Unfortunate choices for brand names.

[Zkribbler]

Wang Computers.

Gallagher: "Now the people who report stock market prices have to say, 'Wang is up today. Wang is down.'"


And how about Aides diet pills? They did okay until a certain disease came along.

[Bosh]

In Korea I saw a big sign saying "Gook Morning" and then there's the jewelry store saying "A Jew."

But my favorite has to be the medical offices of "Dr. Kwak."

[Jaakko]

[img]http://locum.isthe****.net/images/tjpdrfuc.jpg[/img]

[Wernazuma III]

Here in Graz,we have a bakery called "Kotzbeck" - which literally translates to "Vomitbake"...

[Az]

@ Jaakko

[BeBMan]

Ask the Spaniards what they think about the Mitsubishi Pajero.

[Unspeakable Horror]

[Lul Thyme]

Re: Unfortunate choices for brand names.

Originally posted by Oerdin
By now everyone is aware of the problem Chevy had in the 1970's with it's Nova line of cars. Chevrolets had traditionally sold very well in Latin America yet for some reason no one in Spanish speaking countries wanted to buy a car named Nova. It turns out that No Va is Spanish for "no go" or "It doesn't go" but the English speaking engineers back in Detroit didn't catch that until it was to late.

Urban Legend

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Nova#The_urban_legend

Similarly, many of those "unfortunate brand names" have little or no negative impact on sales.


Few people will actually not buy a car because of silly translations like that.
It may even boost sales because everyone is making jokes about it.


"A popular urban legend asserts that the Nova sold poorly in Latin America because the phrase no va means "does not go" in Spanish. In reality, the Spanish no va and nova are as different as the English no table and notable. [1] The word nova exists in Spanish with the same meaning as in English. Also, the Spanish word for 'new' (nuevo or nueva) is cognate to nova, which originally meant "new" in Latin. Finally, as NOVA was a brand of gasoline sold for many years by PEMEX in Mexico, the largest of all Spanish-speaking Latin American countries, it is clear that this urban legend, while perhaps entertaining, is utterly baseless. "


EDIT:
see somebody has busted that one already.

[Spec]

Yvan des fenetres
Climatisation B.S.

Spec.

[-Jrabbit]

In the mid-90s, my former employer, Shure Inc., came out with a wireless in-ear monitoring system for musicians to use onstage (as an alternative to those blaring, feedback-inducing floor wedges at their feet). They originally wanted to call it the Shure PMS -- standing for Personal Monitor System.

When the obvious was pointed out, they changed it to Personal Stereo Monitor -- PSM.

[Heresson]

There's a big (danish?) bulb company named Osram. They moved into Poland with their brand name, not aware it seems that "osram" means "I'll **** on it" in Polish...
The same, Mars chocolate bar was in the beginning read backwards, sram, which means "I'm ****ting"...

In Warsaw, a house company wanted to build a quater named "Gateway to Happiness" or so between Umschlagplatz (or whatever, the place where from Jews were being sent for annihilation) and some other ww2 martyrology place... fortunatelly for them, someone enlightened them it'd not gain them sympathy, and they've changed the name.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Dis
stupid censor. What is the 3 letter word? Is it *** as in *** for tat? WTF is *** censored? What kind of society do we post in that we can't say *** as in sucking on a mother's ***. What's more innocent than that?

The brand of tires was CUM HO.

[Heresson]

both can have something to do with sucking, to think of it...

[Barnabas]

Originally posted by BeBro
Ask the Spaniards what they think about the Mitsubishi Pajero.

Thats mitsubishi masturbator in spanish



Another,

Universidad de Moron

(University of Moron)

[Thue]

The postal company UPS. In Danish, "ups" is an exclamation you say when you break something... like "whops" in English.