I love Animals, but I hate the Planet...

[Xue Sheng]

"Bite the wax tadpole",

That one was a classic of cultural and lingual misunderstanding

 

[tellner]

Notes...

1. The first Coke guys to sell in China transliterated "Coca Cola" into characters which had those sounds in Mandarin. Unfortunately it came out as "Bite the wax tadpole"
2. Marketing the Chevy Nova in Mexico is a problem. "No va" means "Doesn't go" in Spanish
3. "Pepsi brings life" was badly translated into Chinese, I suppose you could give your ancestors Pepsi instead of braaaiiinnss
4. Mist is one of the umpty hundred German words for feces

 

[Blindside]

That one was a classic of cultural and lingual misunderstanding

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/tadpole.asp