Branding is more effective close to home

Here are some branding bloopers. I’m sure you’ve heard your own share:

Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux introduced its product in the U.S. with a campaign “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux”

In Taiwan “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” translated as “Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead.”

When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to read: “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you”. Instead, the company thought the word “embarazar” (to impregnate) meant to embarrass. The result: “A Parker Pen won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant”.

In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into “Schweppes Toilet Water.”

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