Did you know that 'Schweppes tonic water' means 'Schweppes Toilet water' in Italy or that the ad "Come Alive With Pepsi" is translated into Chinese as "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead."? Neither did the advertisers of Schweppes and Pepsi.
It is clear that when neglecting cross-cultural issues in areas as management, advertising or PR, these people may have to face damaging consequences. Definitely in these areas, where success of the products lays in the hands of the consumers acceptance. Luckily, as globalization is becoming more and more important, businesses pay more attention to these differences. Nowadays, there is already a great deal of information available to prevent these major blunders from happening.
Anyway, if you are feeling down and need a good laugh, the link below, can certainly cheer you up. It gives you quite some blunder examples of companies who weren't aware of the cultural differences.
'blunders'
Febe De Lille
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