC made a similarly bizarre mistake when it entered the Chinese market. Its slogan, “Finger-lickin’ good,” was mistranslated as “Eat your fingers off.” Does that sound appetizing or rather… gruesome? It’s a case where a colloquial expression fails when you do a literal translation into another language. Amusing in hindsight, such a translation could disturb some potential customers.
Parker Pens Spanish slogan
Another often-cited error comes from Parker Pens, which advertised that its pens “won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.” When it came to translating this campaign into Spanish, this message was disastrously translated to say the pen “won’t leak in your pocket and impregnate you.”
The confusion arose because the verb “embarazar” means “to impregnate” in Spanish, not “to embarrass.” It’s a classic example of “false friends” (words that sound similar between languages but mean entirely different things.)
Ford’s Brazilian car model name
Ford encountered a different sort of problem with its car model, the Pinto, when marketing in Brazil in the early 1970s. Unbeknownst to the brand, “pinto” is a slang term in Brazilian Portuguese for a small male genitalia. The name was unintentionally humorous and off-putting to local consumers. This type of error highlights the need for cultural localization so that the names and phrases used by a brand don’t carry unwanted connotations.
Clairol’s Mist Stick fail in Germany
When hair products company Cairol introduced its “Mist Stick” curling iron in Germany, things didn’t go according to their expectations. In German, “mist” means “manure” or “crap.” So “Mist Stick” essentially became “crap stick,” which understandably didn’t fly off the shelves.
IKEA’s Redalen translation in Thai
In Thailand, some of IKEA’s product names caused unintentional laughter when their pronunciation resembled local slang. The Redalen bed frame, for instance, sounded amusingly similar to a Thai term with sexual connotations, leading to cheeky interpretations that the company hadn’t anticipated.
We can agree that the original Swedish terms contribute to IKEA’s distinct identity. They give the brand a sense of personality and heritage. Nonetheless, even the most unique branding needs to be balanced with cultural awareness to avoid such awkward slip-ups.
A word of advice
Mistranslations may make for entertaining headlines, but the cost of getting it wrong can range from brand embarrassment to serious reputational damage. So how can companies avoid these mistakes? It starts with treating localization as more than just translation, working with native speakers, investing in transcreation, and testing content with real users before launch.