Although sometimes cringe-worthy, examples of global merchandising bloopers are a useful means of appreciating that we are not all the same. For any company or business conducting a merchandising campaign abroad they must take linguistic and cultural variations seriously.
Below we have provided a top 20 Marketing & Communications Bloopers from across the globe.
1) The Japanese company Matsushita Electric was promoting a new Japanese PC for net users. Panasonic created the new web browser and had received license to use the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker as an interactive net guide. The day before the huge merchandising campaign, Panasonic complete its error and pulled the plug. Why? The ads for the new product featured the following slogan: "Touch Woody - The Internet Pecker." The company only realised its cross cultural blunder when an embarrassed American explain what "touch Woody's pecker" could be understood as!
2) The Swedish article of furniture giant IKEA somehow agreed upon the name "FARTFULL" for one of its new desks.
3) In the late 1970s, Wang, the American computer company could not understand why its British branches were refusing to use its latest catchword "Wang Cares". Of course, to British ears this sounds too just about "Wankers" which would not really give a very positive image to any company.
4) "Traficante" and Italian mineral water found a great reception in Spain's underworld. In Spanish it translates as "drug dealer".
5) In 2002, Umbro the UK sports manufacturer had to withdraw its new trainers (sneakers) called the Zyklon. The firm received complaints from many organisations and individuals as it was the name of the gas used by the Nazi regime to murder millions of Jews in concentration camps.
6) Sharwoods, a UK food manufacturer, spent £6 million on a campaign to launch its new 'Bundh' sauces. It received calls from many Punjabi speakers telling them that "bundh" measured just like the Punjabi word for "arse".
7) Honda introduced their new car "Fitta" into Nordic countries in 2001. If they had taken the time to undertake some cross cultural merchandising research they may have discovered that "fitta" was an old word used in vulgar language to refer to a woman's genital organ in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. In the end they renamed it "Honda Jazz".
8) American Motors tried to market its new car, the Matador, supported the image of bravery and strength. However, in Puerto Rico the name means "killer" and was not popular on the dangerous roads in the country.
9) Proctor & Gamble used a television commercial in Japan that was popular in Europe. The ad showed a woman bathing, her husband entering the bathroom and touching her. The Japanese considered this ad an encroachment of privacy, inappropriate behaviour, and in very poor taste.
10) Leona Helmsley should have done her prep before she sanctioned a promotion that compared her Helmsley Palace Hotel in New York as comparable the Taj Mahal--a mausoleum in India.
11) A golf ball manufacturing company packaged golf balls in packs of four for convenient purchase in Japan. Unfortunately, orthoepy of the word "four" in Japanese sounds like the word "death" and items packaged in fours are unpopular.
12) Pepsodent tried to sell its toothpaste in Southeast Asia by accenting that it "whitens your dentition." They found out that the local natives chew Piper betel nuts to blacken their dentition which they find attractive.
13) A company heralded glasses in Thailand by featuring a variety of cute animals wearing glasses. The ad was a poor choice since animals are considered to be a form of low life and no self respecting Thai would wear anything worn by animals.
14) The soft drink Fresca was being promoted by a gross revenuewoman in Mexico. She was dumbstricken that her gross revenue pitch was greeted with laughter, and later embarrassed when she learned that fresca is slang for "lesbian."
15) Kellogg had to rename its Bran Buds cereal in Sweden when it discovered that the name roughly translated to "burned farmer."
16) When Pepsico heralded Pepsi in Taiwan with the ad "Come Alive With Pepsi" they had no idea that it would be translated into Chinese as "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead."
17) Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish where its translation was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea."
18) 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."
19) Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a disreputable porn mag.
20) 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 implicit message that the future is bright, the future is Protestant, loyalist... didn't sit well with the Catholic Irish population.
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