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  • From misleading people into thinking you're selling baby meat to resurrecting your great

  • grandmother, we look at 12 Dumbest Advertising Translations.

  • 12 – Bensi, • There's not many ways to go wrong when

  • naming a car company, just pick something that sounds sexy and fast but doesn't translate

  • to death on wheels. • Mercedes Benz didn't get the memo on

  • that though and started releasing cars under a name that translated toRush to your

  • deathin China. 'Bensi' • Of course ads for a car that will get

  • you to death's door in record speed didn't go too well and eventually they changed the

  • name to 'Ben Chi'. 11 – Fly in Leather,

  • Well with poor ads like this it's no surprise Braniff were the first major airline

  • to go bankrupt. • Braniff had been using the sloganFly

  • in Leatherin English speaking countries to advertise their comfortable, rich leather

  • seats. But in Spanish Braniff accidentally told customers toFly Naked”.

  • That's just the way to get customers, offer them the chance to see the sweaty balls

  • of the guy sitting next to them. 10 – The Jolly Green Giant,

  • If your branding totally relies on a friendly mascot, you should probably but in a bit more

  • effort than running it through google translate. • At least that's what I'm assuming

  • happened here. General Mills made an icon out of the canned vegetable selling Jolly

  • Green Giant, but in Arabic the name translated toIntimidating Green Monster”.

  • That's right you better buy that God-damn can of peas, or he's going to get you and

  • shove them down your stupid throat. 9 – Every Car has a High Quality Body,

  • Car companies always seem to be trying to sell you some novelty feature, but I don't

  • think anyone would want the one Ford were offering.

  • Attempting to bring the sloganEvery car has a high quality bodyto Belgium,

  • they inadvertently translatedbodyto meanCorpse”.

  • Come down and get your new hatchback, complete with that new corpse smell. Then

  • again maybe they were just trying to tap into the necrophilia market.

  • 8 – Mist Stick, • This one seems to have a pretty lazy name

  • in English so it's no surprise that no one double checked the translation.

  • Clairol released a curling iron calledMist Stick”, which sounds barely appealing

  • as it is. But in Germany it takes on a whole different meaning. See over thereMist

  • meansManure”. • “Manure Stickdidn't exactly fly

  • of shelves. Leaving Clairol to discover that people don't want to put something essentially

  • calledshit stickin their hair. 7 – Gerber Baby Food,

  • Turns out words aren't the only thing that can fail the translation process, images

  • can too. • When Gerber released their baby food in

  • Ethiopia they made the mistake of not changing their iconic packaging. Why does that matter?

  • Because in Ethiopia food products normally display the contents on the packaging because

  • of low literacy rates. • So yeah putting a smiling baby on the

  • label pretty much translates topureed baby meat inside”.

  • 6 – It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you,

  • Parker pens apparently have an unknown edge on their competition, they won't knock

  • you up. • The popular pen maker made a fundamental

  • mistake that turned the line in their Mexican ads fromit won't leak in your pocket

  • and embarrass youintoit won't leak in your pocket and get you pregnant.”

  • But hey it's a fair concern, leaks cause unwanted pregnancies all the time. You can

  • be safe in the knowledge that Parker's pen is shooting blanks.

  • 5 – Ford Pinto, • Long before Ford tried to sell you a car

  • containing a dead body, they insulting your penis size.

  • The Pinto was named after a colour pattern found in horsesbut in Brazil, pinto had

  • become slang for something else - a tiny penis. • Considering thatsmall cockhas

  • more in common with the actual car thanpatterns on a horse”, maybe this wasn't a translation

  • fail at all. 4 – Schweppes Tonic Water,

  • Who would have thought that one slight error would make your product 200% more appealing

  • to dogstoo bad they can't read. • Schweppes had the bad luck to translate

  • their famous tonic water into toilet water in Italy. Considering tonic water is such

  • a basic thing it's hard to understand how that even happened.

  • This probably had a bigger impact on bars than anywhere else. “I'll have a gin & toilet

  • water thankswait no, that sounds gross. Make it whiskey, not gin”.

  • 3 – Brings you Back to Life!, • Yeah in English this ad campaign is non-sense

  • so it's not a surprise that it failed to pass the language barrier.

  • Pepsi was trying to run the sloganBrings you back to life!” in China. But instead

  • of hyping up Pepsi's energising powers they told people the soda willBring your ancestors

  • back from the dead!” • You can imagine the disappointment on

  • people's faces as they poured cola on Grandpa Chen's grave only to see it drain away.

  • 2 – It Takes a Tough Man to Make a Tender Chicken,

  • Nothing like some good ol' fashioned bestiality to get people to buy your tender

  • meat. • Well whoever translated Perdue's chicken

  • adverts into Spanish certainly thinks that. Turning the lineit takes a tough man to

  • make a tender chickenintoIt takes a virile man to make a chicken pregnant”.

  • Yeeah I'm pretty sure that's not what they wanted to say. Unless Perdue actually

  • cracked the secret to human-avian breeding and have actually been creating a secret army

  • of virile chicken men and this lone heroic translator is trying to warn us all! OH GOD

  • they are gonna peck our eyes out! 1 – Finger Lick'n Good,

  • Hell if the chicken men don't get you then colonel Sanders is gonna bite your fucking

  • fingers off. • People in China got a rude awakening when

  • KFC mistakenly translatedFinger Lick'n GoodintoWe'll eat your fingers off”.

  • MmMmm Kentucky fried corpses. • Well that's kinda close I guess, I'd

  • eat someone's fingers off if they were coated in KFC Gravy.

From misleading people into thinking you're selling baby meat to resurrecting your great

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