Consequences of mistakes in advertising translation

The sad experience of famous car brands

Blog

May 21, 2022
"Advertising slaps" and their consequences

Entering foreign markets is a crucial step, and marketers should be attentive to the translation of advertising. After all, savings on professional translators, who know the linguistic and cultural features of the target audience, leads to serious errors. And slips here are fraught with multimillion losses.

red car
Ford Fierra, in Spanish, means "iron" — something like our "bucket of bolts"
Ford

Ford in the Latin American market is a "title-holder" here. Thus, in promoting its new model of Fierra in this region, the company's marketers didn't take into account the language specifics. They should but didn't adapt the car's name, and the planned expansion turned into a shameful fiasco. Why? Because "fierro" in Spanish means "iron" — something like our "bucket of bolts".

Passionate Ford

It would seem, that mistakes are often the best teachers, but this was not the case: Ford’s other model, Comet, befell Fierra's fate on the Mexican market after being renamed Caliente, i.e. "passionate" for some reason. After the large-scale advertising campaign started, it turned out that this word had another meaning — "sexually aroused".

Pinto

But Ford’s most famous failure is associated with the Pinto model in Brazil. It happened due to the fact that "pinto" means "small penis" in Brazilian vernacular. When the losses of the advertising company became evident, they rushed to look for the causes of failure and, finding them, promptly renamed the model into Corcel, i.e. "horse".

car
Chevrolet Nova in Spanish means "not moving"
Chevrolet

Chevrolet is also not far behind Ford in this competition of "mistakes in advertising translation". When the company without any adaptation released the model Nova to South American market, its sales were miserable, because, as it turned out, there is a phrase in Spanish "no va", i.e. "doesn't go". Who would want to buy a vehicle that does not move?

Indecent Chrysler acceleration

Chrysler Corporation in an advertising campaign for Spanish-speaking countries, without further ado, used its successful slogan Dart is Power, i.e. "the Acceleration is a force". However, buyers interpreted the Spanish "translation" of the slogan as an offer for them to strengthen their potency. This ambiguity has cost the automaker a lot of money.

Want to create a successful advertisement?

Be careful when translating of your promotional materials. And if you are set for head-spinning success of your advertising, and need to cooperate with native speakers with extensive experience in translation specifics - contact us! We are happy to provide You with quality advertising translation! Order right now!

Order translation
Winsell Group
Winsell Group

Winsell Group Translation Agency specializes in simultaneous and consecutive translation services and also provides written translations from/to 100+ world languages.

Why us

Contact us in any way convenient for you:

Call or email us!

We are always open to cooperation!

Our address:

Ukraine, Kiev

Write us!

info@winsell-translation.com

Call us!

+38 (0) 73 55 11 707

Want to save time and money? Complete and submit an application now!
Read in our Blog
written-translation-of-advertising
Consequences of mistakes in advertising translation

Ford in the Latin American market is a "title-holder " here...

shameful-advertising-translation
Parker’s embarrassment with translation of advertising

Parker Pen Company spent a lot of money on litigation...

advertising-translation-errors
Fatal mistakes of interpretation in international affairs

A sad case of financial failure occurred with Bank of America...

Still have questions? Ask right now!