Translating an Ad sometimes become a tacky business

Ads are not a rare word fro anyone today. As market competition has become steeper than before, companies have raised their spending on advertisements. There isn’t a single movie, soap or serial that doesn’t include an ad. Advertisements, when made intelligently, can stimulate sales by several levels. Commercial firms residing in a specific country often witness high export when their ad becomes a super hit in a foreign country. But what is the opposite happens? Making ad for indigenous customers is pretty easy but when your ad goes overseas things can be dicey.

History of advertising consists some of the awful mistakes that were saved in advance. Else those ads could have brought an upheaval or fits of laughter also.

Coca Cola is a definitely a well known brand name and we all love having it. Fizz of coca cola may sound melodious to everyone in the world but for a Chinese it can be a strange drink to give a try. With the plan of expanding business, Coca Cola Company targeted China and the ad was made in Chinese script. The ad makers used Chinese fonts to represent four terms Co, Ca, Co and La. Though the ad plan sounded great but eventually it flopped. The Chinese characters used to display Coca Cola, actually meant “Bite the wax tadpole” in Chinese. Now if a drink introduced itself wit such a weird punch line, I don’t think any Chinese will dare to take sip. Needless to mention the advertisement was pulled off.

Coca cola is always juxtaposed with it leading rival Pepsi. Be it making business or making mistakes, both the drinks stand parallel. Pepsi once used a highly motivating slogan tat read “Come alive with Pepsi generation”. The catchy line in the ad was set to bestir every youngster to crave for Pepsi. The expectation of Pepsi was shattered in Taiwan, where a direct translation of the slogan meant, “Pepsi brings your forefathers back from dead”. People of Taiwan after knowing the meaning will regard Pepsi a fetish object rather than a refreshing drink. Probably the youngsters will say, “Pepsi- the voodoo”.

There is one myth in the history of advertising, which is pretty interesting. The car name Nova was said to have failed to make a niche I n Spanish speaking nations. The reason being, “Nova” in Spanish means “does not go”. Although the car could capture reasonable market share in the Spain yet, such a myth was created since, Nova in Spanish means doesn’t go and rightly so.

I know it is fun to read all these mistakes but don’t miss out the underlying fact. You will be mistaken if you are oblivious while translating your ad slogan. A catchy slogan in your country can be repulsive one somewhere else. Be cautious.