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The translation of advertisements - 1
The translator plays a key role in the adaptation of advertisements |
The translation of advertisements has evolved during the last decade towards what is now called “Advertising Localization”. It is not a mere change of designation stemming from computer science vocabulary but a radical change of perspective concerning the real nature and modes of linguistic and cultural transfer from one language into an other. The present article explains, in detail, the evolution that took place, its expressions and its stakes in the profession and training of translators in the field of localization.
The globalization of economies and trade intensification lead companies to communicate with consumers of different languages and cultures.
Within the framework of international marketing strategies, advertising plays a key role. It has to resolve a dilemma which can be summarized in the following question: How can we sell a standardized product to local and different consumers?
This study aims, on one hand, at underscoring some problems related to translation of international advertising campaigns, and on the other hand, at raising pressing questions regarding the place and the function of the professional translator in this specific framework.
These issues will be dealt with from the perspective of the consulting translation specialist with a large expertise in “advertising adaptation”. As for the reference corpus of this study, it consists of one thousand “translated” ads from French into the main international languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic). It was gathered over a five-year period between 1995 and 2000.
GENERAL FRAMEWORK OF ADVERTISING LOCALIZATION
The general framework would be that of communication and marketing strategies adopted by multinational companies especially French multinationals.
The debate between the upholders of global standardization and those of local adaptation is still open and will likely stay that way as long as the Earth is teeming with different languages and cultures. Nevertheless, the elements of this debate should be defined and elucidated briefly.
International advertising consists of using the same strategy of communication in all targeted countries. The advantage of this approach lies mainly in the economies of scale generated because of the standardization of the campaign.
Numerous arguments, whether theoretical or practical, were given to justify the internationalization of some products advertising campaigns.
Among the most frequently given arguments, we name the following:
- The standardization of consumer behaviors in many countries (a tangible evidence of the cultural homogenization).
- The emergence of similar new categories of consumers on the international level (new transnational markets).
- The introduction of international themes and icons thanks to the television networks and the pop music (movie stars and supermodels).
To that, one may add the relatively scarce numbers of brilliant ideas in the field of communication and thus it is easy to understand why companies tend, in their vast majority, to this type of standardized strategy.
But it is also obvious that the risks of a forced standardization are not insignificant. The relevance and the influence of the local culture are still very substantial in numerous countries around the globe including in Western Europe. It is indeed very risky not to adapt communication to some local markets especially in countries where the cultural tradition is still very present.
Faced with a potential failure, which can have serious sequels financially speaking, the trend towards localization is gradually gaining ground. But what does it really entail in the advertising field?
Localization of international advertising campaigns consists of adapting the company's communication to the specificities of the local environment of the hosting countries targeted by the campaign. This local environment could be divided in several components to which the localizing translator must pay careful attention:
- The socio-cultural component: which includes the local particularities stemming from religion, mores, social and commercial habits, rules of conduct and ethical norms. In short, this component is related to the main features of the hosting culture and society.
- The politico-legal component: which includes the local particularities stemming from the nature of the political system, the stage of opening onto the world, the restrictions imposed on advertisements and the regulations related to information and to certain products (such as spirits and tobacco)
The localization of advertising campaigns consists of adapting the company's communication while taking into account the above-mentioned parameters. The relevance and influence of these parameters are certainly varied according to regions and countries but overlooking them leads undoubtedly to the failure of the campaign.
In this context, the translator plays a key role in the adaptation of the communication campaign. Beside his role as a translator of the speech – strictly speaking – he must make sure that the socio-cultural restrictions, which could be problematic in the advertising transfer, are taken into consideration.
The issue, which is at the heart of multilingual communication in this globalized era, is about managing cultural differences between the different hosting countries of a single advertising campaign.
I shall try to explain briefly the terms of the problem and the diverging points of view of the parties involved in this process concerning specifically the cultural issue.
First of all, we have the sponsors of the ads (in other words the producers of goods and services) who champion an offensive approach with a very peculiar conception of culture stating the following: culture is "global"; it is American and global based on international icons and standard messages.
Then we have the point of view of communicators/advertising executives who consider that communication applies for a particular public viewed as a "target" and known as the "target audience". For them, culture is defined as the culture of a transnational group of consumers having the same life style and similar consumption habits.
And finally, we have the point of view of the ads translators/localizers. As linguistic and cultural go-betweens, translators are, by principle, in a mediation position that allows them to see the problem from the conciliatory and flexible angle of interculturality.
I shall give here a few actual examples of the intercultural approach of translators within the framework of international advertising. The recurrent question for them being: how to convey a single message written in two different languages without losing neither the spirit nor the identity?
“The management of the other”, which is what international advertising is all about, will be a challenge for the translator/localizer at varying levels related to the different parts of the advertising message namely: the image on one hand, and the text on the other. Within the latter (the text of the ad), one can recognize: the brand name, the slogan or the catch line and finally the caption.
Every part of these could be a problem when transferring it from one language to another. And every one reflects a facet of the cultural issues.
To understand the stakes of the problem, one should think in semiotic terms, that is to say that culture is embedded in linguistic, plastic, graphic and pictorial signs that constitute the message.
For the sake of convenience, we are going to distinguish between the advertisements that have been graphically adapted and those that have been adapted textually before looking into the relation between the text and the graphics which is an essential element in advertising.
Continues ...
By Mathieu Guidere - Master in Arabic language and literature and Ph.D in Translation Studies and Applied Linguistics from the University of Paris-Sorbonne, Lyon 2 University - Saint-Cyr Research Centre - perso.univ-lyon2.fr/~mguidere
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The translation of advertisements - 1. The translator plays a key role in the adaptation of advertisements - Translation Articles - Trally.com
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