The internet has an infallible memory; once something is uploaded to the web it can never be erased. For companies that have had terrible marketing translation mishaps, this can be a tarnish on their reputation. For the rest of us though, it provides an endless source of amusement and entertainment. Some of the greatest mistranslations ever have been recorded and saved on the internet for all to enjoy and learn from. The following are seven examples that highlight the need for professional translation services.
1. Tokyo Car Rental Company: A Major Marketing Translation Mistake
This marketing translation services blunder occurred at a car rental company in Tokyo. Apparently, the company wanted to educate its customers on proper horn usage in their cars. They came up with this explanation: “When passenger of foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage then tootle him with vigor”. Perhaps if this company had used professional translation, they would not be remembered for an epic translation fail.
2. IKEA’s Marketing Translation Fail
Furniture giant IKEA presents the next marketing translation failure. IKEA’s marketing team wanted to promote the speed of one of their new products. The Swedish word for speed is “färt”: they described their product as “fartfull”. Hiring professional marketing translation and localization services would have easily avoided this embarrassing mistake.
3. Schweppes’s Marketing Translation Fail
Schweppes Tonic Water also enters the hall of fame of Italian translation failures with their epic mistranslation. It seems like the company used a literal translation for their tonic water product; the only problem is that this translation turned “tonic water” into “toilet water”.
4. Ford Cars and…Corpses?
A few years ago, Ford launched a marketing campaign in Belgium. The reasonable sounding claim that “every car has a high quality body” somehow did not sound so reasonable to the Belgians. It turns out that the phrase was mistranslated to “every car has a high quality corpse”.
5. Mercedes’ Chinese Mistranslation
When Mercedes first entered the Chinese market, they wanted to brand themselves with a short, catchy name that would be memorable to the Chinese public. They chose the name “bensi”. Unfortunately for Mercedes, “bensi” is the Chinese word for “rush to die”. Instead of rushing with their translation, they should have employed a localization and translation service to help their marketing effort.
6. Canadian Mist doesn’t sound appealing…in German
Some time ago, whiskey manufacturer Canadian Mist launched their products in Germany under their established name. Unfortunately for them, “mist” has a very different meaning in German: “Canadian Mist” translates as “Canadian Manure”.
7. HSBC’s 10 Million Dollar Mistranslation
The final marketing translation failure shows how expensive translation mistakes can be. HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks, had to spend $10 million on a rebranding marketing campaign after their slogan “assume nothing” was translated into a number of languages as “do nothing”. Again, the value of professional translation services becomes self-evident.
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