In the early 1990s (to the best of my recollection), Nike ran a TV commercial that only lasted a couple of days. It featured hundreds of African tribesmen with spears running across the Savannah wearing Nikes. One of the tribesmen stops in front of the camera and says something in Swahili. It was translated in a subtitle as "Just do it". Well, some professor of Swahili called the newspaper (the New York Times, I think) and said, "What he's really saying is, ‘These are too tight, can I have another pair?’” Nike was embarrassed and asked the ad agency if they knew what he was saying and, if so, why did they do it, and the answer was, “we thought no one would understand Swahili.”