Lost In Translation
by Donna Cooper, Jr. Copywriter
I met my boyfriend’s parents for the first time over the past week, while we were moving into our new house. Normally, you might think this isn’t a huge deal, but let me just fill you in on an important piece of this story: They’re Chinese. Not Chinese Americans—Chinese. I’ve been surrounded by all things Chinese for the last 5 days and have experienced authentic traditions and cuisines brought from their homeland via New York’s Chinatown. While I had no clue what they were saying, it was easy to tell that their culture and traditions were very important to them.
That got me to thinking. How do you overcome such communication barriers and still be mindful of other cultures and traditions in advertising? Well, in my case it comes down to learning to speak their language and asking lots of questions about what is acceptable and not acceptable in their culture. As for advertising—it comes down to research…and breaking down the language barrier by finding a good translator.
For example, we have a few subway markets where Spanish is commonly spoken and at times we have to be careful how we say things and what we say because sometimes things get lost in translation or may mean on thing in English, but means something completely different (and in some cases is translated into something offensive) in another language.
Many mistakes have been made in the advertising world when it comes to translating their campaigns into different languages. While they are quite humorous to some people, others (especially those to whom the translation is directed) it can be embarrassing and offensive. Take Coca-cola for example: When they first began to market their brand in China, they ran into some problems with finding words that sounded similar to Coke. Some of their earlier attempts literally translated into “Bite the Wax Tadpole.” Finally, after holding a contest they settled on the tag line, “Happiness in the Mouth.” Another example is the “Got Milk” campaign. The Spanish version is “¿Tienes leche?” but it translates to, “are you lactating?” Clearly not what they had intended.
So, when dealing with different cultures and languages it’s best to do your homework before hand and make sure nothing gets lost in translation.