Guest c4evap Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 A website hoping to promote grapefruit in Vietnam has been banned from using the fruit's name because of official fears of a mix-up with a penis. The Vietnamese for grapefruit, buoi, sounds different from a slang word for penis, but without special accents it looks the same. Vietnamese regulations say website names cannot include "sensitive" words. The site, set up to market a grapefruit wholesaler in Ha Tinh province, was told to find another name. "We have to refuse the website name of www.buoi.com.vn because the word for grapefruit, buoi, without a proper tone marking can be misunderstood," Thai Huu Ly, of the Vietnam Internet Network Information Centre, told the AFP agency. The Vietnamese language uses markings indicating one of six pronunciation tones, but these cannot be written in internet addresses. According to Vietnamese regulations, names of websites must not contain words that "violate the national interest or are not in accordance with social ethics, lifestyle and national culture." Hahaha...you can't make this stuff up! c4 :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steveo Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 Crazy. They should try getting www.penis.com.vn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wahaha Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 It's a well known dillema for marketing professionals. Coke or KFC had a problem like that in China long ago. Had lots of examples in my textbook. Chinese is the same way with the tone characters, but most don't use them unless you're studying the language to speak it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 Didn't Microsoft have a similar dilema when it had Windows and translating a word that was really "bitch" in Spanish? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TetsuoShima Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 LOL, funny business... :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maverick Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 did yawl forget about the angrypenis in this short space of time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest c4evap Posted February 16, 2006 Share Posted February 16, 2006 did yawl forget about the angrypenis in this short space of time? Actually, I did. But not the one you're thinking of :p c4 B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beawulf Posted February 16, 2006 Share Posted February 16, 2006 hehe, classic. They should register www.buoi.com instead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StitchInTime Posted February 16, 2006 Share Posted February 16, 2006 A grapefruit by any other name, would taste just as juicy. ;) I've been saving this one up for quite a while: Lost with Translation The American Dairy Association was so successful with its "Got Milk?" campaign, that it was decided to extend the ads to Mexico. Unfortunately, the Spanish translation was "Are you lactating?" Electrolux, a Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer, used this ad in the U.S.: "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux." Colgate introduced a toothpaste called "Cue" in France, but it turned out to be the same name as a well-known porno magazine. When Braniff translated a slogan touting its upholstery, "Fly in leather," it came out in Spanish as "Fly naked." Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer from diarrhea." Chicken magnate Frank Perdue's line, "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken," sounds much more interesting in Spanish: "It takes a sexually stimulated man to make a chicken affectionate." Bacardi concocted a fruity drink with the name "Pavian" to suggest French chic...but "pavian" means "baboon" in German. A hair products company, Clairol, introduced the "Mist Stick", a curling iron, into Germany only to find out that mist is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the manure stick. When Kentucky Fried Chicken entered the Chinese market, to their horror they discovered that their slogan "finger lickin' good" came out as "eat your fingers off" When Vicks first introduce its cough drops on the German market, they were chagrined to learn that the German pronunciation of "v" is f - which in German is the guttural equivalent of "sexual penetration." Parker Pens translated the slogan for its ink, "Avoid Embarrassment - Use Quink" into Spanish as "Evite Embarazos - Use Quink"...which also means, "Avoid Pregnancy - Use Quink." When Pepsi started marketing its products in China a few years back, they translated their slogan, "Pepsi Brings You Back to Life" pretty literally. The slogan in Chinese really meant, "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave." In Italy, a campaign for "Schweppes Tonic Water" translated the name into the much less thirst quenching "Schweppes Toilet Water." Chinese translation proved difficult for Coke, which took two tries to get it right. They first tried Ke-kou-ke-la because when pronounced it sounded roughly like Coca-Cola. It wasn't until after thousands of signs had been printed that they discovered that the phrase means "bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax," depending on the dialect. Second time around things worked out much better. After researching 40,000 Chinese characters, Coke came up with "ko-kou-ko-le" which translates roughly to the much more appropriate "happiness in the mouth." Not to be outdone, Puffs tissues tried later to introduce its product, only to learn that "Puff" in German is a colloquial term for a whorehouse. The English weren't too fond of the name either, as it's a highly derogatory term for a non-heterosexual. The Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish speaking countries. "No va" means "it doesn't go" in Spanish. Ford introduced the Pinto in Brazil. After watching sales go nowhere, the company learned that "Pinto" is Brazilian slang for "tiny male genitals." Ford pried the nameplates off all of the cars and substituted them with "Corcel" which means horse. When Gerber first started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as here in the USA - with the cute baby on the label. Later they found out that in Africa companies routinely put pictures on the label of what's inside since most people can't read. In the French part of Canada, Hunt-Wesson introduced its "Big John" products as "Gros Jos." It later found out that the phrase is slang for "big breasts." Source: http://www.jokes.com/results/detail.asp?id=10163&sql=1&cat=25 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest c4evap Posted February 16, 2006 Share Posted February 16, 2006 Coors put its slogan' date=' "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer from diarrhea."[/quote'] Classics. Now I know why Coors always made me ill! :p EDIT: Moved to Mos Eisley Spaceport. c4 B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbbb Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 Wow, where did you dig up this stuff? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StitchInTime Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 Wow' date=' where did you dig up this stuff?[/quote'] Well, the link I placed below the stuff is where I got it, though perhaps it's no longer valid? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wahaha Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 Wow' date=' where did you dig up this stuff?[/quote'] You can find it in any MARKETING or BUSINESS textbook. If you've ever taken a class in either of them, which I have heh. I knew about these mess ups long ago. And for KFC it would be a big setback since they're the biggest US fast food chain in China. And they have the same US prices.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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