Hey Marketers, Watch Your Language

by Kevin Burton

   The good people at www.thoughtco.com have poked into some language-barrier marketing stories and discovered some of them are simply not true.

   The first one burst my bubble.

   I heard somewhere that Chevrolet had to stop selling Nova cars in Mexico because “no va” in Spanish means, “it doesn’t go.”

   That was delicious. It sounded very ugly-clueless American to me, that a major company couldn’t figure that out before rolling out cars there.

   But that story isn’t true.

   Here’s the real Nova story and others, written by reporter Gerald Erichsen.

    “If you’ve ever taken a class in marketing, chances are you’ve heard how Chevrolet had problems selling the Chevy Nova automobile in Latin America.  Since “no va” means “it doesn’t go” in Spanish, the oft-repeated story goes, Latin American car buyers shunned the car, forcing Chevrolet to embarrassingly pull the car out of the market.”

    “There are literally thousands of references to the incident on the Internet, and the Nova example has been mentioned in textbooks and often comes up during presentations on cultural differences and advertising.”

  “But there’s one major problem with the story: It never happened. As a matter of fact, Chevrolet did reasonably well with the Nova in Latin America, even exceeding its sales projections in Venezuela.”

   “The story of the Chevy Nova is a classic example of an urban legend, a story that is told and retold so often that it is believed to be true even though it isn’t.”

   “Like most other urban legends, there is some element of truth in the story (“no va” indeed means “it doesn’t go”), enough truth to keep the story alive. Like many urban legends, the story has the appeal of showing how the high and mighty can be humiliated by stupid mistakes.”

   “Even if you couldn’t confirm or reject the story by looking into history, you might notice some problems with it if you understand Spanish. For starters, nova and no va don’t sound alike and are unlikely to be confused, just as ‘carpet’ and ‘car pet’ are unlikely to be confused in English.”

   “Also, no va would be an awkward way in Spanish to describe a nonfunctioning car (no funciona, among others, would do better).”

   “Additionally, as in English, nova, when used in a brand name, can convey a sense of newness. There’s even a Mexican gasoline that goes by that brand name, so it seems unlikely such a name alone could doom a car.”

   Other Spanish Mistranslation Legends

GM, of course, isn’t the only company to be cited as making advertising blunders in the Spanish language. But upon closer examination, many of these tales of mistranslation prove to be as unlikely as the one involving GM. Here are some of those stories.

The Tale of the Vulgar Pen

Story: Parker Pen intended to use the slogan “it won’t stain your pocket and embarrass you,” to emphasize how its pens wouldn’t leak, translating it as “no manchará tu bolsillo, ni te embarazará.” But embarazar means “to be pregnant”: rather than “to embarrass.” So the slogan was understood as “it won’t stain your pocket nor get you pregnant.”

Comment: Anyone who learns much about Spanish learns quickly about such common mistakes as confusing embarazada, pregnant for embarrassed. For a professional to make this translating mistake seems highly unlikely.

Wrong Kind of Milk

Story: A Spanish version of the “Got Milk?” campaign used “¿Tienes leche?,” which can be understood as “Are you lactating?”

Comment: This might have happened, but no verification has been found. Many such promotional campaigns are locally run, making it more likely this understandable mistake could have been made.

Wrong Kind of Loose

Story: Coors translated the slogan “turn it loose” in a beer ad in such a way that it was understood as slang for “suffer from diarrhea.”

Comment: Reports differ on whether Coors used the phrase “suéltalo con Coors” (literally, “let it go loose with Coors”) or “suéltate con Coors” (literally, “set yourself free with Coors”). The fact that accounts don’t agree with each other make it seem unlikely that the mistake actually happened.

No-Coffee Coffee

Story: Nestlé was unable to sell Nescafé instant coffee in Latin America because the name is understood as “No es café” or “It isn’t coffee.”

Comment: Unlike most of the other accounts, this story is demonstrably false. Nestlé not only sells instant coffee under that name in Spain and Latin America, but it also operates coffee shops  with that name. Also, while consonants are often softened in Spanish, vowels  are usually distinct, so nes is unlikely to be confused for no es.

Misplaced Affection

Story: A slogan for Frank Perdue chicken, “it takes a strong man to make a tender chicken,” was translated as the equivalent of “it takes a sexually aroused man to make a chicken affectionate.”

Comment: Like “tender,” tierno can mean either “soft” or “affectionate.” The accounts differ on the phrase used to translate “a strong man.” One account uses the phrase un tipo duro (literally, “a hard chap”), which seems extremely unlikely.