If you drove an 80’s Chevy Nova in the late 90’s you’ve
experienced your share of condescending stares, embarrasing backfires and rejected smog
inspections. But worse than all
other digs at your bitchin’ ride were the dozens of smart-ass ad people who told
you, “You know, the NOVA didn’t sell well in Latin countries because in Spanish
“no va” means “Doesn’t go! How did
Chevy miss that one?!”
You probably didn’t really care because if you did drive the 80’s Nova in the late
90’s you were a master at not giving a shit. We could tell by your symetrically ripped stonewashed
jeans.
We all love stories of embarrasing mistranslations in the ad world. I personally love the Coke billboard
campaign in China with Co-Ca-Co-La phonetically spelled out which told millions
of Chinese to “Bite the Wax Tadpole.”
(Subsequently China has told America to bite THEIR wax tadpole and
those of their billion-strong labor force…but that’s another
rant.) And I love the American
Airlines [i think] campaign in Brazil touting their new “Rendezvous Lounges” aboard every
flight which translated to a mile high brothel on every jet.
I am proud to say that Genuine Interactive’s own L.L. Cool Alex
uncovered another potential international naming faux pas for the ages. A fortune cookie at Cambridge’s own
Hong Kong reveals the real meaning of Bing. Bing in Chinese means Disease. Awesome.
Maybe the Hong Kong in Cambridge is wrong or maybe Microsoft
is telling China to bite their wax tadpoles. Share your thoughts.
And, if anyone has any other cool international naming stories – please tweet them to #brandtranslations @wearegenuine
Scan of the actual whistleblower - a fortune from Cambridge's Hong Kong found last week. The Lucky Numbers claim to be luckier than Google's lucky numbers and more relevant to the searcher. We'll see who wins that battle.
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