[Sca-cooks] Truth in advertising

[Daniel Myers]

I was curious (because a couple of things I'd believed turned out to be 
hoaxes) and checked some of these out at snopes.com

On Dec 4, 2004, at 9:39 AM, Phlip wrote:

> These are some nominees for the Chevy Nova Award. This is
> given out in honor of the GM's fiasco in trying to market
> this car in Central and South America. "No va" means, of
> course, in Spanish, "it doesn't go".

Nope, an urban legend.  Snopes says the Nova actually sold quite well 
in Mexico and South America.
http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp

> * 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.

Nope.
http://www.snopes.com/business/market/babyfood.asp

> * 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 transla-
> tion read "Are you lactating?"
>
> * Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish, where
> it was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea."
>
> * 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).

Snopes doesn't seem to know about any of these three.

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

Snopes is unsure of this one.  It says there's nothing definitive 
either way.
http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/ancestor.asp

> * 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."

Nope.
http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/tadpole.asp
(pity - I always liked this story)

- Doc


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  Edouard Halidai  (Daniel Myers)
  Cum Grano Salis
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