Unfortunate choices for brand names.

[Straybow]

Crest tried to market a toothpaste in France. They chose the brandname Cue. Unfortunately, there had been a very popular book about oral sex by that title. Not the corporate image they wanted to project.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by *End Is Forever*
There's a big private security firm around here. They put up big signs with their name - "PMS Security".

Their motto: "Be afraid. Be very afraid."

[Wezil]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


Their motto: "Be afraid. Be very afraid."

But only a few days a month....

[Chemical Ollie]

Beware of the PMS Monday

[Combat Ingrid]

Shetty Pharmaceuticals

[Datajack Franit]

Originally posted by Tacit_Exit


A very popular ice-cream in Oz is the 'Golden Gaytime'

[molly bloom]

I'm sure I recall some American company trying to sell 'Gros Jos' products in Canada.

The French Canadians I'm sure appreciated this, though how many might have made use of them is a different matter.


Linguists laugh at product 'placement' gone awry :

The Dairy Association's huge success with the campaign "Got Milk?" prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their attention the Spanish translation read "Are you lactating?"

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

Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."

Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick," a curling iron, into Germany only to find out that "mist" is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the "Manure Stick."

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).

When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to have read, "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you."

The company thought that the word "embarazar" (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: "It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant"

http://www.workjoke.com/projoke81.htm

Restaurant nightmares (a whole other thread, possibly...)

A superb and inexpensive restaurant. Fine food expertly served by waitresses in appetizing forms.

She looked good enough to eat...


Donner Party of four, err, two:

Dinner Special -- Turkey $2.35; Chicken or Beef $2.25; Children $2.00.

Don't say 'Darkie toothpaste' it's 'Darlie' toothpaste...

[MOBIUS]

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

I think they got it right - all SUV drivers are w@nkers.

Whenever I read a story about an SUV driver accidentally running over one of their own brats, I tend to think it serves them right...

[Victor Galis]

At Georgia Tech, one of the rich benefactors of the univerity is named J. Erskine Love, he had a building named after him. After giving more money he wanted a building named after his wife, but the name "Gay Love Manufacturing Building" didn't last that long

[Dis]

Mobius wins the award for most sensitive poly poster.

[MOBIUS]

True though...