Figures of Speech in the Translation of Audiovisual Advertisements

Effective translation of figures of speech in persuasive texts is crucial but complicated. Different cultural worldviews may sometimes cause misunderstandings due to vagueness in language, which otherwise may be comprehended through context or contextual associations. This study will address the following research questions: which figures of speech are the most common in advertising discourse; which translation techniques and procedures are used to render the various figures of speech in small and large sized target countries; is there a relation between country size, as measured by population, and the adaptation level of international marketing campaigns to the intended audience. The authors of the study hypothesise that international advertising campaigns are adapted through translation to a lesser degree in small sized target countries and vice versa, in large sized countries. The findings of the current study show that most probably there are other factors affecting the choice of translation techniques in audiovisual advertisements.

Surrogate Advertising

The chapter expounds advertising practices from the standpoint of social marketing, wherein government should act responsibly and play a key role in regulating consumption. The governing body of a country has an important responsibility to protect the interests of its citizens. Of particular significance is to discourage the consumption of demerit goods, like tobacco and liquor, which harm direct users, as well as people in vicinity. Governments in numerous countries prohibit advertisements of demerit goods on popular media, to dissuade potential consumers from falling prey to addictive substances. However, companies dealing in barred products look out for surrogate advertising to endorse every permissible product under the same brand name, other than the one that is banned or deemed injurious to health. Thus, there is an underlying subliminal message which is garbed by acceptable promotional strategies. The primary objective of the present chapter is to examine the rationale behind surrogate advertising, various forms of executing them, ethical considerations involved, the government's response, the overall impact, and the way ahead from the Indian perspective.

Marketing Convenience Stores Symbolically

The spokes-character Open-Chan was conceived in early 2000 and a diverse menagerie of other animal characters was introduced to promote 7-eleven in Taiwan. Over the subsequent decade, 7-Eleven has launched a wide range of campaigns and life narratives involving these spokes-characters to enhance the metaphorical image of the brand. This study aims to explicate the semiotic and linguistic texts launched in a series of campaigns between 2005 and 2015 and so to unpack their sociological and marketing implications. As suggested, visual narratives of cartoon spokes-characters perform a representative function that propagates the metaphoric image of the dominant powers as part of the broader concept of brand culture. In Schroeder's seminal studies on semiotic theory and brand culture, he suggests that physical attributes are important in projecting a proper image. The sign value of a proper spokes-character represents a significant asset in branding a retailing space.

From Courtship to Marriage in Marketing

The main objective of this chapter is to look at the concept of marketing from an integrative perspective, arguing for the complexity of the marketing philosophy and practices from linguistic, psychological and social points of view. Revisiting the concept of metaphor as a cognitive instrument will provide new insights into how it is employed and functions in marketing. Looking at the society's evolution and the importance it gives to the individual will contribute to understanding the changes in the way marketing is conceptualized and will help the author formulate some cognitive and linguistic consequences of these changes.

Contemporary Indian Television Commercials

The famous ‘cultivation' theory proposed by Professor George Gerbner suggests that people are influenced by jingles and catchlines, and a good deal of their conceptions of social reality depends on their exposure to television. The impact of incessant exposure to similar messages engenders cultivation, or the consolidation of a persistent conception, conventional roles and pooled standards, often involuntarily. The present study intends to explore cultivation theory by considering Indian commercials aired on television since 2001 till date and by critically examining and exploring marketing strategies employed by companies from the standpoint of gender-based portrayals and their consequent impact. The conclusion is that assigning particular traits to genders only restricts individuals from choosing who they want to be. It creates boxed expectations, and judges those who step outside them. Gender roles are nothing but an unrealistic expectation, which limits people from being their true selves, an aspect that needs realization by marketers.

Language and Visual Communication

This chapter examines how multimodality works language and visual cues together to achieve effective intercultural marketing communication. Language symbols are used as a primary means of communication in TV and radio. Commercial advertisers never forget to use visual communication to persuade consumers. Customers usually use the combined resources such as language (e.g., spoken and written) and visual cues (e.g., colours and signs) to interpret meanings. A qualitative approach is used in this project. Data including written texts and visual images are collected from many sources and critically analyzed with reference to relevant theories. It is concluded that both language communication and visual communication play their role in advertising and their combined communication power is greater. The research outcomes will help business operators and managers understand how culturally appropriate language and visual communication can promote the advertised services and sell their products, thus achieving business success and customer satisfaction.

Background of “Pinned” Images

The presence of a hidden enforcement is a matter in social media networks, whose contents are made attractive by rich images illustrating the rearrangement of the living spaces belonging to the followers of these networks. Every detail of private life including personal appearance, spaces where time is spent with friends, food is consumed, coffee is drunk, and houses are decorated, is presented through charming images. Inspired by these images, people have started to make their preferences regarding what mobile phone to use, what sports to practice, or what films to watch. The content of social media has begun to draw attention to “lifestyle advertising” and has provided a convenient ground for the advertising industry. Pinterest is a network where images reflecting modern people's daily habits, including consumption, are pinned in order to serve as sources of inspiration. In this study, the perfect living spaces which have been fictionalised as models in the images shared on Pinterest will be investigated in terms of “lifestyle advertising” and in comparison to real life.

Marketing Christianity and Men of God Through the Use of Signs

Most advertising copies designed by Nigerian Pentecostal Churches are rarely monosemic and hardly understandable from a literal exegesis. This is partly due to the fact that they most often integrate various typologies of signs and symbols. These signs are aimed (i) to quickly and effectively convey specific meanings to the readership and (ii) fashion the overall advertising messages according to the taste of the time. Based on a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of 490 advertising copies, this study reveals that 68.77% of the print advertisements generated by Nigerian Churches contain signs and symbols. Majority (56.08%) of these signs and symbols are Christian in nature (they are inspired by the universal Christian symbolism and iconography); while, 30.26% of them are rooted in the Nigerian socio-cultural context. The latter category of signs is commonly used in a postmodern or sensational manner, to make reference to local religious myths and specific socio-political events which seriously affect or shape Nigerian Pentecostal Christianities. This postmodern use of signs implicitly reveals that, the advertising message designers are conscious of the highly competitive environment in which churches and men of God operate in the country.

Advertising With Humour

The present chapter considers verbal humour used in advertising as a rhetorical device. To understand humour, one needs to make inferences by resorting to background knowledge (the domain of pragmatics), and to knowledge of the linguistic code (the domain of semantics). This endeavour examines a series of successful marketing campaigns for ROM, a Romanian chocolate bar brand, and tries to analyse the humorous elements they feature from a pragmatic and semantic perspective. Dwelling on ingrained prejudices and stereotypes, the advertisements for the Romanian chocolate bar have managed to attract attention by humorously exaggerating and sometimes by shocking the audience, compelling them to take action and share their opinions on the advertised matters on various websites. This strategy, which employs humour extensively, has turned out to be successful and, as a consequence, the brand's sales have dramatically increased.

Marketing Semiotics in the Digital Age

The nature of communication has begun to change dramatically, as face-to-face communication has gradually been replaced by online communication. People's need to express their emotions and thoughts more visually than ever before has triggered an evolution in communication, from verbal to visual. In this sense, the importance of symbols and icons in communication is continuously increasing. Furthermore, this change can be closely related to the marketing discipline. Therefore, this chapter focuses on semiotics as the field of research that studies symbols as an essential part of marketing communication in the digital age.