The Translation of Advertisements: Issues of Semiotics, Symbolism and Persuasion
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Maria SverneiThe Translation of Advertisements: Issues of Semiotics, Symbolism and Persuasion
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Maria SverneiThe translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism
and persuasion
Kappe Fokam Christelle
Submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand in
partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Arts in Translation,
Johannesburg, February 2012
I have discovered the most exciting, the most arduous literary form of
all, the most difficult to master, the most pregnant in curious
possibilities. I mean the advertisement. It is far easier to write ten
passably effective Sonnets, good enough to take in the not too inquiring
critic, than one effective advertisement that will take in a few thousand
of the uncritical buying public. (Aldous Huxley 1894‐1963)
2 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Table of Contents
Declaration ..................................................................................................................................... 6
Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... 7
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 10
Contextual background ............................................................................................................ 10
Chapter One Literature review ............................................................................................. 15
1. The discourse of advertising ........................................................................................... 15
1.1 Medium .......................................................................................................................... 16
b) Electronic advertising ........................................................................................... 17
1.2 Product or service ...................................................................................................... 18
1.3 Technique ...................................................................................................................... 18
1.4 Consumer ...................................................................................................................... 22
1.5 Features of advertising materials .............................................................................. 25
1.5.1 Slogan ......................................................................................................................... 25
1.5.2 Content ....................................................................................................................... 26
1.5.3 Illustrations .............................................................................................................. 26
1.5.4 Features of CocaCola illustrations .................................................................... 27
a) The logo ...................................................................................................................... 27
b) CocaCola drink ........................................................................................................ 28
c) Personages .................................................................................................................... 28
d) Colours ....................................................................................................................... 28
1.6 Advertising translation and factors that influence it .......................................... 29
a) Internationalization ................................................................................................... 31
b) Localization .................................................................................................................. 31
1.7 The translation of Businesstoconsumers advertising texts ....................... 35
3 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
1.7.1 Ideology .................................................................................................................. 37
1.7.2 Culture .................................................................................................................... 38
1.7.3 Sociology ................................................................................................................ 39
1.7.4 Skopos theory ....................................................................................................... 40
1.7.5 Functional equivalence ..................................................................................... 42
1.7.6 Relevance theory ................................................................................................. 43
1.7.7 Ethics and loyalty in advertising translation ............................................. 45
1.8 Semiotics and symbolism in advertising translation .......................................... 48
1.8.1 Semiotics ................................................................................................................ 48
1.8.2 Symbolism ............................................................................................................. 51
Chapter Two: Theoretical framework and methodology .............................................. 54
2.1 Theoretical framework ................................................................................................. 54
2.2 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 59
Chapter Three: Corpus analysis ............................................................................................. 65
3.1 Analysis of source and target advertisements ...................................................... 65
3.2 Semiotic analysis and identification of translation strategies ......................... 69
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 115
References ................................................................................................................................. 118
4 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Abstract
This research report discusses the translation of advertisements paying attention to
persuasion, semiotics, and symbolism. It illustrates the importance of symbolism and
semiotics in persuading consumers across cultures. The research uses Coca‐Cola as a
case study in order to discuss the strategies used by translators in translating
persuasive text in print advertisements across cultures and to elaborate on key issues
in the translation of advertisements and on theories that are very useful to translators
of advertising materials.
Semiotics, symbolism and the techniques used by advertisers and translators in
persuading, as well as theories related to the translation of advertisements such as
skopos theory, relevance theory and functional equivalence are discussed in the
literature review and are assessed in the corpus analysis. The importance of sociology,
culture and ideology is also illustrated in the study and a brief discussion of the
discourse of advertisements is given in order to understand the mechanism of
advertisement. This is because translators need to understand how advertising
functions before they can translate it.
This research report performs a comparative analysis of 30 Coca‐Cola advertisements in
English and their translations into French from 1905 to 2011. By analysing and
comparing the English advertisements of Coca‐Cola and their translations, this study
shows how semiotics and symbolism may be used to analyse the techniques that are
used in the advertisements to achieve persuasion in the different French settings. The
analysis is further based on Relevance theory, Equivalence theory and skopos theory
within the framework of DTS.
Observations include translators’ understanding and good management of the visual
and textual elements and good understanding of how to render an advertisement truly
global by focussing on global, universal and neutral values.
5 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Declaration
I, Kappe Fokam Christelle, declare that this research report is my own work. It is
submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. It
has not been submitted for any other degree or examination in any other university.
Name:
Signed at this day of 2012
6 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Acknowledgements
My first thank you goes to God Almighty, the creator of Heaven and Earth. Thank you
God for your graces. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor,
Prof. Judith Inggs, for her kindness, her support and her patience throughout the writing
of this research report. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my parents
Seraphin and Odile and to my family for all their love, care and support, to Myriam,
Tonton Christophe for their support and care, and to my fiance Raoul for his love,
support and care.
7 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
List of illustrations
Illustration 1: All the world loves Coca‐Cola ....................................................................................... 18
Illustration 2: Drink Coca‐Cola .................................................................................................................. 19
Illustration 3: Life tastes good ................................................................................................................... 20
Illustration 4: Coca‐Cola revives and sustains .................................................................................... 21
Illustration 5: No more exclusivity! From now on2 favourite numbers .................................. 32
Illustration 6: Ne faites plus de jaloux! Désormais2 numéros préférés .................................. 33
Illustration 7: Drink Coca‐Cola ‐delicious and refreshing ............................................................. 69
Illustration 8: Buvez Coca‐Cola ................................................................................................................. 71
Illustration 9: The drink everybody knows ......................................................................................... 73
Illustration 10: La boisson connue de tout le monde ...................................................................... 74
Illustration 11: The greatest pause on earth ....................................................................................... 75
Illustration 12: “Le meilleur repos qui soit” ........................................................................................ 77
Illustration 13: "Your thirst takes wings" ............................................................................................. 77
Illustration14: “Votre soif s'envole” ....................................................................................................... 79
Illustration 15: “How about a coke” ........................................................................................................ 80
Illustration 16: “Si on prenait un coke” ................................................................................................. 81
Illustration 17: Hospitality in your hands ............................................................................................ 82
Illustration 18: De vos mains hospitalières ......................................................................................... 84
Illustration 19: Good taste for all .............................................................................................................. 85
Illustration 20: Bon goût pour tous ......................................................................................................... 87
Illustration 21: There's nothing like giving folks what they want ............................................. 88
Illustration 22: Rien de tel que de donner aux gens ce qu'ils veulent ...................................... 90
Illustration 23: Almost everyone appreciates the best ................................................................... 92
Illustration 24: Presque tous apprécient ce qu'il y a de mieux ................................................... 94
Illustration 25: Friends forever ................................................................................................................. 96
Illustration 26: Fidèles amis ....................................................................................................................... 98
Illustration 27: Be really refreshed with sparkling Coke! ........................................................... 100
Illustration 28: Soyez bien rafraichi...avec le Coke pétillant! .................................................... 102
Illustration 29: Things go better with Coke ...................................................................................... 103
Illustration 30: Tout va bien mieux avec Coca‐Cola ...................................................................... 104
8 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Illustration 31: It's the real thing. Coke. ............................................................................................. 106
Illustration 32: Coca‐Cola c'est ça ......................................................................................................... 107
Illustration 33: Live on the Coke side of life ..................................................................................... 109
Illustration 34: Prends la vie coté Coca‐Cola .................................................................................... 110
Illustration 35: Open happiness ............................................................................................................. 112
Illustration 36: Ouvre du Bonheur ........................................................................................................ 113
9 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Introduction
Contextual background
There is a widespread belief that advertising is one of the most intrusive discourses in
our post‐modern world. When we flip through magazines and newspapers or when we
walk on the street, travel or browse on the internet, we are likely to find advertisements
promoting a wide array of products and services. Advertising greatly affects our lives; it
is present everywhere around us and it is a vehicle that brings information, opinions
and products to us. “Yet… writing on marketing pays little attention to the translation of
written copy” (Jeremy Munday 2004: 200). Translated advertisements are ways
through which companies gain insights into other countries and cultures. The success of
an advertisement in a foreign country therefore depends on its translation. For this
reason, translators of advertisements should consider the translation of advertisements
as an art; an art which requires real creativity, precision, very good linguistic and
stylistic skills and the awareness of ideological and cultural factors. This is because
advertising materials often target a large audience and they are intended to persuade
that audience.
