1. Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it was read
as "Suffer from diarrhea."
2. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an
American campaign: "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."
3. Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick", a hair curling iron, into German
only to find out that "mist" is slang for manure.  Not too many people had
use for the "manure stick."
4. When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same
packaging as in the U.S., with the beautiful white 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.
5. Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a
notorious porno magazine.
6. 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).
7. Pepsi's "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation "translated into "Pepsi
brings your ancestors back from the grave", in Chinese.
8. 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."
9. 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."
10.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".
Instead, the company thought that the word "embarazar"(to impregnate) meant
to embarrass, so the ad read: "It won't leak inyour pocket and make you
pregnant."