Colgate is one of the most popular brands of toothpaste in the world, but it has faced one or two problems in countries where Spanish is the native language. While it does alter slightly depending on regional variations, and also depending on the Spanish language experts that you talk to, it does seem that the Colgate name is rather unfortunate for these countries.
Why is that the case?
Well, it seems that there are some arguments surrounding the word ‘colgate’ as it can, at times mean ‘go hang yourself’ which is not the kind of name that you want to have associated with any kind of product. However, there are some that will argue it does not actually mean this and it is all a rather big mistake, but a number of experts are pretty adamant that this brand of toothpaste is effectively telling people to go kill themselves.
The good news for the company is, that people are not exactly taking it literally and the brand is still the top-selling toothpaste in a number of countries across Latin America in particular. You could argue that it has given them a significant boost when it comes to general awareness that they exist, so perhaps it is good publicity after all?