In her book Translating promotional and advertising texts (2010: 8‐9), Ira Torresi gives
reasons why advertising translators are not just translators. She identifies non‐
linguistics skills which are useful for translators of promotional and advertising texts.
These non‐linguistic skills include “agility”, “persuasiveness”, “creativity”, the
“knowledge of relevant laws and restrictions about advertising and publicly distributed
material in the countries where the translated text will be circulated” and “the ability to
be flexible in the relationships one has with agencies, editors, and the end client”.
It is not easy to achieve the main aim of advertising which is to persuade; for this
reason, the production of effective translated advertisements requires translators to
consider advertisements as particular texts that have very specific features and
functions and which require specific translation strategies depending on the target
audience. This is why this study uses Coca‐Cola as example to analyse how translators
handle advertising materials.
10 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Aim
The main question is whether the translators of advertisements use the same
techniques in the target setting as used in the originals. We therefore identify and
discuss the translation strategies used by the translators of Coca‐Cola advertisements
and we discuss the impact of these translation strategies on the advertisements in order
to examine whether and how the strategies of the translators have changed over time.
As the advertisements analysed all include visual elements, the symbolic and semiotic
meaning of these elements also needs to be examined. This research report therefore
attempts to answer the following questions: How do functionalist theories of translation
apply to the translation of advertisements? What is the relevance of semiotic analysis
and symbolism in the translation of advertisements? How is persuasion translated
across cultures? By answering these questions, we hope to develop conceptual insights
into the translation of advertisements.
Rationale
Much research has been done in the field of advertising translation (Munday 2004,
Torresi 2010, Guidère 2005, De Mooij 2004, and Snell‐Hornby 2006) and much still
needs to be done as the issue of the translatability or the untranslatability and the
adaptation of advertisements remains an ongoing debate. However, this report does not
examine the translatability or the untranslatability of advertising materials but rather
discusses some key issues in the translation of advertisements.
The reason we chose this topic is that advertising is a complex discourse which targets a
large number of people. Advertising is a specific genre which uses many techniques to
persuade and we are particularly interested in the way translators succeed in
translating persuasion across cultures. Advertising is an important subject for almost
everyone because we are confronted with it everyday whether consciously or
unconsciously. Moreover, advertising has become a huge industry and many companies
across the world spend huge amounts of money in order to advertise their products.
The discourse of advertising should therefore be given special attention as it is now part
of our everyday lives and it directs our everyday purchasing choices and needs.
11 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
In choosing the type of advertisements to examine we decided to base our study on soft
drinks because these are fast moving goods. There are many different soft drinks
advertised every day, and it is therefore of interest to examine how a company
producing such goods succeeds in persuading an international audience and a French‐
speaking audience to consume their product.
We chose Coca‐Cola as a brand because it is one of the strongest brands in the world. In
2010 it was reported that Coca‐Cola had been “the world's best brand for the 11th year
in a row despite the soaring value of technology companies”(The Telegraph 16
September 2010). It is for this reason that Coca‐Cola is the most popular word after
“OK” in the world (Coca‐Cola‐france.fr). Coca‐Cola is therefore a relevant example to
explain and discuss the translation of advertisements.
The Coca‐Cola Company was founded in 1886. It is a huge company that has grown from
selling a modest 9 drinks a day in 1886 to 1.7 billion a day. It has expanded from one
city in one country to become available in more than 200 countries around the world”
(Coca‐Cola 125 years of sharing happiness). With the uniqueness of its products and
with its methods of advertising, the Coca‐Cola Company has won the hearts of billions of
people around the globe and has evolved into one of the strongest brands in the world.
Coca‐Cola advertisements are creative and innovative and they also change over time,
thus adjusting to different tastes.
The analysis in this research is restricted to print advertisements. Video advertisements
involve additional features which were felt to be beyond the scope of this research. The
print advertisements were accessible on the internet via collectors’ websites. In
addition, print advertisements provide a solid basis for the analysis of the use of images
and different media such as magazines, newspapers, cardboard and ink blotters. We
selected 30 English and French print advertisements from 1905 to 2011. However, the
situation was slightly different from 1990 to 2011. From 1993 till 2001 the English
language slogan “always Coca‐Cola” was used universally in all advertising. Between
2001 and 2005, each country decided on its own on slogan (Coca‐Cola France.fr). From
2006 to 2009, the Coca‐Cola slogan was “live on the Coke side of life” which was used
again in 2011 in a Christmas advertisement featuring Santa Claus. This latter
advertisement is analysed in this study. From 2009 to 2010, the Coca‐Cola slogan was
12 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
“open happiness” which remains the current slogan. We decided to use the most recent
advertisements that feature the slogan “open happiness” from 2011. The English
advertisements originate in the United States because The Coca‐Cola Company was
founded and is based in the United States. The French translations originate from
Canada and France. We decided to focus on Canada and France because Canada is the
only bilingual country with English and French in the western context and France is the
home of the French language.
Approach to the study
The broad basis of this research lies in Descriptive Translation Studies as it examines
existing translations and analyses the way in which the advertisements were translated.
The study focuses particularly on semiotics, symbolism and persuasion as conveyed in
Coca‐Cola advertisements. The reason for focusing on semiotics, symbolism and
persuasion is that they are key issues in the translation of advertisements. Semiotics
and symbolism enables us to understand the hidden message of advertisements and to
identify the symbols used to appeal to the audience and how they work. Semiotics and
symbolism will enable us to examine the tools that the translators of Coca‐Cola
advertisements use to persuade a diverse audience.
It is hoped that the study will contribute to a better understanding of the translation of
advertisements as the field of advertising translation has not yet been as extensively
explored as other fields in translation studies. Finally, it is acknowledged that this study
does not explore all the issues in the translation of advertisements but rather focusses
on some specific issues. The findings will demonstrate the crucial role that images play
in advertising translation and determine how professional advertising translators deal
with advertisements directed at a wider audience.
Outline of chapters
This research is structured as follow:
Introduction, which introduces the aim, rationale and approach of the study.
Chapter One, which provides the literature review for this study. The literature review
is divided into several focus areas: the discourse of advertising, the specific concerns of
advertising translation, the ethics and loyalty of advertising translators and discussion
13 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
of the concepts of culture, ideology and sociology which affect the translation of
advertisements. The last section discusses issues of persuasion, symbolism and
semiotics as they are critically relevant for the analysis of translated advertisements.
Chapter Two, which centres on the broad theoretical framework and the methodology
of this study. The first section presents DTS as a useful tool to make a descriptive study
of the original and the translated advertisements. The second section discusses the
different translation theories that can be used to examine translated advertisements.
The last section of this chapter presents the methodology of this study and discusses the
selection of advertisements.
Chapter Three, which presents the chosen data. This chapter provides the analysis of
the advertisements and identifies the different translation strategies used by Coca‐Cola
translators.
The final chapter of this study consists of the conclusion, in which the findings are
summarised and comments are made concerning the limitations of the study and the
potential for further research.
14 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Chapter One Literature review
This chapter discusses advertising and issues related to its translation. The first section
discusses the discourse of advertising and the second section discusses the translation
of advertising. The issues include: the loyalty and ethics of the advertising translator,
culture and ideology, theories and approaches such as skopos theory, functional
equivalence and relevance theory which are regarded here as useful theories to
consider when translating advertising texts.
We begin with a brief overview of the discourse of advertising because it is important
for a translator to be familiar with the discourse of advertising in order to produce good
and effective translated advertisements.
1. The discourse of advertising
Advertising is generally believed to be of critical importance for the success of
companies. Advertising is also one of the oldest forms of marketing in the world. Bovee
and Arens (1986: 5) define it as “the non‐personal communication of information
usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by
identified sponsors through the various media”. The word advertising comes from the
Latin word “advertere” which means to “turn the mind towards”. Companies advertise
“to stimulate demand” (Brierley1995: 4). “Although advertisements are ephemeral in
that each one is short‐lived, their effects are longstanding and cumulative: they leave
traces of themselves behind, which combine to form a body of messages about the
culture that produced them” (Goddard 1998: 3).
“Advertising can be used for a number of reasons: to motivate consumers to buy goods,
or certain consumers not to buy goods, to change attitudes or to encourage retailers to
stock produce” (Brierley 1995: 2). Additionally, advertising can also be used to reassure
loyal consumers. The main purpose of companies is then to increase brand awareness
or consumption and their advertising is the art of persuading more people to buy. The
advertising domain is growing very rapidly and becoming a domain where everything
15 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
possible is done to have new adherents, users and buyers and where the motto “the end
justifies the means” is more and more operative.
