"Touch Woody"?

Hello my fellow students.  As I am sure you are all aware,  many of us did not get to that table in the far corner of our classroom in time to choose our first or second pick of topic choices for our blog assignment. As I reluctantly started working on mine not sure where to go with it, my initial plan for my first post to you was to boringly summarize my topic from our texts perspective (which at some point I may still do),  then the light bulb lit up.  I realized there is probably an unlimited supply of funny multicultural marketing mishaps, just waiting to be rediscovered for your reading pleasure. 

To start an interesting fact, the Internet was first commercialized in 1995. In 1996 a new PC geared towards Internet use was being promoted by a company called Matsushita Electric, whom you probably never heard of. Panasonic however you have. Well Panasonic developed a Japanese web browser with woody woodpecker as a virtual guide. The intentions were to make the software more user friendly. A huge marketing plan was devised and an internal launch was set for the day before its release. Unfortunately for its creators their hard work would never reach the general public. At the internal launch an American staff member told a Japanese staff member what Americans would actually hear when reading the words “touch woody” and “pecker", And so the harmless and misunderstood Slogan “Touch Woody – The Internet Pecker” and the product launch were delayed indefinitely.

This story is a perfect example of the importance of “learning the local lingo”. Which should be done before developing a website or any other application for that matter, especially when the material is on display for the world to see. Do you know of any funny cross cultural blunders?