The Dairy Association's huge success with the campaign "Got Milk?" prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their attention the Spanish translation read "Are you lactating?"

Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea."

When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the smiling baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the labels of what's inside, since many people can't read.

Pepsi's "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave" in Chinese.

The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Kekoukela", 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 "kokou kole", translating into "happiness in the mouth."

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."

In America, if you want to split the cost of an evening out, you say you are "going Dutch," since the Dutch are well known for their frugality. The Dutch, on the other hand, call the same arrangement "op z'n Amerikaans" (going American) because the Americans are known for their egalitarian nature!

In English, the bird "turkey" was named as though it came from Turkey. In Turkish, the bird is named "hindi" as though it came from "Hindistan", which is Turkish for India. (Any Hindi speakers wish to comment on the Hindi name of a turkey?)

French fries aren't really French. In fact, they were invented by the English (so greasy, you know), who call them chips. The French call them "pommes frites" or "fried apples [of the earth]".

In Wien (the German name for Vienna), they like to eat Frankfurters. In Frankfurt, they eat the same thing, but call them Wieners.