Marketers use many different media to get their messages across: television, radio,
newspapers, magazines, fasciae, billboards, bus shelters, buses, phone booths, sales
letters, plastics and the internet. Advertising is therefore a crucial means of marketing
when a company wants to expand its brand and increase the number of its consumers.
The prosperity of companies greatly depends on advertising because a bad
advertisement might tarnish the image of that company. Through advertising,
companies and institutions expose their products, services or views.
Cook (1992: 12) argues that the issue of defining advertising is closely linked to that of
defining categories of advertisements. He identifies four categories of advertisements
namely: medium, product, technique and consumer (1992: 9‐10).
1.1 Medium
Cook (1992: 9) identifies different types of medium such as: printed book, TV, radio,
newspapers, and magazines. To these means of mass communication, we will add video,
billboards, internet and mobile advertising. In “Importance of advertising”, Simon
Cotter (Simoncotter.com) divides these different media (means of communication by
which an advertising message is conveyed to the audience) into two groups namely: the
electronic and the non‐ electronic means of communication. Non‐electronic advertising
is advertising by non‐electronic means, for example newspapers, journals, magazines,
posters, fasciae and pamphlets. Electronic advertising is the use of electronic means like
television, mobile phones and the internet to advertise goods and services.
a) Nonelectronic advertising
Non‐electronic advertising includes outdoor advertising media (posters, billboards, wall
and skywriting, hoardings, vehicle advertising, and neon signs…) and indoor advertising
media (newspapers and magazines...). Non‐electronic advertising includes outdoor
advertising media (posters, billboards, wall and skywriting, hoardings, vehicle
advertising, and neon signs…) and indoor advertising media (newspapers and
magazines...). Outdoor advertising is more accessible for the general public as this kind
of advertising appears in public places where it can be easily noticed and viewed.
16 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
b) Electronic advertising
Electronic advertising includes radio advertising, television advertising, internet
advertising and mobile advertising.
The development of the internet has greatly influenced the domain of advertising. A
recent South African study of a group of information systems professionals has shown
that using information technology to achieve competitive advantage is a key issue of
importance second only to strategic planning (Miller & Pitt in Pitt & Bromfield
1991:63). According to the Guardian (2009), the internet now accounts for 23.5% of all
advertising money spent in the UK, while television advertisements spending accounts
for 21.9% of marketing budgets. A record £1.75 billion spent on online advertising
makes the UK the first major economy to spend more on web advertisements than
television, according to IAB (Guardian 30 September 2009).
Television commercials often show during breaks between movies, news and
documentaries. In the United States:
Research conducted by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA),
in conjunction with Forrester Research, found that in the last two
years, the number who believe in the power of TV ads has tripled.
In addition, respondents expressed a growing confidence in set‐top‐
box data, which has the potential for TV ads to be targeted at specific
customer groups. (ashdowngroup.com 2012)
Mobile advertising is gaining more and more ground. With the incorporation of the
internet on smart phones, mobile advertising has become an important medium of
advertising for marketers or advertisers.
It is therefore important for translators to know how to deal with the different
categories of advertising as the approach used for the translation of these different
advertisements needs to be appropriate.
17 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
1.2 Product or service
Different products use different techniques of advertising. Luxuries for instance
“demand different advertising techniques from those used for household necessities
like soap and eggs” (1992: 9). Similarly, marketers do not use the same advertising
techniques for fast moving consumer goods such as drinks and for electronic devices
such as computers and mobile phones. Different translation strategies may also apply to
different products services or to different advertising contexts.
Cook also argues that as there are advertisements which sell products and services,
there are also non‐product advertisements, such as those for charities and political
parties (1992: 10). However, this study focuses on the sales function of advertisements.
1.3 Technique
Cook (1992: 10) distinguishes between three classifications of advertising techniques.
The first distinction is that between hard sell and the soft sell. While hard selling “makes
a direct appeal”, soft selling “relies more on mood than on exhortation, and on the
implication that life will be better with the product”. The two advertisements below
illustrate this difference.
Illustration 1: All the world loves CocaCola
18 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Illustration 2: Drink CocaCola12
The first advertisement is an example of soft sell advertising while the second
advertisement is an instance of hard sell advertising. In the first advertisement, the
Coca‐Cola Company indirectly invites people to drink Coca‐Cola by persuading them
that the whole world loves Coca‐Cola. In the advertisement, we observe a couple who
are spending time alone together while drinking Coca‐Cola. The Coca‐Cola Company
therefore uses the couple as a symbol to show that Coca‐Cola is the best drink for
intimate and memorable moments. However, in the second advertisement, The Coca‐
Cola Company uses an imperative sentence to make a direct appeal to consumers.
Cook’s (1992: 10) second classification as suggested by Bernstein (1974) is that
between reason and tickle. While reason advertisements “suggest motives for
purchase”, tickle advertisements “appeal to emotion, humour and mood”. However,
Cook argues that the “reason/tickle distinction is not just the hard/soft distinction with
a new name”. “A soft sell often implies reasons for purchase without a direct appeal”.
1cocacolaoldads.blogspot.com/2007/05/all‐world‐loves‐coca‐cola.html
2mydelineatedlife.blogspot.com/2011/09/have‐coke‐poster.html
19 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
An example of a tickle advertisement is the following advertisement. (Illustration 3)
Here, the Coca‐Cola Company appeals to emotions using the picture of a couple who are
experiencing a special moment together. In the picture, we observe that they are happy
to be together and the slogan says “life tastes good”. The images together with the
message show that when you drink a Coke, you experience joy.
Illustration 3: Life tastes good3
3www.historiacoca‐cola.blogspot.com/2011/05/eslogans‐americans.html
20 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
An example of a reason advertisement is the following:
Illustration 4: CocaCola revives and sustains4
In this advertisement, Coca‐Cola suggests reasons to purchase the product by telling
consumers that Coca‐Cola imparts energy and vigour. Similarly, the company argues
that Coca‐Cola revives and sustains. These statements are intended to persuade
consumers to drink Coca‐Cola.
The third classification of advertising technique is that between “short copy” and “long
copy” (Cook 1992: 10). According to Cook (1992: 11), “it is easier to reason in the long
copy of a magazine advertisement than in the twenty seconds or thirty seconds of a
television commercial”. In a television commercial, there is not enough time to give
reasons for purchase because of the short length of the video. However, in a magazine
advertisement, it is easier to reason because a magazine advertisement is longer than a
television commercial and consequently, the advertiser can use a more narrative style.
4www.adbranch.com/coca‐cola...1905/coca‐cola_revives_and_sustain...
21 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
1.4 Consumer
Cook finally argues that “the most important categorization of advertisements is by
consumer” (1992: 11). In order to produce an effective and successful advertisement, it
is important to study the target market and to know the lifestyle, social status and
culture of consumers in order to meet their expectations.
Before the launch of an advertising campaign, companies study their target audience
and carry out research to determine the preferences and needs of consumers.
“Consumers respond best to marketers who invest in relationships‐ reaching out with
respect—first to their hearts and then their wallets. To win, begin at the beginning:
listen to your audience; market their needs; and communicate on their terms” (Ralph
Lacher in Maroto 2007: 1). Once the companies are aware of the needs of their public,
they use specific strategies to convince the public that their main concern is to satisfy
the needs of their clientele. The technique of positioning plays a key role at this stage.
“Positioning is the placing or targeting of a product for the right people” (Beasley: 12).
For instance, advertisements for Apple products are normally positioned for middle‐
class electronics buyers. “Creating an image for a product is fashioning a ‘personality’
for it with which a particular type of consumer can identify” (Beasley: 12). For instance,
Apple products are generally for people who are not only looking for the traditional
characteristics of electronic devices but for more sophisticated and stylish electronics.
In advertising, ingenious persuasive techniques are used to persuade consumers.
Stylistic devices such as exaggeration, repetition, comparison and emphasis are used in
order to emphasize the main features of the brand and to describe the product as
unique and special.
Companies have many ways of attracting buyers. They can use celebrity endorsements,
creating an effect in the buyers’ mind like “[w]hen I wear these jeans I resemble this star
or this drink is nice because this celebrity drinks it”. Consequently, buyers have the
feeling that a product is good because a certain celebrity uses it. Similarly, companies
can use the image of children in order to attract the public. When a company advertises
for example soft drinks, they may use children in order to show that their drink is
healthy or the advertisements can depict people having fun in the intention to show that
22 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
sharing some of these drinks with other people would enable consumers to enjoy
themselves and to relax. Also, companies can attract the public by talking about or
including images of the people that they sponsor.
