1.when parker pen marketed a ball-point pen in mexico, its ads were supposed to have read, "it won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you." the company thought that the word "embarazar" (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: "it won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant."

当派克笔厂准备在墨西哥卖他的圆珠笔的时候,想出了1条广告语:"派克笔不会在你口袋里漏墨,不会惹你麻烦(embarrass you)",但是他们以为embarazar等同于embarrass,这就大错特错了,因为embarazar是表示to impregnate,也就是令人受"孕"(应该是在墨西哥语里面)
这样的广告就有趣多了.

2。 scandinavian vacuum manufacturer electrolux used the following in an american campaign: "nothing sucks like an electrolux."

斯堪的纳维亚吸尘器制造商伊莱克斯在美洲推广其吸尘器时，用了这句广告"nothing sucks like an electrolux."
“sucks”有两个意思，一是吸，二是糟糕的
# copyright

3. clairol introduced the "mist stick," a curling iron, into germany only to find out that "mist" is slang for manure. not too many people had use for the "manure stick."

伊卡璐在给德国人推广其产品"mist stick"，一种卷发的电棍时，令到德国人哭笑不得,因为mist在德国俚语是表示粪肥的，没人愿意用“大便棍”来卷发。

4. coors put its slogan, "turn it loose," into spanish, where it was read as "suffer from diarrhea."

银子弹啤酒的口号"turn it loose"（让他释放吧~），翻译成西班牙文的时候，读音和
"suffer from diarrhea"（腹泻带来的痛苦） 的西班牙读音一样。

5. pepsi's "come alive with the pepsi generation" translated into "pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave" in chinese.

百事的口号"come alive with the pepsi generation"(百事新一代(产品)带给你活力)翻译成中文是"pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave"（百事把你的祖先从坟墓里带出来），alive也表示活着的，come alive，可以理解为重生

6. when gerber started selling baby food in africa, they used the same packaging as in the us, with the smiling baby on the label. later they learned that in africa, companies routinely put pictures on the labels of what's inside, since many people can't read.

当gerber嘉宝(婴儿用品商吧应该是)，在非洲销售婴儿食品的时候，他们用了和在美国销售时一样的包装，把一个正在微笑的baby标志印在包装上，但是稍后他们才了解，在非洲，商品包装上的图片和所销售的商品通常是一致的，因为非洲很多人不认识字。
#omg~~卖头~~

7 colgate introduced a toothpaste in france called cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.

高露洁在法国销售一种牙膏叫做"cue",也是一本声名狼藉的色情杂志的名字。

8. frank perdue's chicken slogan, "it takes a strong man to make a tender chicken," was translated into spanish as "it takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate."

frank perdue's chicken（鸡场）的口号"it takes a strong man to make a tender chicken(如此鲜嫩的鸡肉需要一个壮男来制造)" 翻译成西班牙语就变成了"it takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate(亲爱的，制造一些鸡肉需要激起男人强大的情欲)"
这一句翻译得不怎么好

9. when american airlines wanted to advertise its new leather first class seats in the mexican market, it translated its "fly in leather" campaign literally, which meant "fly naked" (vuela en cuero) in spanish.
美航在墨西哥做其具有真皮座位头等舱的广告时，用了这与句口号"fly in leather(在皮革上飞翔)"，在西班牙语里逐字翻译就是"fly naked(vuela en cuero)" （飞翔的天体~）

10. 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).

一间美国迈亚密tshirt制造厂为一间被罗马教皇(pope)许下承诺要来参观的西班牙市场印tshirt时，原本想印刷的”el papa(i saw the pope)(我看见了罗马教皇)“被印成了la papa(i saw the potato)(我见到了薯仔)
#那间市场应该是菜市场。

11. 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?"

the dairy association(联合乳业?)成功的口号"got milk?(你今日饮左未啊...汗，我真是天才)"，迅速地发展到了墨西哥，但不幸地，又是西班牙语，翻译成了"are you lactating？(你正在处于喂bb的时候吗？)"的ws玩意儿。

12. general motors had a very famous fiasco in trying to market the nova car in central and south america. "no va" in spanish means, "it doesn't go".

gm通用汽车有一个举世皆知的失败之举在中南美洲(拉丁美洲)推广'nova'车，西班牙语啊，西班牙语，"no va"表示不能动啊~~

13 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 "kokoukole", translating into "happiness in the mouth."

可口可乐来到中国，开始时翻译成”kekoukela“，某些方言里就是"磕口蝌腊(吃一口蜡烛蝌蚪)"，某些方言里也可以理解成"female horse stuffed with wax(用蜡喂饱的母马？？什么意思？哪位强人知道？)"
可口可乐经过研究40000种语音学的特征，最终kekoukele诞生了(ms只改动了一个字母)
kekoukele在中文里是"口中的欢乐"的意思。