Got Milk?

Don't worry, it's a German thing.

Hola, bonjour, hello.

Today, I want to bring my dialogue on advertising and marketing overseas. What I want to address is bad translations. As it turns out, some of the most successful ad campaigns in history have had terrible repercussions in other countries because of bad translations.

Perhaps advertisers shouldn't have spent so much money inserting subliminal messages into commercials and paid decent, honest translators enough to care about the work they're given.

Regardless, the results of advertisers' slipshod translations have created a lot of good laughs.

Here are three of my favorites:

1) Got Milk?

We all remember this from the '90s and '00s. It was a wildly successful ad campaign in the states, so the Dairy Association thought: "Why not bring this slogan down to Ol' Mexico?"

The ad landed, and it wasn't received as well in Latin America as it was in the U.S. After some time, a bilingual citizen informed the Dairy Association that the translation they had come up with was "Are you lactating?"

Really changes the meaning here.

2) Frank Perdue's Chicken

The slogan in English is "It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken."

The slogan in Spanish is "It takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate."

Does it, Frank? Does it?

There he is.

3) Come Alive with the Pepsi Generation

For those who don't know, ancestors are a big deal in a lot of Asian cultures. Many people believe they can pray to their ancestors, ask for their guidance, and even see them after they've passed on. 

If you didn't know that before, don't feel bad. Pepsi didn't know that either. The Chinese translation of this slogan is "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave."

What more can I say?

See you all next week. And thanks to http://www.funtasticus.com for the slogan translations.