Culture

Lost In Translation

by merrie | October 7, 2007 at 02:28 pm

1009 views | 12 Recommendations | 5 comments

US dairy industry slogan "Got Milk" Spanish translation read "Are You Lactating?" Certainly, US brand recognition has become familiar to consumers across the globe, but product slogans when translated into the regional language, sounds more like a "punch-line".

I wonder if these companies just Babelfished the slogans into another language. Never..trust...babelfish.

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insaniac

at 14:40 on October 7th, 2007

I recall Dyson using the word "suction" in one of their adverts, which was still dangerously close... but how else does one describe a vacuum cleaner?

merrie

at 17:13 on October 7th, 2007

Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea."

Some of those translations are almost as scary as the drug precautions of possible side-effect

ie: drossiness, headaches, diarrhea, excessive thirst, urge to gamble, etc. The cure becomes

a bigger problem than the symptom.

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PEP

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 17:45 on October 7th, 2007

merrie, good stuff.

I speak, albeit not fluently, Lenape, and have been to several language conferences. One of the funnier stories revolves around slight differences in dialects. The Canadian Lenape (Delaware) reserve has some local idioms. A friend recounted the time when someone wanting to show off their language skills--as frankly, this was an almost dead language and there's few of us who speak even some of it--asked for some milk.

Unfortunately, the word and the pronunciation he used actually meant he was asking for the breast for breast milk.

merrie

at 23:16 on October 7th, 2007

That would be easy to happen. At least, the request didn't translate into a

rude comment about a family member, or something more embarrassing.

I think it's funny, I wouldn't be offended at all. I hope the Lenapes preserve

their language and culture. I don't like the mandated "multi-culturalism" trend.

urbano411

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 04:58 on October 8th, 2007

merrie, Good stuff. I have a good friend that loves to sing spanish versions of popular english songs which makes for some very funny 'lost in translation' moments.