Bloopers from the world of Advertising...

(Published on 17 May 2006 in 'Life' - a supplement of the Daily Mirror, Colombo, Sri Lanka)

As the country gears up to stage ‘Chillies’, the Sri Lankan Advertising Awards this week and the advertising fraternity gets together to applaud those that came out triumphant - one can’t help but acknowledge that at the end of it all it’s the customer, that is the market, that decides the fate of a campaign and further on the fate of a product or a brand.

Advertising greats have descended on the island from around the world to share their mantras on what makes a successful campaign. It would be daft for me to venture down that route as it’s the prerogative of the experts to throw light on what they know best.

However, it’s no brainer that an advertising campaign would be futile without a proper research of the market concerned. An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that make up an integrated marketing communication. For the marketing communication to be effective and have an impact – it is critical that the market be surveyed and cultural as well as local sensitivities be taken on board. When launching an advertising campaign, it is not enough to understand how the product is performing. It is crucial to know how the customer is responding to the communication.

Failure to grasp the specific needs of a new market can be costly, both financially and in terms of damage to the brand image. In volatile, ever-changing markets, goof-ups can mean wasted costs in advertising, distribution and production expenses, as well as negative impact on the brand itself. Here are some advertising bloopers that have caused immense embarrassment… and which have often had irrevocable effects. Even companies with far-flung international experience have found themselves committing marketing hara-kiri.

>> Electrolux, the Scandinavian vacuum cleaner manufacturer used the following in an American campaign – ‘Nothing sucks like an Electrolux’. They failed to take into consideration the fact that ‘sucks’ had become a derogatory word in the States.

>> The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Ke-kou-ke-la", meaning ‘Bite the wax tadpole’ or ‘female horse stuffed with wax’, depending on the dialect. The Coke folks didn't discover what the phrase meant until after numerous signs had been printed. Not a very thirst-quenching slogan! Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent "ko-kou-ko-le", translating into ‘happiness in the mouth’.

>> A hair products company, Clairol, introduced the ‘Mist Stick’, a curling iron, into Germany only to find out that mist is slang for manure. Not too many people were convinced and had use for the ‘manure stick’.

>> Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of an infamous pornographic magazine.

>> Coors, the American brewer lost its fizz in Spain when their young and trendy phrase "Turn It Loose" came out as ‘Get Diarrhoea’.

>> General Motors made a marketing faux pas when they introduced the Chevrolet Nova in South America. GM was unaware that "no va" means "it won't go." After the company figured out why it wasn't selling any cars, it renamed the car in its Spanish markets as - Caribe.

>> Ford had a similar problem in Brazil with the Pinto. Pinto was Brazilian slang for ‘tiny male genitals’. Ford renamed the automobile Corcel, meaning, ‘horse’.

>> Frank Perdue's well known chicken slogan, ‘it takes a tough man to make a tender chicken’ got terribly mangled in a Spanish translation. A photo of Perdue with one of his birds appeared on billboards all over Mexico with a caption that explained "It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused."

>> When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with a beautiful baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies put pictures on the label of what's inside, since most people can't read English.

>> When McDonald's launched its popular Big Mac Attack ads in Canada, there arose one problem. In Canada, ‘Big Mac’ is slang for ‘large breasts.’ Not an image McDonald's wanted to project for their sandwich.

>> In Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan ‘finger-lickin good" read as ‘eat your fingers off".

>> When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, its advertisement were supposed to have read, ‘it won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you’. Instead, the company thought that the word ‘embarazar’ (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the advert read - ‘It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant’.

>> When Pepsi started a marketing campaign in Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan "Come Alive with the Pepsi Generation" came out as "Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead."

>> In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into "Schweppes Toilet Water".

>>A drug company marketed a new remedy in the United Arab Emirates. To avoid any mistakes they used pictures. The first picture was of someone ill, the next picture showed the person taking the medication, the last picture showed them looking well. What they forgot is that in the Arab world people read from right to left!

>>An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of "I saw the Pope" (el Papa), the shirts read "I saw the potato" (la papa).