Coke Says ‘Hello Death' and Other Times Marketers Got It Wrong

When it comes to marketing products that are sold all over the world, there is much that literally gets lost in the translation. Language is a complex thing. Translating something from one to another language isn’t simple because the translation may fail completely to convey the true sense of what is meant to be conveyed. We have seen this in many international brand fails; as we saw with Coca Cola recently. We look at the Coca Cola goof-up and other branding bloopers:

“Kia Ora Mate”

Kia Ora in Maori is a greeting wishing one good health. Mate is a word that the Kiwis and Aussies use all the time for greeting friends and strangers. So with Kia Ora Mate, they were going for a cool, bilingual greeting but it didn’t quite work. Because in Maori, ‘mate’ means death! Some thought it was appropriate because of how unhealthy drinks like Coke are; the way they contribute to obesity.

Pepsi did it too

Pepsi’s tagline Come alive with Pepsi sounded invigorating in English, but in the translation; not so much. The slogan, was translated for the Chinese launch; which unfortunately conveyed the sense that “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead!”

When Coors went Spanish

The popular beer brand Coors was breaking into a new Spanish speaking market. Their slogan turn it loose was quite a hit in English speaking countries so they decided to translate it for the Spanish market as well. That didn’t work so well however, as the translation literally meant to have or suffer from diarrhea!

McDonald's French faux pas

Big Mac became Maharaja Mac when it came to India. That worked well, but it wasn’t so great when it went to France. They called the French Big Mac ‘Gros Mec’ which they thought meant big Mac, but which actually translated to Big Pimp!

When the Pinto went to Brazil

The Ford Pinto did very well in the America because pinto means horse and it was all good. When they wanted to launch the car in Brazil, they had a problem – because pinto meant ‘small penis’ in Portuguese slang!

Puffs in America is not the same in Germany

Puffs is a popular brand of paper tissues in America. But the name didn’t work in Germany, where the word Puff means brothel or house of ill repute. Germans did not seem to want to wipe their faces with that!

Barf in another language

Say barf in English – you immediately conjour up unpleasant images of someone throwing up. Now say the same word in Hindi – burf and it conjures up images of pristine white slopes of a snow clad mountain! So while Barf (which also means snow in Farsi) was successful in Iran, it was much less so in English speaking countries. 

Taco Bell’s Japanese woes

As this tweet points out, when the Japanese website of the Mexican fast food chain translated ‘cheesy chips’, it became ‘low quality chips. Also, the Crunchwrap Supreme–beef” became “Supreme Court Beef” and “We’ve got nothing to hide” became “What did we bring here to hide it?”, which makes no sense!

Do you have something interesting you would like to share? Write to us at [email protected]