Chevy Nova awards (lost in translation)

Got Milk? = Tienes Leche? = Are you lactating?

FYI, the Nova story is just an urban legend, and in fact the Nova sold very well in Mexico.

English for the advanced=Englisch für Fortgeschrittene=English for runaways.

German perfume company's slogan:
"Come in and find out"
They actually wanted come in and find out what you were looking for - just didn't know there's a difference...

Just why do some advertising "experts" think, they sound more intelligent if they use English?


[blue]An eye for an eye only leaves the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

Come in and find out" sound legit to me...

As for an advertisers in English...sign up for Travelzoo Top20 and have weekly Travel best deals delivered to your email box.
You will be petrified how cheap it is nowadays to travel to Europe. So imagine how Europe is lounging for English speaking tourists (and I didn't mean from England)...
So they trying their English in case G_d will answer their prayers and Euro will fall and Americans will came back just for that perfume.

It defnitely lost in the translation process.
"Come in and find (your way back) out" is what most people read from that slogan. That wouldn't have happened if the experts had stuck to their own language.

That's what I meant. People think, it's professional to say everything in English.
But i think, it's professional to use the most suitable words to express what you try to express. I say: If a translation doesn't do the trick - leave it!

I work in the translation business, so I sometimes see expressions that make me shake my head in astonishment.

One company had a slogan, that their product had "6-appeal"
That joke only works in German...
"six/six/seis/sei/hat" - appeal in EN/FR/ES/IT/Hungarian just doesn't do the trick.


[blue]An eye for an eye only leaves the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

I once read something about the Toyota MR2 (as its called in Britain) They had to think of something else to call it for the French release....might be just another myth but it made me laugh.

mrees

So, when we say "lets find this out" it mean we are looking for this particular exit?
Or "something came up" means I should look up at the ceiling?

mrees That's a good one:
MR2; in French pronounced like EmErDe (Merde=sh_t)
LMAO...
Better than those in the USA who wanted to rename Porsche 9/11...

[blue]An eye for an eye only leaves the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

find out" doesn't mean "find the exit" to me... it's a normal colloquialism for "discover." So the phrase is fine.

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.

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

I'm sure that more than just one of the submissions are urban legends...

What's wrong with "6-appeal" in English? I like it. If number 6 somehow has a connection with the actual product, it would work.

stella740pl said:

If number 6 somehow has a connection with the actual product

Click to expand...

Agreed. but it didn't. It was advertisement for a car - but not for one with 6-speed. It was just plainly used like the US use BBQ or T42 (Tea for two). )


[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

After WWII the Czechoslovakians were building a washing machine in their capital city of Prague. It was called the PragueMatic (like pragmatic)

The US refused to import the product for fear of filling the country with a bunch of foreign "agitaters

groan - but at least it's not a dirty joke.

Good Luck
--------------
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

A few years ago there was a Nike TV commercial where some South African Bantu warriors were dancing in full tribal regalia while wearing the tennis shoes the ad was touting. One of the warriors turns to the camera and says something in his native language, while the subtitle reads "Just Do It." (the Nike slogan, of course). Well, a professor of the Bantu language saw the commercial and reported that the warrior was not saying "Just Do It," he was actually saying, "These shoes are too small and hurt my feet".

Another one...

When Windows 95 (or maybe it was 98, I can't recall) came out, Microsoft ran a series of TV ads with the catch-phrase "Where do you want to go today?". In one of the commercials the music playing is the Confutatis from Mozart's Requiem (this is the part of the piece that M and Salieri are working on at the end of Amadeus). The thing is, the lyrics are: "Confutatis, maledictis, flammus acribus addictis", which translates into English as (roughly): "The damned and accursed are convicted to the flames of Hell." So...where do you want to go today...? Considering Microsoft's reputation, I just thought it was funny.

I used to rock and roll every night and party every day. Then it was every other day. Now I'm lucky if I can find 30 minutes a week in which to get funky. - Homer Simpson

A little "note":

In that particular scene Mozart was dictating a few parts that he didn't actually write. Most of the filler materials (in this case, the "Pah....Pah" in the horns that he was dictating) was actually written after his death by someone else.

Bob

Actually, that part of the movie was totally fiction. Everything after the first 16 bars or so of the Confutatis (the remainder of the Confutatis and the last 2 movements) was written by Mozart's student, Hans Zussmeyer. If you listen carefully to the piece you can actually hear where M's work ends and Z's work begins. Z's work just doesn't "flow" as well and is much more repetitive, and just doesn't have...well..."it."

Also, Mozart was NOT buried in a mass grave as depicted in the movie. He has a quite large tombstone, and his burial site is well known.

I used to rock and roll every night and party every day. Then it was every other day. Now I'm lucky if I can find 30 minutes a week in which to get funky. - Homer Simpson

It's my understanding that he was indeed buried in a mass grave, and the grave on which the tombstone can be found doesn't contain his remains. So said my school textbooks.

Bob