'How Does the ASEAN Region Localize International Brands?’ A Multidimensional Analysis of Thai TV ads
In intercultural scholarship, there is a considerable number of studies that explores the impact and effect of culturally oriented social media (see Koda 2014, 2016; Mendoza 2010). Of these studies, however, there is a paucity of understanding on how social media becomes a third space of cultural representation, especially in the Southeast Asian context (Dumlao and Wattakan 2020; Feng 2009; Kalscheuer 2008). Drawing from insights connected to inter-semiosis by Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996) and SF-MDA by O’Halloran (2011), therefore, this paper explores the glocalization process and its inclination to cultural representation, and thus creating new discursive forms of identities, by looking at Thai TV ads from January 2019 to December 2019. Two Thai TV ads were purposively chosen from international beverage companies. To capture the glocalization and cultural representation, we compared these with TV ads from other countries, namely, the Philippines, and the U.S.A. Through content and multidimensional analysis, the findings suggest that commercials construct glocal identities through several factors and incidences. These incidences and factors support and provide understanding for brand identity positioning, which itself describes the intersemiosis of elements within contemporary consumer cultures. Implications of this study are discussed in the paper.