![]() Little did they know that showing the bottom of your foot is a huge insult in Arab countries, and wrapping the flag around it even worse. I usually don’t take the piss, but in this case…įor the United Arab Emirate’s 40 th anniversary, a sportswear brand decided to show solidarity with the nation and release a limited edition pair of trainers with the UAE flag’s colours. The name of this highly popular soft drink actually translates to ‘very good cola’. Tourists visiting Ghana will have been surprised by their discovery of ‘Pee Cola’. I hear the brand quickly cleaned up its act and sucked up market share… However, while expanding into the UK, they were unaware of the negative connotations ‘sucks’ held in Britain. Rewind 25 years to when a Swedish company became one of the highest performers in the white goods category with its award-winning slogan ‘Nothing Sucks Quite Like Electrolux’. In English, the expression refers to someone with a daring attitude, but in Spanish it means ‘Turbo Sweaty Nutsack’…. This mishap saw a car maker forget America’s multicultural population with the headline ‘Turbo-Cojones’. A fast food giant fell victim to this after adapting their ‘I’m loving it’ tagline into Standard Modern Arabic, which translated to ‘I’m a bitch’ in Egyptian dialect. One simple misplaced dot or line can change an entire meaning. Not sure I’d be in a hurry to drink that…Īdapting languages across regions such as the Middle East requires even more care as script must also be taken into account. Men who know each other well greet one another with an. I guess even the best burgers get burned sometimes…Ĭoors’ slogan ‘Turn it Loose’ got somewhat lost in translation, telling Spaniards to ‘suffer from diarrhoea’. When meetings Spanish people for the first time you usually shake hands. ![]() The news went viral in Mexico and spread to the Hispanic population is the U.S., one of the chain’s big consumer segments. The Mexican ambassador for Spain was quick to express his disapproval. The ad featured a TexMex burger illustrated by a stereotypical short Mexican man standing next to a tall dude from Texas, draped in the Mexican flag – which is not legal back home. Two products which have offended some in the Muslim community by making the mistake of using Arabic lettering that looks uncomfortably similar to the script for ‘Allah’.Īnother cultural slip up, this time in Spain. I wonder how many budding entrepreneurs waltzed through the doors after seeing this… The mistranslation from English actually read ‘Success here’ in Spanish. More recently a Starbucks sign unknowingly created an invite many would not want to refuse. I know fizzy drinks wake you up, but my great-great grandma here says somebody must have been sleeping on the job… Otherwise these blunders can cause brands a lot of harm. We’ve gathered a list of marketing blunders made by some of the biggest and most loved brands.īack in the olden days, Pepsi’s wholehearted approach in creating prose to attract a younger generation sadly backfired in China when their ‘come alive’ slogan was mistranslated to mean ‘Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead’. Shouting at them hysterically will only tempt them to let you die.” 5.It’s always a good idea to check whether your name, logo, or tagline means something different in the regions where you’re expanding. To put into perspective just how serious they are about volume, one Quora reply states "If you have just gashed your femoral artery in a pub brawl and require medical help instantly or you'll bleed to death, say, 'Would you ring for an ambulance, please?' to the bystanders. Thus, they will frown upon anyone loud or brash, two stereotypes that are unfortunately often associated with Americans, so try not to validate their preconceived notions. Londoners, and Brits in general, are taught to be discreet, and are generally wary of drawing attention to themselves. Buying yourself a separate drink, or buying a round of drinks and then figuring out who owes what is a no-no in British culture. In accordance to etiquette, everyone in that group should then take turns returning the favor. This means that instead of repeatedly buying yourself a drink, you will buy everyone in your group a drink once. Brits are dedicated adherents to the pub etiquette of buying rounds.
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