Capitol-City A&E Zine
Austin Life & Culture
If you have a suggestion for an article or feel you have the talent to
write about Austin Life please contact Capitol-City.Com Staff
CapCity Letter Post
Got something to say
About Us!
About Life
About Music
About Art
About Austin
Tell Us Here!!!
Free
View the
Guestbook
Sign the
Guestbook
***************************************************
-Ed Florida, click the text above to read more.
The Digital Hyperbole
by new literary jaunt by Michael Unum
***************************************************
CapCity Letter Post
Free |
View |
Sign |
***************************************************
It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
Shakespeare
WHATS IN A TRANSLATION?
Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it was read
as "Suffer from diarhea."
In Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan "finger-lickin' good"
came out as "eat your fingers off."
When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same
packaging as in the US, with the beautiful Caucasian baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the label of what's inside, since most people can't read English.
Pepsi's "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave," in Chinese.
We all know about GM's Chevy Nova meaning "won't go" in Spanish markets, but did you know that Ford had a similar problem in Brazil with the Pinto? Pinto was Brazilian slang for "tiny male genitals". Ford renamed the automobile Corcel, meaning "horse."
Frank Perdue's chicken slogan, "it takes a strong man to make a
tender chicken" was translated into Spanish as "it takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate."
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 embarass you." Instead, the company thought that the word "embarazar" meant to embarass while it actually meant "to impregnate" , so the ad read: "It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant."
The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Ke-kou-ke-la", 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 "ko-kou-ko-le", translating into "happiness in the mouth."
Some folks from England got a huge laugh from the name of an airline back then: The Trump Shuttle (Donald Trump's airline). They said in England, "Trump" translated into "fart"!
And finally, not even Nike is exempt. Nike has a television
commercial for hiking shoes that was shot in Kenya using Samburu
tribesmen. The camera closes in on one tribesman who speaks in native Maa. As he speaks, the Nike slogan "Just do it" appears on the screen. Lee Cronk, an anthropologist at the University of Cincinnati, says the Kenyan is really saying, "I don't want these. Give me big shoes." Says Nike's Elizabeth Dolan, "We thought nobody in America would know what he said."~ Eliot Gelwan
Life (n.): a fatal, sexually transmitted disease
Instead of talking to your plants, if you yelled at them would they
still grow? Only to be troubled and insecure?
Meet your Match! CLICK HERE to go to
Capitol-City Personals
A Proud Member of the One & Only Associate Network
Cat's urine glows under a blacklight.
Austin Media Links * Austin Media Links * Austin Media Links
Capitol City Arts * MusicTexas* Contact Capitol-City
Register w/ Capitol-City * Advertising Rates * Movie Reviews * Austin Life
All pages copyright © 1997-1998 Capitol City Publishing, L.L.C. (USA / EARTH) All Rights Reserved
Capitol City A&E zineis a trademark of Capitol City Publishing, L.L.C. Other copyrights and
registered trademarks in this documentbelong to specific companies and are
used here with no intention of infringement of the trademark.