Translating Advertising

Translating advertising copy is like painting the tip of an iceberg. What you see are the words, but there is a lot behind the words that must be understood to transfer advertising from one culture to another. This paper demonstrates that consumer behaviour and the way consumers communicate are heavily dependent on their cultural values. For advertising, one important distinction is between low- and high-context communication, which can help us understand that people categorize the world in different ways. Another important influence of culture is on consumers’ needs, motives and emotions. Variations in inter-personal communication styles are reflected in advertising styles. Thus, effective advertising uses a culturally appropriate advertising style. For example, in Europe and Asia these styles are very different from US advertising style, of which rhetoric is an integral part. Another idea which is expanded in the present paper is that the persuasive communication function of advertising is biased toward rational claims. This is the sort of style that can be translated, but translation does not necessarily render such advertising appropriate for other cultures.