The Max Planck Institute is one of Germany’s top scientific institutions. For a special issue on research in China published in Dec. 2008, it printed what it thought was a “classical poem” on the cover (a text that certainly looks Chinese to the non-Chinese speaker). The editing team didn’t realize that the text they chose was a handbill for a Macau strip club (“hot housewives in action!” / “enchanting and coquettish performance”). If you don’t speak the language, you really can’t tell what you are getting.
Courtesy of the ATA Public Relations Committee
CETRAblog 
I heard many, many years ago that a painter was doing the lettering for the rest room doors in a restaurant and wanted to make it fancy, so he put the “Ladies” and “Gentlemen” in several languages. He copied a Chinese sign he saw in a magazine for good measure. Later a Chinese customer told the manager it meant “Chinese Relief.”