Funny Translations

During the cold war, the United States developed software to translate written messages from one

language to another. Such software is now more common but still imperfect. Babel Fish on

Altavista.com can translate Web pages, at times with humorous results.

Here are the titles of 14 well-known classic television shows that have been translated from English to

another language and back.

1. Crazy approximately you Mad About You 2. Destroyed in space Lost in Space 3. Scandinavian exposure Northern Exposure 4. One life span to the life One Life to Live 5. Obtain elegant Get Smart 6. The practical one The Practice 7. We make a transaction Let’s Make a Deal 8. Laughter inside Laugh-In 9. Difficult trip of the star Star Trek 10. Barriers of stake Picket Fences 11. Loops of the family Family Ties 12. The outside delimitations The Outer Limits 13. Double heads Twin Peaks 14. The uneven pairs The Odd Couple

Funny Ad Campaign Blunders And Slogan Mis-translations from American advertising Campaigns in Other

Countries

 An American tee-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market, promoting the Pope's visit. Instead

of the desired I saw the Pope! (el papa) Thousands of shirts proudly proclaimed in Spanish I saw the potato! (la

papa).

 Coors translated its slogan, turn it loose into Spanish where it read as, Suffer from diarrhea.

 When Braniff translated a slogan touting its upholstery, Fly in leather, it came out in Spanish as Fly naked.

 When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to say it won't leak in your pocket

and embarrass you. However, the company mistakenly thought the Spanish word "embarazar" meant

embarrass. Instead the ad said: it won't leak in you pocket and make you pregnant.

 When Chevrolet developed the Chevy Nova, they decided to market it heavily in Mexico, where the name

translates as doesn't go . The car was later renamed Caribe.

 Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American Campaign: Nothing sucks like

an Electrolux. Of course, nobody would want to buy it with that promise!!  In Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan Come alive with the Pepsi generation came out in Chinese as Pepsi

will bring your ancestors from the grave.

 When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the beautiful

baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the label of what's inside,

since many people can't read English.

 In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet water.

 The Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan finger-lickin' good came out in KFC's first Chinese campaign as eat your

fingers off.

 Clairol introduced the Mist stick, a curling iron, into German only to find out that Mist is slang for (to put it

delicately) manure. Not too many people had use for a Manure Stick. this is the reason why Rolls Royce decided

not to call one of its models the Silver Mist -- for fear of lost sales in the German-speaking world.