Persuasion is a central issue in advertising because advertising aims to persuade no
matter the circumstances. Advertisers aim at making consumers believe that the
products and services presented to them are the best available. Using Grice’s words:
A must intend to induce by X a belief in an audience, and he must also
intend his utterance to be recognized as so intended…the recognition is
intended by A to play its part in inducing the belief, and if it does not do
so something will have gone wrong… (In Marie‐Odile Taillard 2000:
152)
This means that if the audience does not receive the intended message, the advertisers
or the advertising translators have not succeeded.
It is difficult for everyone to agree on an issue the same way even when they know one
another personally. Similarly, it is difficult for marketers or advertisers to persuade a
great number of people that they do not know personally. “Persuading someone is
performing an act (roughly, that of affecting someone’s beliefs or desires) using some
form of communication, usually language” (Taillard 2000: 146). That is why it is
important to know how to persuade people:
Sperber and Wilson have shown that getting an audience to believe
something may be accomplished in two different ways. The
communicator may undertake an efficient, overt attempt to secure her
audience’s attention and make it mutually manifest that she intends to
convey a particular piece of information. This is termed ostensive, or
overt, communication. On the other hand, she may elect to put
information across in a “covert” way, in which case she does not make
her informative intention mutually manifest and leaves it up to the
audience to either pick up on the information, or not. Such information
would not contribute to the optimal relevance of an utterance, but may
be relevant nonetheless. (In Taillard 2000: 155‐156)
The advantage with ostensive communication is the fact that the audience is able to
perceive the author’s intention directly without looking for other possible intentions. In
this case, the author is sure that it is the only message delivered in the communication
that will be kept by the audience. However:
23 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Ostensive communication creates expectations which need to be met –
a communicator who draws her audience’s attention to specific
information needs to “deliver,” or loses credibility”. One of the
advantages of covert communication, on the other hand, may be to
avoid creating such expectations. It can best be used as a persuasive
strategy in which the communicator’s persuasive intention remains
hidden. (Taillard 2000: 157)
The information given in advertisements should be true because “consumers are not
persuaded by illogical or irrational promises and can see through ill‐conceived ideas”
(AEF). This means that to persuade is not to lie to the public but to use strategies based
on people’s beliefs, values and expectations to send an ‘invitation to buy’. To persuade is
also to build trust and the first ingredient of trust that companies and institutions can
use is to be honest about the features, advantages and qualities of their products and
services. This is the only way they can ensure that consumers remain faithful to their
brand. As AEF state, “Smart marketers hold the utmost respect for their consumers in
two ways: 1) delivering product quality and 2) using honest advertising.” People
sometimes have to make difficult choices between millions of products. That is why
attention to detail is very important in advertising.
Brooks (2002: 5) also argues that good communication should be “focused, timely and
readable”. To be focused means that marketers should always “have their audience in
mind when they are writing”. Moreover, a good advertisement is timely. This means
that “if you’re running a special offer, give the audience a chance to take advantage of it
by telling them in advance”. For example, sales on products should be advertised in
order to enable consumers to profit from them. This is also how a brand keeps its
clients. Furthermore an advertisement needs to be “readable”. If an advertisement is
long‐winded, consumers may lose interest in the message. That is why advertisements
should be kept “short and lively” so that the audience does not get bored. This means
that jargon should also be avoided. Marketers should use simple language as consumers
may not understand the jargon of a given domain.
Images also play a key role in advertising because they often speak more than words
and they are the first things that attract the attention of consumers. Images remind us of
situations and realities in our lives or they may make us dream about things that we
would like to possess. Advertisers and translator of advertisements therefore have to
24 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
find images that are suitable for the settings in which the products advertised are
launched.
Advertisements should also be adapted over time because “tastes change, fashions
change, and the advertiser has to change with them” (Thomas Barratt in Haig 2011:
204).
It can be concluded that in order to succeed in persuading the target audience, there are
five elements that translators need to be aware of. First, it is important for the
translator to master the philosophy of the brand that he is representing. Second, the
translator should be aware of culture‐specific elements that should be avoided or
culture‐specific elements which trigger a desire to buy in consumers. Third, the
translator should pay attention to register and study which register is favoured or
preferred in a given setting. Fourth, talking of celebrities or icons, the translator should
know which celebrities appeal to the people of the target culture. Finally, some cultures
may prefer advertising which is not too emotional. In that case, the translator will have
to change his strategy and use a more rational advertising strategy based, for example,
on facts.
1.5 Features of advertising materials
In this section, features of print advertisements used in Coca‐Cola advertisements are
discussed.
1.5.1 Slogan
The slogan is a battle cry! Advertising slogans – are aggressive yet
not annoying calls aimed to stimulate people buying certain
products. A slogan should be brief, informative, memorable and
strongly related to the brand it promotes. (TraDosTM)
The role of the slogan is to attract the attention of readers. The slogan is often a brief
sentence or expression that enables the company to say in very few words what it
intends to achieve or what its products can bring to consumers. The slogan is like the
signature of a company. It is most often the element through which the brand is
remembered. However, company slogans may change as time progresses. This is the
case of Coca‐Cola which has used more than a hundred different slogans over its history.
25 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
1.5.2 Content
An advertisement needs to be “readable”. If an advertisement is long‐winded,
consumers may lose interest in the message. That is why advertisements should be kept
“short and lively”. Jargon should also be avoided for reasons discussed above.
Moreover, in advertising, the use of “intertextuality can be an important component of
an advertisement’s meaning, in that the original text being referred to established a
message which the second text elaborates on” (Goddard: 69). Adjectives are also very
useful in advertising as they enable the company that is advertising to qualify its
product. The use of rhetorical devices too is important as they enable companies to
render the message more interesting and valuable and deictic terms and person
markers enable the company to address its audience directly and consequently to create
a particular relationship with them.
1.5.3 Illustrations
The language of advertisements is often complemented by images. Images play an
important role in advertising because they often speak louder than words and they
attract the attention of consumers. Images evoke situations and realities in our lives or
encourage us to dream about things that we would like to have or do. Advertisers and
translators of advertisements therefore need to find images that are suitable for the
settings in which the products advertised are launched. In Cook’s terms (1992: 49):
Not only have pictures gained ground, but also language, where it
is used, leans further and further towards the meanings it derives
from interaction with pictures. In addition, many ads create
powerful and complex messages entirely‐or almost entirely‐
through pictures and music, and are virtually language‐free.
In modern advertising, pictures enable advertisers to portray their ideas doubly using
visual metaphors. Visuals portray our desires and expectations in a particular way and
when we recognise ourselves in those portrayals, we desire to possess the products. If
the images of an advertisement are not appealing, consumers may not be attracted to
read the advertisement or to believe its content. As Veronica Smith says in “Visual
persuasion” (2008: 51):
26 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Much of the significance of advertising messages lies in the
connotations they can trigger, and, as the many advertisements
without much written text amply show, the visual plays a key role
in setting off a stream of associations.
This means that the visual elements of advertisements can trigger emotions. For this
reason, the visual aspect in translation should be given an important place. Visual
elements are used effectively to persuade buyers:
Many [visuals] are even designed to present a challenge to the
viewers, forcing them engage in deep level cognitive processing in
order to create a link between the advertisement and the product.
Such visuals are, of course, resistant to adaptation. (Smith
2008:58)
In other words, it would be more difficult for a translator to adapt the advertisements
from which consumers are expected to draw their own conclusions based on
illustrations. According to Gimein:
Advertisements can’t tell viewers about products anymore,
because nobody trusts what they say about products, so they’re
free to be just really good ads. And our willingness to buy
products becomes a sort of referendum on the commercials. Bet
on the trend continuing, with tomorrow’s advertising becoming
increasingly Zen‐like in its abstention from any connection with
products. (In Smith 2008: 58)
This assertion proves to us that advertising plays a crucial role in the way people
perceive a product or a brand. This is the reason why in order to persuade,
advertisements should really be creative and captivating.
1.5.4 Features of CocaCola illustrations
a) The logo
The Coca‐Cola logo is always present in all print advertisements. The logo is an
identification of the company.
