There’s a reason so many viral social media posts showcase translation mistakes. Provided they aren’t offensive and don’t create health, safety or legal issues for anyone involved, translation fails are hilarious.
For their 2023 Lunar New Year campaign in China, BMW decided to spread some good cheer by showcasing a common AI translation error involving their brand name in a lighthearted advertising campaign.
The commercial, created by TBWA\Juice Beijing and TBWA\BOLT Shanghai, focuses on a Chinese printing executive who wants to focus on the global market in the year to come.
He decides the company will print bilingual materials celebrating the Lunar New Year. Instead of hiring a professional translator, he relies on AI, and hilarity ensues.
Watch (but beware, the song will get stuck in your head):
How does “wishing you fortune and success” turn into “lucky money into BMW for success,” anyway?
To represent BMW in China, the brand chose the name 宝⻢, which means “precious horse” and hearkens back to ancient Chinese poetry. It’s pronounced Bǎomǎ, which is close to BMW, and expresses the idea of a precious (and expensive) mode of a transportation.
According to LBB Online, the ubiquity of the BMW brand means that publicly available AI translation tools now struggle to translate those characters in other contexts:
“[W]hen 宝马 (Bao Ma) is inputted to AI translation software be it Google (Chinese language), Baidu or WeChat amongst others, almost without exception, the English translation will present ‘BMW’ instead of ‘Precious Horse’. . . BMW has accidentally highjacked Chinese culture.”
This includes a popular saying for the Lunar New Year: “Wishing you fortune and success,” or “Bring in wealth and ride on success.” Feed the Chinese phrase into AI translation tools, and it comes out ‘Lucky money into BMW to success.”
How to avoid AI translation fails
Mr. Ma, the factory boss, makes 3 common business translation mistakes in the video:
- He asks an unqualified employee to translate. This results in “Have fish every year, move up every day” being translated as “Year year fish, day day rich!” Just because your employee speaks the language in question, that doesn’t mean they can accurately translate your content.
- He relies on AI: As we’ve seen, AI seems smart but that doesn’t mean it is smart. It doesn’t know grammar, and it doesn’t hear how ridiculous “Lucky money into BMW to success” sounds.
- He sends translated collateral out without a robust QA process. In fact, there’s no QA process at all.
In the real world, inaccurate translations don’t always spread joy. They can cost your business prestige, money or even harm customers and clients.
If accurate translation is what you’re looking for, we’re here to help! Contact us for more information.
Until next time, we wish you fortune and success! Or “lucky money into BMW to success,” if you’d prefer that.
