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Chevy Nova Awards
The Chevy Nova Award is awarded for catastrophic foreign marketing
campaigns. It is named after a car called the Chevy Nova was introduced
to
Central and South America. Intended buyers in these countries were
somewhat perplexed when the car went on the market because "No va" in
Spanish means "it doesn't go". Here are some of the nominations for the
recent Chevy Nova Award:
1. The Dairy Association's huge success with the
campaign "Got Milk?" prompted them to expand advertising to
Mexico. It was soon brought to their attention the Spanish
translation read "Are you lactating?"
2. Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish,
where it was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea."
3. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the
following in an American campaign: "Nothing sucks like an
Electrolux."
4. Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick," a curling iron,
into Germany only to find out that "mist" is slang for
manure. Not too many people had use for the "Manure
Stick."
5. When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa,
they used the same packaging as in the US, with the smiling
baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa,
companies routinely put pictures on the labels of what's
inside, since many people can't read.
6. Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called
Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.
7. An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts
for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit.
Instead of "I saw the Pope" (el Papa), the shirts read "I
Saw the Potato" (la papa).
8. Pepsi's "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation"
translated into "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the
Grave" in Chinese.
9. The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as
"Kekoukela", meaning "Bite the wax tadpole" or "female
horse stuffed with wax", depending on the dialect. Coke
then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic
equivalent "kokou kole", translating into "happiness in
the mouth."
10. Frank Perdue's chicken slogan, "It takes a strong
man to make a tender chicken" was translated into Spanish
as "it takes an aroused man to make a chicken
affectionate."
11. When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico,
its ads were supposed to have read, "It won't leak in your
pocket and embarrass you." The company thought that the
word "embarazar" (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the
ad read: "It won't leak in your pocket and make you
pregnant!"
12. When American Airlines wanted to advertise its new
leather first class seats in the Mexican market, it
translated its "Fly In Leather" campaign literally, which
meant "Fly Naked" (vuela en cuero) in Spanish!
The Chevy Nova Award is awarded for catastrophic foreign marketing
campaigns. It is named after a car called the Chevy Nova was introduced
to
Central and South America. Intended buyers in these countries were
somewhat perplexed when the car went on the market because "No va" in
Spanish means "it doesn't go". Here are some of the nominations for the
recent Chevy Nova Award:
1. The Dairy Association's huge success with the
campaign "Got Milk?" prompted them to expand advertising to
Mexico. It was soon brought to their attention the Spanish
translation read "Are you lactating?"
2. Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish,
where it was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea."
3. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the
following in an American campaign: "Nothing sucks like an
Electrolux."
4. Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick," a curling iron,
into Germany only to find out that "mist" is slang for
manure. Not too many people had use for the "Manure
Stick."
5. When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa,
they used the same packaging as in the US, with the smiling
baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa,
companies routinely put pictures on the labels of what's
inside, since many people can't read.
6. Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called
Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.
7. An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts
for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit.
Instead of "I saw the Pope" (el Papa), the shirts read "I
Saw the Potato" (la papa).
8. Pepsi's "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation"
translated into "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the
Grave" in Chinese.
9. The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as
"Kekoukela", meaning "Bite the wax tadpole" or "female
horse stuffed with wax", depending on the dialect. Coke
then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic
equivalent "kokou kole", translating into "happiness in
the mouth."
10. Frank Perdue's chicken slogan, "It takes a strong
man to make a tender chicken" was translated into Spanish
as "it takes an aroused man to make a chicken
affectionate."
11. When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico,
its ads were supposed to have read, "It won't leak in your
pocket and embarrass you." The company thought that the
word "embarazar" (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the
ad read: "It won't leak in your pocket and make you
pregnant!"
12. When American Airlines wanted to advertise its new
leather first class seats in the Mexican market, it
translated its "Fly In Leather" campaign literally, which
meant "Fly Naked" (vuela en cuero) in Spanish!