27 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
b) CocaCola drink
There is always a representation of the Coca‐Cola drink in the advertisements. The
representation of the drink enables Coca‐Cola to present it each time to the public. Coca‐
Cola is often represented ice‐cold.
c) Personages
Coca‐Cola uses many characters in its advertisements. These include Santa Claus, Eddie
Fisher, young people having fun, couples and pretty women. The characters are
depicted enjoying themselves and smiling in order to show consumers the benefits of
drinking Coca‐Cola. Alternatively the characters often hold Coca‐Cola in their hands in
order to invite consumers to drink it. Santa Claus is mostly used in Christmas
advertisements and he is used to persuade people that they should celebrate Christmas
with Coca‐Cola. Santa Claus also persuades people that Coca‐Cola tastes good and that it
is the preferred drink of many people.
d) Colours
Colours play an important role in persuasion because they affect the way consumers
perceive advertisements. “Mr. Stahl, executive vice‐president of the Package Designers
Council argues that some colours such as red and yellow are helpful in creating hypnotic
effects” (Vance Packard 1980: 114‐115). This is exemplified with the dominant red
colour of Coca‐Cola.
Colours have many connotations and therefore can be said to carry meaning. For
example, when an advertisement is about products for the Saint Valentine’s Day,
advertisers use red and pink colours because these colours symbolise love. Similarly,
insurance advertisements for funeral plan usually present people dressed in black
which symbolises death and sadness. Marketers should be aware of the different
connotations of colours because “the symbolic connotation of a colour depends on the
situation in which it is used” (Dunn and Barban: 1986: 503).
“Colours, other than emotionally affecting people, also have physical
effects. They may affect the visibility of an object, for instance, a yellow
or white object may look larger than the same object of other colours.
Another example would be that human responses are 12% quicker
than usual under red lighting. Other than the responses some colours
28 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
may be able to stimulate, most of them hold human‐constructed
meaning or significance as well” (Daniel2007)
Having given a brief overview on the discourse of advertising and how it works. In the
next section, we discuss the particular features of its translation.
1.6 Advertising translation and factors that influence it
Many translation skills which apply to advertising translation also apply to other types
of translation. These various skills include: a good knowledge of the terminology and a
good knowledge of the culture and the ideology of the target audience. However,
advertising translation is determined by the particular concerns of the discourse of
advertising. The translation of advertisements requires particular skills and marketers
should be aware of the advantage of translating their advertisements in order to reach a
larger audience because “Advertising translation is the means of communication par
excellence of a company exporting its products” (Guidère: 2005). Advertising materials
should be well translated so that the company or the institution that is launching a new
product or that is attracting new consumers achieves good results from their
advertising campaign. According to Torresi (2010: 8) “agility, persuasiveness, creativity,
knowledge of laws and restrictions and the ability to be flexible in the relationships one
has with agencies, editors, and the end client” are useful non‐linguistic skills for
promotional translators [in this case advertising translators]. The knowledge of laws
and restrictions is important in advertising because an advertisement that does not
respect the laws and restrictions of the country in which it is launched is liable to be
banned. For instance,
in the United States, according to the courtesy of the American
Advertising Federation, bait advertising cannot deliberately lead
consumers to buy more expensive goods, guarantees and warranties
should be explicit and contain sufficient information, false or
misleading price claims should be avoided; and good taste and public
decency should be respected. (Wells in Cui 2009: 14)
Torresi (2010: 8) defines agility in this context as “the ability to recognize different
functions and purposes embedded in the source text, and approach them appropriately,
without losing sight of the overall function of the text, its coherence and cohesion.” She
(2010: 8) views persuasiveness as “the mastery of an emotional or evocative style that
29 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
helps lure the addressee into the desired course of action.” She also suggests that “a
component of persuasiveness is the ability to recognize and, where necessary or
advisable, to adapt culture‐specific values in order to accommodate both the target
audience’s expectations and taboos”.
Before translating an advertisement, translators should first determine the function of
the text according to the requirements of the sponsor. The striking effect of translated
advertisements can be produced through puns, neologisms and other stylistic devices.
More than anyone else, the translator of advertising will feel a
special predilection for creating neologisms, knowing not only
that they will be well received by the public – who are always
entertained by these formulations ‐‐ but will also serve to support
the objectives of a message that is full of novelty and able to
attract the reader’s attention. (Bueno Garcia in Munday 2004:
203)
This means that consumers should not have a sense of “déjà vu” while looking at
translated advertisements. The words and images of the advertisements must seem
new and innovative to them.
Moreover, in advertising translation, it is “also necessary that one knows how to
correctly assess both the constraints and the opportunities of the medium and channel
being used for promotion” (Torresi 2010: 7). This means that translators should be
aware of the fact that the translation of video advertisements is different from the
translation of website advertisements for example. There are elements that may be
included in website advertisements that may not be included in video advertisements.
The translator should also be familiar with the ideological and cultural background of
the target setting. This will give him insight into which translation strategies to use and
which expressions he should not use: some expressions having negative connotations
for the target audience. For example, in Arabic countries, it is not acceptable to talk
about intimate matters in advertising texts. Similarly, in Islamic regions, the use of the
word pig in a food campaign may weaken the campaign. The translator should choose
emotive words that will suit the target audience which should recognize itself in that
advertisement. Marieke de Mooij (2004: 186) states that “concepts and ideas are
30 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
embedded in the culture in which they originate. Words and sentences elaborated for
one culture are not necessarily meaningful for another”. Simon Anholt argues that:
Translating advertising copy is like painting the tip of an iceberg
and hoping the whole thing will turn red. What makes copy work
is not the words themselves, but subtle combinations of those
words, and most of all the echoes and repercussions of those
words within the mind of the reader. These are precisely the
subtleties which translation fails to convey. Advertising is not
made of words, but made of culture. (In De Mooij 2004: 180)
Cultural, ideological and sociological factors therefore determine the success of
translated advertising copy and should be given special attention if the translator does
not want to produce a distorted message in the target setting. Before discussing these
factors, we will first mention some overall advertising strategies that are used by
advertising translators and we will discuss the translation of the brand name in
advertising as well as the translation of Business to Consumers advertisements (B2C).
When translating advertising material for international audiences, translators may
either decide to internationalize the advertisement or to localize it.
a) Internationalization
“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” (Mathieu Guidère 2003).
Internationalization is the main strategy of Coca‐Cola. In general, internationalization
may have a negative effect in the target setting, but when a company, as exemplified by
Coca‐Cola, succeeds in focusing on general cultural values, the technique of
internationalization is successful. Similarly, a company, as exemplified by Coca‐Cola can
make minor adaptations while still using internationalization. Adaptations can be made
to references to climate and time for example. Internationalization enables Coca‐Cola to
create a balance between economy and appealing to different audiences.
b) Localization
Pym defines localization as “the processes by which a generic (“international”) product
is adapted to the requirements of a “locale”, a place with a specific union of cultural and
31 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
linguistic features” (In Maroto 2007: 4). According to Guidère, “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” (Guidère 2003). This means that localization involves the adjustment of an
advertising campaign to local realities of a given place. Localization is a useful
translation strategy in translating advertising texts because the preferences and needs
of people are not always the same. A given advertisement that may work in a poor
country may not work in a developed country. Similarly advertising texts are highly
culture‐oriented, and linguistic and stylistic preferences differ from one place to
another.
An example of localization is seen in the following advertisements:
Illustration 5: No more exclusivity! From now on2 favourite numbers5
5English MTN advertisement on billboard Douala Cameroon 2011
32 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Illustration 6: Ne faites plus de jaloux! Désormais2 numéros préférés6
The translator could have translated the English message into French as follows “plus
d’exclusivité!” but the translator chose to use the expression “ne faites plus de jaloux!”
which literally means “no longer any jealousy” in order to translate “No more
exclusivity”. The focus here is on the fact that MTN users can have two favourite
numbers at a lower price which makes communication affordable for everyone. In
French the translator has decided to use the expression “ne faites plus de jaloux” in
order to express the fact that from now some consumers will not envy others because
they will also be able to afford the cost of the calls. This is because in the Cameroonian
context, some people tend to envy others when they cannot afford what others have.
Moreover, when MTN appeared in Cameroon, the cost of calls was high and many
people could not afford to call as they wished. But with this advertisement, MTN shows
to its consumers that from now they will be able to call their 2 favourite numbers at
only 1.5 Francs CFA per minute which is an affordable price.
