TERRIFYINGLY BAD TRANSLATIONS FOR HALLOWEEN

 


Let's look at some truly terrible translation horror stories in the spirit of Halloween, but heed the warning: these are not for the faint of heart.

1.     Pepsi can bring the dead back to life

Pepsi can bring the dead back to life, but when they sought to convert their marketing materials into Chinese, it seems Pepsi was yet another victim of poor translation. When translated into Chinese as "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave," their slogan, "come alive with the Pepsi generation," had a considerably more ominous connotation for the Chinese market.

2.     Rush to die

In China, Mercedes Benz also had issues. Their name was transliterated as "Bensi," which means "Rush to die," when they entered the Chinese market. A bad choice for an automotive company's name! Fortunately, the business swiftly changed things and changed the poorly translated name of the company to Benchi, which means "run quickly as if flying."

3.     Eat your fingers off

When KFC first opened in China in the late 1980s, things didn't go well. Their catchphrase, "finger-lickin' excellent," actually meant to "eat your fingers off" in Chinese, which is wonderful but not exactly tasteful.

4.     Every car has a high-quality corpse

Ford, the world's largest automaker, discovered that in Belgium, luring customers with a dead body in every vehicle isn't the best way to close a deal. Ford started an advertisement campaign in the European nation with the aim of emphasizing the high caliber of the cars' production, which executives believed read: "Every car has a high-quality body." But when it was translated, it said, "Every car has a high-quality corpse," which was the opposite of the impression they were going for.

Spend money on professional language services this Halloween to prevent your brand from becoming the latest casualty of a poor translation. See how we can help you with all of your language needs by looking at our services.

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