Top 10 EPIC Advertising Translation Fails
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Have you ever wondered about the worst foreign ad translation fails? Whether it’s the Ford Pinto translating to “small penis” in Brazilian Portuguese, the California Milk Processor Board asking people if they’re lactating, Nokia calling their cell phone a prostitute or KFC telling people to eat their fingers off, some famous companies have made epic fails in global branding. WatchMojo counts down ten international marketing mistakes that involve translation fails.
If you want to check out more stupid publicity stunts, watch out videos on the Top 10 Marketing Fails: Coke, Ford Netflix: Top 10 Misleading Marketing Tactics: and Top 10 Stupid Video Game Publicity Stunts:
00:26 #10: HSBC Bank: “Do Nothing”
01:10 #9: Nokia: “Prostitute”
01:47 #8: California Milk Processor Board: “Are You Lactating?”
02:33 #7: KFC: “Eat Your Fingers Off!”
03:26 #6: Ford Pinto: “Small Penis”
04:17 #5: Green Giant: “Intimidating Green Ogre”
05:05 #4: Braniff International Airways: “Fly Naked”
05:50 #3, #2 & #1 ????
Special thanks to our users Shawn mark and FastTquick for suggesting this idea! Check out the voting page at
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Several mentions of the Chevy No-Va in the comments, but no mention yet of when Coca-Cola went into China. Not sure how best to market it, they settled on transliterating it into the Mandarin "Ko-Kee Co-La", which actually meant "bite the wax tadpole".
A pen that won't impregnate you… that's a feature I think everyone would want from the pen.
PRA – DEUCE …..
At 3:20, the movie is Jack Reacher, not The Interview.
So basically, English is to many romance languages what many oriental languages are to English in that we provide hilariously bad translations from English just like many oriental translations provide us with hilarious instances of "Engrish?" Neat.
Pinto doesn't mean small penis, it only means penis in Portuguese…. it also means small chicken, so maybe that why the mistake was made.
There's gotta be more where these came from….Hilarious!
The Italian one is very wrong. "toilet water" would be a direct translation of "eau de toilette", a type of perfume. It's always called in French to avoid misunderstandings. Tonic water was never misunderstood as anything else.
However, "water" in English is used in Italy to refer to the toilet bowl (from Water Closet), this is what might have confused the list maker.
And then there was the Mitsubishi Pajero, which (in Spanish or Portuguese) translated to"masturbator".
SUOMI MAINUTTU!
where the fuck is "lumia" translated to hooker in spanish?? I have never heard that before, but maybe it is that way in another country? im from chile btw
That's what happen when you use Google translator. LOL.
prah-duce? lol
hey everyone in the comments hope you will have a great day 🙂 from a youtuber who's dream is to reach 1k subscribers
Verquenza is embarrassed in spanish
Lumia means prostitute here in Spain but I've never heard someone using that word before. I had to look it up in the dictionary.
tonic water, toilet water; sounds more like truth in advertising instead of a fail.
schweppes "translation fail" into toiletwater is actualy them beeing honest about their product.
in which country lumia translate to that? cause we don't use that in Puerto Rico
Searched for the lactating and pregnant one, and couldn't find anything. Considering some other people already proved some of these are fake, is most of this list just BS?
Yes I am every night, at precisely 1 am !
Green Giant is dank in Arabic
Smallll bpeennis
Pinto in Brazil means penis, no matter the size
prahduce? is that even an accent?
Whatever happened to the word "failure?"
how we often overlook the funniest of them all…..perdue in french means, "lost"
Got milk? = "¿Tienes leche?"
Lactate = "Lactar"
What kind of dumbass translated that one? It is actually quite straightforward and easy to convey.
That was not the Interview, that was Jack Reacher
It's so finger licking good, you'll eat your fingers off!
At 3:24, that is not a scene from "The Interview." That scene is from "Jack Reacher."
I N T I M I D A T I N G G R E E N O G R E
These are so funny!! I'm dying.
This is why you don't use google translate for localization.
You got a clip from "Jack Reacher" labeled as "The Interview."
2:25-I like it. Let's keep it.
eat your fingers , they are healthier than fast food =P!
I miss those funny"Got Milk" commercials haha
When you made cringe stuff…