The translation of brand names is also an important issue in advertising translation. The
translation of brand names is very sensitive as there are names through which a
company is recognised everywhere. This is why a certain degree of ingenuity is required
when dealing with brand names. Torresi (2010: 21) argues that brand names “convey
the brand’s carefully constructed image and identity.” She further argues that “given the
importance of brand image, brand names are usually treated as proper nouns and left
6French MTN advertisement on billboard Douala Cameroon 2011
33 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
untranslated when a product is marketed abroad” (Torresi 2010: 21). However, there
are exceptions to this rule, which Torresi divides into three groups:
Phonetic/graphic adaptation
Changes introduced to avoid undesired associations
Translation to make the meaning or implications of the brand name transparent
in the language of the target market (re‐encoding of the name’s meaning): this
encourages the trans‐creation of meanings that best accommodate the
conventions of the target language and culture.
“Graphic adaptation usually occurs between different alphabets or writing conventions.
The process of graphic adaptation may also carry phonetic adaptation if the phonetics
and alphabet of the target language do not include all the sounds that make up the
original name” (Torresi 2010: 21). For instance:
In early 2003, the graphic appearance of Coca‐Cola packaging in China
was updated to a refreshing modernity. The visual identity that was
unveiled featured a bold adaptation of the iconic English Spencerian
script associated elsewhere around the world with the Coca‐Cola
trademark. The new Spencerian‐style typeface in Chinese – created by
internationally acclaimed Hong Kong designer Alan Chan – accentuated
the lucidity of the logo and integrated well with its counterpart English
script, to convey a contemporary look.
“Phonetic adaptation, however, can also occur among languages that share the same
alphabet” (Torresi 2010: 21).
When a graphic or aural element of the brand name or logo generates
undesired associations or violates a taboo in the target language and
culture, changes are normally made, since the negative connotation
would directly affect sales. (Torresi 2010: 22)
“For instance, the Chevrolet Nova is reported to have sold poorly in Latin
America, where no va means ‘it won’t start’” (Torresi 2010: 22).
The brand name’s meaning can also be re‐encoded in order to fit the target
setting. For example, When Coca‐Cola entered the Chinese market, the
Company decided to trans‐create the brand because:
34 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
The closest Mandarin parallel to the spoken “Coca‐Cola” that could be
found was the combination of four characters that are enunciated
"kekouke le" by the Chinese people. There actually was no suitable
character for saying “la” in Chinese, so a compromise was reached with
“le,” which is more or less pronounced “ler.”
Most Chinese characters have more than one meaning. Depending on the
context, the four characters that were joined to voice "kekouke le" commonly
broke down into any of the following individual interpretations:
可 (“ke”) – to permit, be able, may, can
口 (“kou”) – mouth, hole, pass, harbor
可 (“ke”) – to permit, be able, may, can
乐 (“le”) – joy, to rejoice, to laugh, to be happy
Whether it was a stroke of luck or a flash of genius, when “mouth” made the
translation list and it was realized that “le” could mean “to be happy,” Company
staff believed they also had descriptors that fitted the desired appeal of their
product. They began playing with translations of the individual characters and
selectively interpreted one combination for the Chinese Coca‐Cola logo as “to
permit mouth to be able to rejoice,” expressing the pleasure that comes from
drinking Coke. (The Coca‐Cola Company 2008: 1‐2)
1.7 The translation of Businesstoconsumers advertising
texts
In this section, we look at the translation of B2C (Business‐to‐consumers) advertising
texts which are the type of texts that are analysed in this research report. This section
will enable us to understand how we can deal with the translation of B2C texts.
Business‐to‐Consumer(or B2C) promotion is usually produced by private companies
selling products or services, and addressed to individual prospective consumers who
are not expected to have in‐depth knowledge about the object of the promotion (Torresi
2010: 120). “B2C promotion does not tend to be technical” and “its translation is usually
best approached with functional trans‐creation than with the kind of close translation
required by Business‐to‐Business texts or other texts where anchors make rewriting
35 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
difficult” (Torresi 2010: 120). Therefore translating B2C promotional texts will
sometimes require the translator to rewrite the advertisement and “this ability of
recreating that motivation to buy can only be achieved through the critical observation
of large amounts of B2C advertisements in the target language and culture”(Torresi
2010: 120). This means that a translator of B2C advertisements should read many B2C
advertisements written in the target language in order to be familiar with the style of
and diction of B2C advertisements.
The translation of figures of speech is also an important issue in B2C advertisements
because the same figure of speech may not be adequate in the target language in a given
context. When translating rhetorical devices, the translator may replace a given
rhetorical device by another rhetorical device. The translator can also play with sounds
through assonance and consonance, “i.e the repetition of the same vowel or consonant
sounds, of which rhyming is an advanced version” (Torresi 2010: 123). The translator
can also play with sounds through alliteration which is “the recurrence of initial
consonant sounds” and “play with language at the level of syntax, for instance through
parallelism” (Torresi 2010: 123).
Parallelism is recurrent syntactical similarity. Several parts of a
sentence or several sentences are expressed similarly to show that the
ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance. Parallelism also
adds balance and rhythm and, most importantly, clarity to the
sentence. (Torresi 2010: 123)
Finally at the textual level, translators can play with language through intertextuality.
Intertextuality, as discussed above, is “the reference to another text genre” (Torresi
2010: 123‐124). Torresi argues that in the case of intertextuality:
If reference is made to an entire genre rather than a single specific
work, the translator should reproduce the conventions of the imitated
text type that apply in the target language, which may differ from those
of the source text. (2010: 124)
Emotional language is important in advertising in general and in B2C advertising texts
in particular. Instances of emotional language are charged terms such as ‘dream’,
‘fantastic’, ‘magic’; superlatives and comparatives, lexical boost (i.e number one) and
terms with clear positive and negative connotations, and the use of the, which makes
the object of promotion or its producer/provider unique. The strategies mentioned
36 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
above focus on the qualities of the advertised product or service. Other strategies
include the use of first and second person, personal deictics, indications of place, time,
imperatives and questions, and an informal style which tends to resemble spoken
language and focuses on the reader rather than the product (Torresi 2010: 128‐129).
These strategies can be used to create an intimacy with the consumers, to address them
directly or to present the product or service advertised as unique (Torresi 2010: 128‐
129).
In the next section, we discuss culture, ideology and sociology because these are factors
that have a great effect on translation.
1.7.1 Ideology
Ideology can be defined as:
1. A system of social beliefs: a closely organized system of beliefs, values, and ideas
forming the basis of a social, economic, political philosophy or programme.
2. A meaningful belief system: a set of beliefs, values, and opinions that shapes the way a
person or a group such as a social class thinks, acts, and understands the world.
(Microsoft: Encarta 2009)
Van Djik defines ideology as a “basic system of shared social representations that may
control more specific group beliefs” (Van Djik cited in Karoubi). The ideology of a
society controls the way in which the people of that society perceive things. This also
means that the legal jurisdictions of a given society are determined by their ideology.
Translators of advertisements “need to know the legal jurisdictions of the market; they
must know how cultural differences affect marketing” (Seguinot in Mary Snell‐Hornby
2006: 136). Lefevere describes ideology as the:
Conceptual grid that consists of opinions and attitudes deemed
acceptable in a certain society at a certain time and through
which readers and translators approach texts and argues that
translation is governed above all by patronage, which consists of
ideological, economic and status components.
(In Baker and Saldanha: 137)
37 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Ideology represents the opinions and attitudes of people in given societies and these
opinions and attitudes affect the production and consumption of advertisements.
Ideology therefore determines what is taboo, immoral and unethical in a given society
and it also determines what is acceptable and favoured in a society. In Venuti’s (1992:
9) terms:
A text is a heterogeneous artifact, composed of disruptive forms
of semiosis like polysemy and intertextuality, but it is nonetheless
constrained by the social institutions in which it is produced and
consumed, and its constitutive materials, including the other texts
that it assimilates and transforms, link it to a particular historical
moment.
A translated advertisement should reflect the ideology of the place where it is produced.
It should also reflect the ideology of the time when it is produced. Consumers should
recognise themselves in the advertisement. If they do not, they will assume that the
advertisements do not address them and they may not trust the brand. Christiane Nord
believes that “[a]lmost any decision in translation is consciously or unconsciously
guided by ideological criteria” (2003:111). The ideology of a given society affects the
way translators translate advertisements in that society. If the advertising campaign
does not comply with the ideological constraints of the milieu that it targets then the
adverts may be banned and consequently, the products will not be sold in that region.
