Some humorous literal translations of American products or slogans: General Motors was wondering why virtually none of their "Nova" cars were selling in Mexico. After all, "Nova" translates to "Star" in Spanish. Then they realized that when said aloud, "nova" sounds like "no va"---"it doesn't go". Oops. Ford 's Caliente turned out to mean "streetwalker" in Mexico. Their "cortina" translated to "jalopy" in Japanese. And "Fiera" meant "ugly old woman" in Spanish.. AS if this was not enought, it turns out that Pinto is a slang term meaning "small male appendage". Rolls Royce found out the hard way that in German, Silver Mist means "human waste". Pepsi's slogan, "Come alive with the Pepsi generation", didn't translate so well. In Chinese, it became "Pepsi brings back your dead ancestors", while in German, it was "come out of the grave with Pepsi." Coca-Cola also discovered in Taiwan that its Chinese characters chosen to sound like its name means "bite the wax tadpole". Fresca's brand name fizzled in Mexico, where it turned out to be slang for "lesbian". Perdue chicken's slogan "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken" read, in Spanish, "it takes a sexually stimulated man to make a chicken affectionate." A beer company slogan "Turn it loose", became, in Spanish: "Suffer from diarrhea." Gerber Baby Food packaged their African product just the same as in the U.S.--with a cute baby picture on the jar. They didn't realize that because so many Africans cannot rad, nearly all packaged products sold in Africa carry pictures of what is inside. Pureed baby--horrors!