Advertising - The Cultural Rite/Write/Right of Passage

Globalization has been great for business. Today, the world is your marketplace and everybody is a potential customer but with globalization, comes the challenge of cross cultural awareness. Segments of your target audience are as different as night and day; which is why when you cater to them, you have to pay particular attention to regional and cultural sensitivities. Many major brands learnt this the hard way. 

For example, when Pepsodent set about trying to convince people to ‘whiten their teeth’ in Southeast Asia, they clearly did not know that the natives chew betel nuts, to obtain the blackened teeth they find attractive. An eyewear company advertised cute animals wearing glasses in Thailand, without realizing that no self-respecting Thai would wear anything worn by animals. Korean Airlines thought that they are connecting with the locals when they came to Kenya, addressing it as “the land of primitive energy”. Unfortunately, they saw it as a revival of age-old stereotypes. Communication often becomes miscommunication and brands commit cultural suicide in the form of translation. Pepsi expected to create quite the uproar when they entered China with the slogan “Pepsi brings you back to life”, and they definitely did that. After translation, the slogan the Chinese read was: “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave”. A little overboard with the exaggeration, Pepsi? Kellogg’s should have seen sales coming down when ‘Bran Buds’ translated to ‘Burned Farmer’ in Swedish, as should have Clairol’s ‘Mist Stick’ curling iron, in Germany, since ‘mist’ is slang for ‘manure’ in German. Understandably, cultural insensitivity can be catastrophic. When expanding your market, get a local on board and learn who and what you are working with, before taking the leap. In a multicultural society, like the one fostered in UAE, advertisements have to be extra sensitive to ensure that nobody is offended. Avoid cross cultural marketing faux pas and don’t translate to disaster. For which our headline needs to be reiterated: your brand must undergo a Rite of Passage, to Write well, to get Culture Right.

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