This is the reason for the translator of advertising campaigns being aware of all the
ideological constraints of the target culture especially when the target audience has
very different values from the source audience.
1.7.2 Culture
“Contemporary studies on translation are aware of the need to examine in depth the
relationship between the production of knowledge in a given culture and its
transmission, relocation, and reinterpretation in the target culture” (Alvarez and Vidal
1996: 2). Culture is a crucial factor in translation. Torresi defines culture as:
the set of values, traditions, beliefs, and attitudes that are shared by the
majority of people living in a country, or alternatively, in a local
community that is distinguished from the rest of the national society by
38 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
major traits such as language, religion or political and legal system.
(Torresi 2010: 156)
In order to persuade a target audience, it is important to understand and to respect its
culture. In other words, for an advertisement to be successful, the people that it targets
should recognise in it their cultural values. A translator needs to avoid taboo
expressions or taboo representations in the advertisements. For example, an
advertisement for food produced in a Muslim region must not contain allusion to the
“pig” because the pig is an unclean animal Islam. Advertisements also need to be
adapted to cultures in terms of register.
German advertising, for instance, perhaps with the exception of ads
targeted only at young audiences, often uses formal register and the
formal plural second person, while in English and Italian, the standard
is informal register, emotional language, and the second person
singular. (Torresi 2010: 157)
“Concepts and ideas in advertising are embedded in the culture in which they originate”
(De Mooij 2004: 186). A good translated advertisement is one that adapts to the cultural
environment in which it is produced.
Lefevere views translation as a “rewriting of the original”. This means that the act of
translation is carried out under certain constraints that determine the purpose of the
translated text. The translator is like a rewriter that works under a certain set of norms
determined by the patron and he should comply with those norms. “Translation is, of
course, a rewriting of an original text. All rewritings, whatever their intention, reflect a
certain ideology and poetics and as such manipulate literature to function in a given
way” (Lefevere 1992: 13‐ 26). This view applies to the philosophy of advertising
translation in the sense that advertising materials sometimes have to be rewritten in
order to adapt to the ideology and culture of the milieu in which it is targeted.
1.7.3 Sociology
Any translation is necessarily bound up within social contexts: on the one hand,
the act of translating, in all its various stages, is undeniably carried out by
individuals who belong to a social system; on the other, the translation
phenomenon is inevitably implicated in social institutions, which greatly
39 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
determine the selection, production and distribution of translation, and as a
result the strategies adopted in the translation itself. (Michaela Wolf 2010: 33)
The translation strategies used by translators are determined by the environment in
which they find themselves and by the people and the way of life of the people that the
advertisements target. For instance, people speak differently. Women, men and children
do not speak in the same manner. Similarly, rich and poor speak differently. For this
reason, advertising translators should know how to appeal to these different categories
in different ways. This means that the translator should adapt his language use
depending on the target, using different words and styles for products and services
targeted towards men than those targeted towards women. Similarly, texts that target
children may not have words that can hurt the sensitivities of children; for instance, it
should not contain words with sexual connotations. Finally, translations that target
wealthy people may have words like V.I.P whereas in translations for less affluent
people, this type of word may be omitted. Translators should pay attention to the
different expectations of the social age groups of the country or region in which the
company is launching a product. They should remember that their main function is not
to render the perfect copy of the source advertisement but to produce the same effect or
a better effect in the target setting.
We have discussed the particular features of the translation of advertisements and
factors that influence it. Below we discuss skopos theory and functional equivalence
which are relevant in the translation of advertisements. We also discuss relevance
theory because an advertisement needs to be relevant to the public before it can
persuade consumers.
1.7.4 Skopos theory
Skopos theory was initially formulated by Hans Vermeer and Katharina Reiss in the
1970s and was further developed in the 1990s by Nord. In 1984, Reiss and Vermeer co‐
authored Grundlegung einer allgemeinen Translationstheori (Groundwork for a General
Theory of Translation) (Munday 2008:79), in which they aimed to present a general
theory of translation. Skopos theory argues that when the purpose of a translation is
achieved, then the translator has succeeded. It therefore advocates a functionalist
40 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
approach to translation in which the purpose of the text is the focus of the translation
process and the choice of strategies, approaches and methods during the translation
process is conditioned by that purpose.
The translation purpose determines the choice of translation method
and strategy. This means that – as experience shows – there is not the
one and only method or strategy for one particular source text, and any
decision between two or more available solutions to a translation
problem must be guided by some kind of intersubjective criterion or
set of criteria (= strategy). In our case, this criterion is the
communicative function or functions for which the target text is
needed (=functionality principle). (Nord 2002: 2)
Each advertising translator should therefore be aware of the specific purpose and
function of the translated advertisement in the target setting if he intends to produce an
effective translated advertisement because “all translation decisions depend on the
presupposition the translator has about the target consumer’s interpretation of the
message.” (Cristina Valdés in Munday 2004: 205). According to Nord (2002: 2):
A translation that achieves the intended purpose may be called
functional. Functionality means that a text (in this case: a translation)
"works" for its receivers the way the sender wants it to work in a
particular communicative situation. If the purpose is information, the
text should offer this information in a form comprehensible to the
audience; if the purpose is to amuse, then the text should actually be
amusing for its readers. Therefore, the text producer (and the
translator as a text producer, too) has to evaluate the audience's
capacities of comprehension and cooperation and anticipate the
possible effects which certain forms of expression may have on the
readership.
However, applying skopos theory does not “imply that in the process of translation an
advertisement can be changed at will, but that to change the diction of the original
advertisement is a possibility the translator can opt for, in his efforts to make the
translation function effectively in promoting a product and making profit” (Cui
2009:23). For instance, an advertisement that gives specific features of a product should
be translated faithfully.
41 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
1.7.5 Functional equivalence
Functional equivalence, also referred to as dynamic equivalence is crucial in the study of
advertising translation because it advocates the fact that equivalence should be
determined by the function that the translated text is supposed to play in the target
setting. This notion of functional equivalence therefore applies to advertising
translation as the aim of translated advertisements is to have an equivalent effect or a
better effect in the target setting. In Nida and Taber’s terms:
Dynamic equivalence is to be defined in terms of the degree to which
the receptors of the message in the receptor language respond to it in
substantially the same manner as the receptors in the source language.
This response can never be identical, but there should be a high degree
of equivalence of response, or the translation will have failed to
accomplish its purposes. (In Gutt 1991: 67)
Functional equivalence therefore states that an effective and good translation is one
that enjoys the status of an original text in the target setting. This means that in the case
of advertising, if the target audience responds to an advertisement as favourably as the
source audience, the translator has succeeded. Even though, the response can never be
identical, it can be similar or better.
Nida and Taber argue that “translating must aim primarily at ‘reproducing the message’.
To do anything else is essentially false to one’s task as a translator” (In Gutt 1991: 67).
The preoccupation of a translator of advertisements should be to find ways to
reproduce the message in the target setting even if it implies recreating the
advertisement. Nida and Taber go further to define the message as “the total meaning or
content of a discourse; the concepts and feelings which the author intends the reader to
understand and perceive” (In Gutt 1991: 69). If the target audience clearly perceives
and believes the message as intended by the company, the translation has achieved the
main of aim of advertisement which is to persuade.
Nida and Taber also argue that “correctness must be determined by the extent to which
the average reader for which a translation is intended will be likely to understand it
correctly”(Nida and Taber 2003: 1). A well translated advertisement is therefore one
which is clearly understood by the target audience. In other words, a good rendering of
42 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
the source advertisement will be manifested by the fact that the target audience
understands the message of the company without misconceptions:
A translation which transfers the meaning and the dynamics of
the original text is to be regarded as faithful translation. The
expression transfers the meaning, means that the translation
conveys to the reader or hearer the information that the original
conveyed to its readers or hearers…. The expression, the
dynamics means that (1) the translation makes a natural use of
linguistic structures of the RL [receptor language] and that (2) the
recipients of the translation understand the message with ease.
(Beekman and Callow in Gutt1991: 68)
An effective translated advertisement is therefore one that conveys to the consumers of
the target setting the information that the company conveyed to the consumers of the
source setting. In other words, if the translator succeeds in producing the same effect as
in the original setting, the translation is successful.
