Marketing Bloopers
Image Source:guzer.com
Ads are everywhere. Posters on walls, standees at the mall entrance. They are ubiquitous little and large things that perk up every readers minds. It provides a certain high for the viewer. Large companies invest on them more than anything. Competition is stiff, every now and then, this so, so company releases a new advertisement for their best selling product for the entire world to promote to.. And the greatest barrier would be…the medium for communication. In the fast paced trend of the marketing world that sometimes lead to advertising booboos. The case of these products may give you a simple but informative lesson to learn…
- 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).
- Pepsi’s “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” translated into “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave,” in Chinese.
- Coors put its slogan, “Turn it loose,” into Spanish, where it was read as “Suffer from diarrhea.”
- When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the U.S., with the beautiful 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.
So next time… you really have to watch what you put in your ads.