Chevy Nova Awards

These are the nominees for the Chevy Nova Award.
This is given out in
honor of the GM's fiasco in trying to market this
car in Central and
South America. “No va” means, of course, in
Spanish, “it doesn't go”.

1. 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?”

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

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

4. 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.”

5. When Gerber started selling baby food in
Africa, they used the same
packaging as in the US, with the smiling baby on
the label. Later they
learned that in Africa, companies routinely put
pictures on the labels
of what's inside, since many people can't read.

6. 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).

7. Pepsi's “Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation”
translated into
“Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave”
in Chinese.

8. The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as
“Kekoukela”, meaning
“Bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse stuffed
with wax”, depending on
the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000
characters to find a phonetic
equivalent “kokou kole”, translating into
“happiness in the mouth.”

9. When American Airlines wanted to advertise its
new leather first
class seats in the Mexican market, it translated
its “Fly In Leather”
campaign literally, which meant “Fly Naked” (vuela
en cuero) in Spanish!