The Biggest Translation Mistakes with Real Consequences

Expanding your business globally can be an exciting step for any marketer, but marketing your product or solution abroad requires much research and preparation. In order to succeed overseas, marketing messages must appeal to the target audience.

You can prepare several marketing messages for your target customers but all they will remember is the one mistake you make. This is because poor translation is most obvious when something goes wrong. Sending a badly crafted message can not only turn people away,  it can also lead to health, political and financial consequences.

1. Translation Mistakes in Healthcare

When 18-year-old baseball player Willie Ramirez was taken to a South Florida hospital in a coma, communication became difficult. His friends and family spoke only Spanish and relied on a staff member to explain his condition to the medical team. Unfortunately, the staff member mistranslated “intoxicado” as “intoxicated,” leading doctors to make incorrect assumptions about Willie’s medical condition.

A professional medical translator would have known that the family and friends meant to say “intoxicado” as in “poisoned”, rather than “intoxicated”. This mistranslation led the staff to believe that Ramirez was suffering from food poisoning. Unfortunately, the doctors treated Ramirez as if he had a drug overdose. Due to the treatment error, Ramirez had to bear with the health consequences and was left quadriplegic.

2. Political Fallout from a Translation Mistakes

When President Carter visited Poland in 1977, he said in his speech that he wanted to learn about the Polish people’s “desires for the future”. Unfortunately, the Russian interpreter hired for the tour lacked professional experience in interpreting Polish. As a result, the interpreter mistranslated President Carter’s statement, rendering it as “lusts for the future.”

Instead of translating “I left the United States this morning” correctly, the interpreter also mistranslated it to “I left the United States, never to return”. When the President said he was happy to be in Poland, the sentence was also wrongly translated to “he was happy to grasp at Poland’s private parts”. This created much political embarrassment for the President both in Poland and internationally.

3. The Hidden Cost of Mistranslation

In 2009, HSBC Bank, a renowned global entity, spent millions of dollars developing its “Assume Nothing” marketing campaign. However, the tagline was mistranslated in several countries as “Do Nothing” — a message that backfired, drew mockery, and failed to resonate with international audiences.

Realising the damage, HSBC scrapped the original campaign and launched a multi-million dollar rebranding effort. The bank spent $10 million to correct the mistake and eventually rebranded itself as “The world’s private bank” — a tagline still recognised today.

4. Avoid Costly Translation Mistakes

If you are taking your brand global, there are a few precautions you can take to avoid embarrassment or financial consequences like those described above. Customisation is key. Be clear about the audience you are targeting and learn as much as you can about them in order to modify your marketing strategy accordingly.

Another simple yet crucial marketing tactic is to localise your content instead of merely translating it. This is because there may be cultural gaps between countries. Localisation communicates language nuances, which is the hallmark of effective, quality translation. Study the culture carefully and observe how people communicate in daily life to understand their values, tone, and expectations.This helps ensure your message is translated clearly and resonates with the audience, rather than causing confusion or offence.

To go about global marketing the right way, hire a reliable language services provider with subject matter experts who understand linguistic nuances and  can handle your translation needs perfectly for you.

elionetwork is a one-stop translation and language services provider headquartered in Singapore. Our global network of expert linguists across five continents helps you not only translate but localise marketing materials effectively and accurately. We ensure your message resonates locally, boosting traction and customer trust in every new market you enter. For the best results, contact us early so we can develop a tailored localisation workflow to support your marketing goals.