Could almost have gone into Humour & Jokes or General Hardware... Seems that Zune is French Canadian slang for penis. Guess they didnt spend enough time checking.
[woman] Is that your zune in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? [/woman]
Honda almost named their new small car the "Fitta"...
Isnt that Norwegian (or other Scandanavian language) for a womans most intimate of intimates?
"The Fitta, the neighbors will be impressed when you fit your whole family inside..."
"Small on the outside and cavernous within."
"Nothing like that new Fitta smell."
...
Yup, and one could go on and on:
QuoteA few examples:
Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer from diarrhea."
Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick," a curling iron, into German only to find out that "mist" is slang for manure. Not too many people uses the "manure stick".
Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.
The American slogan for Salem cigarettes, "Salem-Feeling Free", was translated into the Japanese market as "When smoking Salem, you will feel so refreshed that your mind seems to be free and empty."
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 whats inside, since most people cant read English.
An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Popes visit. Instead of "I saw the Pope" (el Papa), the shirts read "I saw the potato" (la papa).
In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into "Schweppes Toilet Water."
Pepsis "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave," in Chinese.
When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to say "It wont leak in your pocket and embarrass you." However, the company mistakenly thought the spanish word "embarazar" meant embarrass. Instead the ads said that "It wont leak in your pocket and make you pregnant."
The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means "bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax" depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, "ko-kou-ko-le," which can be loosely translated as "happiness in the mouth."
Also in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan "finger-lickin good" came out as "eat your fingers off."
Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.
Interestingly enough I found some foreign product names which dont sound too hot once translated:
Clean Finger Nail - Chinese tissues
Kolic - Japanese mineral water
Creap Creamy Powder - Japanese Coffee Creamer
Swine - Chinese chocolates
Libido - Chinese soda
Pocari Sweat - Japanese sport drink
Shocking - Japanese chewing gum
Cat Wetty - Japanese moistened hand towels
Pipi - Yugoslavian orangeade
Polio - Czechoslovakian laundry detergent
Crundy - Japanese gourmet candy
Superglans - Netherlands car wax
Im Dripper - Japanese instant coffee
Zit - Greek soft drink
Colon Plus - Spanish detergent
Oh yes, and here are some slogans that never made it to the corporate table:
Microsoft: "How much are you going to pay today?"
MTV: "Loud and easy to spell."
Saks 5th Avenue: "You Could Shop Here if Youre Poor, But That Would be Stupid!"
Iguana: "The other green meat."
Nike: "Just buy the shoes, you flabby spineless lump!"
Daisy Air Rifles: "Keeping kids off your lawn for over forty years."
Canon Photocopiers: "Quit calling them Xeroxes!"
Apple MacIntosh: "Hey, we thought of it first!"
Radio Shack: "Youve got questions, weve got geek losers!"
Professional Bowling on NBC: "Oh, why dont you just go ahead and kill yourself instead?"
The Ford Edsel translated into one african language as the Ford wont go
They were wondering why they didnt sell any.
Lol,
Also like the Toyota MR2 in french, MR2 = sh*t
Misubishi Shogun is the Pajero in contries that dont speak Spanish.
Pajero = Wanker in spanish....so lots of giant 4x4 Chelsea Tractors with Wanker written all over them...should be manditory IMHO.