There are many examples of major advertising mistakes that have happened through careless translation. We've included a few below that were made by some very large companies.

Large companies have the resources to survive a major mistep in a foreign language ... do you?

Think about it ... What kind of first impression do you want to make?

Coca-Cola

The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-ke-ken-la.  Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means "bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax" depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, ko-kou-ko-le, which can be loosely translated as "happiness in the mouth."

Things weren't much easier for Coke's arch-rival Pepsi. When they entered the Chinese market a few years ago, the translation of their slogan "Pepsi Brings you Back to Life" was a little more literal than they intended. In Chinese, the slogan meant, "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave".