A Bottled Grim Reaper, a Cholesterol Overload and an Unwanted Option – October Friday Funnies is Here!
A very happy Friday, Alex,
Crisp breezes and the changing colors of foliage signal the return of October, and October brings us the spooky fun of Halloween. On the other hand, haunted translation mistakes aren’t fun and last a lot longer than one ghoulish evening. Let’s take a brief tour of a graveyard of translation blunders…
Coca-Cola came up with what they thought was a brilliant marketing idea – mix the indigenous language of New Zealand, te reo/Mäori, with English and post it on vending machines. The problem was that the posted “Kia ora, Mate” translated to “To Live Dead” in the native language… a pause that didn’t exactly refresh.
Free and easy is often neither as a group of Team Norway’s chefs found out during the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. They were ordering supplies from a local online food service vendor and translated their order from Norwegian to Korean using Google Translate. Unfortunately, the free app mistranslated their order for 1,500 eggs to 15,000 eggs.
Never a translation champion, Ford Motors continued on its crusade of miscommunication when their ad slogan in Belgium was literally a death knell for their sales effort. By incorrectly translating their American campaign of “Every car has a high-quality body.” into “Every car has a high quality corpse.”, Ford suffered an expensive blow to its brand.
No business, large or small, should underestimate the value of retaining a highly trained, professional language service firm. Auerbach International takes a professional and personalized approach to our clients. We’ve witnessed the ghostly hauntings of translation errors that occur when businesses cut corners. Let us exorcise those language mistake demons so that your products or services don’t suggest a mortal outcome to your customers!
A scary successful October to you!
Chris Hempel
Director of Client Success
Auerbach International
Direct: 415-592-0042 X125
Mobile: 818-445-4451
“120+ Languages. Simple Solutions.”