Okay, so hot on the heels of my post that was called 7 Extremely Unfortunate Domain Names comes these 25 seriously embarrassing marketing blunders.

First up, I’d like to thank the many websites that have contributed by sharing different blunders – without their hard work and dedication to the noble cause of creating laughter in the world, it would be extremely difficult for me to have compiled this list.

So, without further ado, here it goes (in no particular order):

#1. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux released an American campaign with the slogan Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.

(Actually, I can think of a few other things, such as hairy nostrils that require tweezers, parking tickets issued to your dog and viruses that crap out your computer that all suck. But hey, let’s not quibble about it.)

#2. Coors coverted its slogan Turn It Loose into Spanish. Its translation reads Suffer from Diarrhea.

#3. Clairol introduced the curling iron Mist Stick into Germany. In Germany mist is slang for manure.

#4. Gerber‘s entry into selling baby food in Africa featured a beautiful Caucasian baby on the label. In Africa, marketers put pictures on the label of what’s inside since most people can’t read. (Even Africans don’t feed their kids dead babies.) In other bad news, Gerber is the French word for vomiting so I’d guess that France will be omitted from any expansion plans.

#5. Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, presumably named after the notorious naughty magazine.

#6. An American T-shirt maker in Miami will rot in hell for printing shirts for the Spanish market to promote the Pope’s visit. Instead of I saw the Pope (el papa), the shirts read I saw the potato (la papa).

#7. Pepsi‘s Come alive with the Pepsi Generation translated into Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave in Chinese.

#8. Now, not to feel left out, the Coca-Cola name in China was first read as “Ke-kou-ke-la” which roughly translates to Bite the wax tadpole or female horse stuffed with wax (depending on the dialect).

#9. 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 embarrass you. The company thought that the word “embarazar” meant “to embarrass” (which it didn’t) so the ad actually read It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.

#10. 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. Right.

#11. In its enthusiasm for flogging merchandise, Disney approved some High School Musical branded knickers for young girls. Parents raised eyebrows when they realized they had Dive In plastered across them.

#12. At one point, IKEA agreed upon the name “FARTFULL” for one of its new desks.

#13. Wang, a computer company, could not understand why British sales reps took exception to its motto Wang Cares. Muttered with a British accent, it sounds like wankers.

#14. Traficante, Italian mineral water, is a drink of choice in Spain’s underworld. It translates to drug dealer in Spanish.

#15. Umbro the UK sports manufacturer had to withdraw its sneakers called Zyklon. Zyklon is the name of the gas used by Nazis in concentration camps.

#16. Sharwoods, a UK food manufacturer, had spent £6 million on a campaign to launch its new Bundh sauces, before Punjabi speakers told them that bundh resembled the Punjabi word for arse.

#17. Honda introduced their new car Fitta into Nordic countries before realizing that fitta was a vulgar word which referred to a woman’s genitals in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish.

#18. Staff at the African port of Stevadores saw the internationally recognized symbol for “fragile” (the broken wine glass) and presumed it was a box of broken glass. So they threw all the boxes into the sea.

#19. American Motors tried to market its new car, the Matador, based on the image of courage and strength. But in Puerto Rico the name means killer so was not popular on the hazardous roads in the country.

#20. Leona Helmsley might have had reservations (‘xcuse the pun) before approving a promotion that compared her Helmsley Palace Hotel in New York to the Taj Mahal–a mausoleum in India.

#21. You might call it a knapsack, backpack or Fanny Pack. In Germany, they call it a Body Bag.

#22. The future’s bright … the future’s Orange is a slogan that has served telco Orange well but proved unpopular in Northern Ireland where it roughly translates to the future is bright, the future is Protestant, because of its Orange Order suggestion.

# 23. Latte means milk in Italy. In English, Latte is a coffee-drink. In Germany, Latte is a well known word for an erection. (I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.)

# 24. Reed Business News relaunched itself with the very short-lived slogan If it’s news to you, it’s news to us.

#25. Last but not least, Locum, a Swedish company,  added a little more festive cheer than it anticipated when it printed its customer Christmas Cards with a love heart replacing the “o”.

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