1.7.6 Relevance theory
Relevance theory is important in advertising translation. It posits that a message must
be relevant to the reader in order to appeal to him. This applies to the translation of
advertising materials in the sense that if consumers do not find that an advertisement
addresses their needs, they will not believe it. Marketers and especially advertising
translators should therefore ensure that the content of their advertisements is relevant
to the audience that they target. This applies to the translation of advertising materials
in the sense that if consumers do not find that an advertisement addresses their needs,
they will not be interested in the advertisement and will not believe its message.
Relevance theory states that “an input is relevant to an individual when its processing in
a context of available assumptions yields a positive cognitive effect” (Sperber and
Wilson 251). In other words, a translated advertisement can only appeal to consumers
when it has a positive effect in their minds. In advertising translation, the positive
cognitive effect can only be achieved if the translated advertisement proves to the
audience that the product or service is different from others, is affordable, improves
their lives, brings them happiness, is of good quality and is useful to them. In other
words, a translation can be considered to be good when it is as relevant to the target
audience as the source text was to the source audience. Gutt also argues that:
43 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
If we ask in what respects the intended interpretation of the translation
should resemble the original, the answer is: in respects that make it
adequately relevant to the audience – that is, that offer adequate
contextual effects; if we ask how the translation should be expressed,
the answer is: it should be expressed in such a manner that it yields the
intended interpretation without putting the audience to unnecessary
effort. (1991: 101‐2)
This means that when interpreted in the target audience, the translated advertisement
should have the same effect as the original text in the target setting. In other words, the
translated advertisement should contain information that portrays the desires of the
target audience and that address their needs. This means that by looking at the images
on the translated advertisement and by reading its content, consumers should be able to
draw a clear conclusion of the intended message of the marketer without unnecessary
effort. In other words:
[The] linguistically encoded element of an utterance is not generally
geared towards achieving as high a degree of explicitness as possible.
Taking account of the addressee’s immediately accessible assumptions
and the inferences he can readily draw, the speaker should encode just
what is necessary to ensure that the pragmatic processor arrives as
effortlessly as possible at the intended meaning. (Robyn Carston 2004:
04)
This assertion is critically valid in the domain of advertising translation as
advertisements are quite short due to the heavy cost of advertising. The translation
should therefore captivate the audience in few words and it should be precise.
Finally, relevance theory argues that “other things being equal, the greater the
processing effort required, the less relevant the input will be” (Sperber and Wilson:
252). This means that if the consumer has to make too much effort to understand the
message, then the translated advertisement may not appeal to him.
Functionalist views of translation have equipped translators of advertisements with a
good basis for the production and the assessment of effective translated
advertisements. Scholars such as Nord (2002, 2007), and Torresi (2010) have provided
translators with useful frameworks that enable them to deal with the issues at hand in
translating advertisements. The translation of advertisements is assessed in terms of
44 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
the function that the advertisements are supposed to have in the target setting. For this
reason, translated advertisements should be assessed in terms of skopos and relevance.
Skopos, because advertisements have a specific purpose which is to persuade, and the
goal of translators of advertisements is therefore to achieve the same purpose in the
target setting. The important point is therefore not if the translated advertisement is a
close translation of the source advertisement but rather if the translated advertisement
will produce the same effect or a better effect in the target setting. In order to persuade,
the translated advertisements need to be relevant to the target audience. The relevance
of an advertisement is determined by the extent to which it respects the ideological,
sociocultural and cultural factors of the period when it is produced and of the setting
where it is produced.
After discussing skopos theory, functional equivalence and relevance theory, we now
discuss the issues of ethics and loyalty in advertising translation.
1.7.7 Ethics and loyalty in advertising translation
According to Nord (2007: 2) “loyalty” is “the responsibility that translators have toward
their partners.” Nord (2002: 4) argues that:
[L]oyalty is not the old faithfulness or fidelity in new clothes,
because faithfulness and fidelity usually refer to an intertextual
relationship holding between the source and the target texts as
linguistic entities. However, loyalty is an interpersonal category
referring to a social relationship between people. In a general
model, loyalty would be an empty slot that is filled, in a particular
translation task, by the demands of the specific translation
concepts of the cultures in question, especially when the source‐
text author and the target‐text audience hold discrepant views of
what a translator should or should not do. It is the translator's
task to mediate between the two cultures, and mediation cannot
mean to impose the concept of one culture on members of
another.
The loyalty of the translator of advertising materials depends on his ability to sell the
products or services of the company for which he is translating and on his ability to
influence the opinions of the people that the advertisements target. “Promotional
45 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
translation is usually assessed in functional terms; in other words, the main concern in
this field should be whether the target text works, i.e. fulfils the purpose for which it is
intended in the target language, culture, community, and context” (Torresi 2010: 23). In
other words, the aim of the translated advertisement is to produce a good effect in the
target setting. The ethics and loyalty of advertising translators may seem different from
the ethics and loyalty of translators of other genres. As Torresi (2010: 23) says:
In promotional texts, the concept of loyalty applies neither to the
letter of the text, nor to its original content or message, but only
to its intended function. If this function is not preserved, the
target text is disloyal to the source text, even if its content and
literal meaning are accurately conveyed. If, on the contrary, the
function is maintained, then the translation can be deemed loyal
to the original text, even if this implies creating an entirely new
text, with a new form and a new content.
This means that advertising translators often have to violate the traditional translation
rules of accuracy and loyalty to the source text in order to fulfil the functionalist
purpose of advertising.
The notion of function does not only pertain to the generic
purpose of persuading the target group to buy a product or
service, or modify the target group’s behaviour or attitudes in
some way or other, but also includes the specific indications
contained in the brief. (Torresi 2010: 24)
This means that the choices made by the translator of advertisements are also
determined by the recommendations of his clients. She goes further to say that:
It is easy to demonstrate this hyper‐functionalist view through
examples, especially in the case of advertising, where clients tend
to give functionality of the target text priority over the close
rendition of the source text. Sometimes this involves non‐verbal
as well as verbal aspects, which are totally or partially changed to
accommodate the features of the target markets, or of the sales
strategies of national branches. (Torresi 2010: 24)
Clients are therefore in favour of functional advertising rather than the closest
rendition of the source text. It is however important to notice that a close
rendition cannot always work due to the different marketing strategies that
companies use in different circumstances and given regions or countries.
46 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Similarly, the multisemiotic nature of advertising plays a crucial role in this
functionality. For instance, different audiences attach different values to
different colours, as well as to different symbols or pictures. Advertising
translators are therefore sometimes required to change symbols present in the
source text in order to adapt the advertising campaign to a new audience. In
this case, Torresi argues that we can still talk about translation and she
mentions the phenomenon of “glocalization” which suggests that “a holistic
view of advertising translation, which embraces all its semiotic dimensions and
the functionalist view of loyalty, is possible and viable” (Torresi 2010: 24).
Advertising translation is therefore still a different type of translation with a
functionalist view of loyalty.
The loyalty principle thus adds two important qualities to the
functional approach. Since it obliges the translator to take account
of the difference between culture specific concepts of translation
prevailing in the two cultures involved in the translation process,
it turns Skopostheorie into an anti‐universalist model, and since it
induces the translator to respect the sender's individual
communicative intentions, as far as they can be elicited, it reduces
the prescriptiveness of "radical" functionalism (Nord 2002: 4).
When we clearly examine the issue of persuasion in the advertising translation, we
observe that even though translators of advertising materials do not always produce
faithful target advertisements, they do respect the ethics of translation not by
‘rendering the same message always in the same way’ as in the original but by
‘producing the same effect’. Moreover, as far as the translator does not use strategies to
lie to the target audience and bases his strategies on people’s beliefs, values and
expectations and produces an honest advertisement (an advertisement which does not
make unrealistic promises), he has respected the ethics of advertising translation.
In the previous sections, we discussed the discourse of advertising in order to
understand its aim and style. We also discussed culture and ideology because they affect
the way in which people react to advertisements. In addition, we discussed the
particular features of advertising translation and the ethics and loyalty of advertising
translators.
47 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
The conclusions that we can draw are: advertisements should be catchy, emotive, short
and persuasive. They should not contain words that carry negative connotations in the
target setting and they should be adapted to the ideology of the target setting. Finally,
we observe that in addition to a sound knowledge of language, a translator of
advertisements should be familiar with the discourse of advertising. He should be
creative and he should always keep in mind that a good advertising translator is one
who succeeds in selling in the target setting. As we said previously, the ethics and
loyalty of advertising translators depends on the function of advertisements. For this
reason, it is important to elaborate on theories such as skopos theory, functional
equivalence and relevance theory when discussing the translation of advertisements
because they provide a solid framework in assessing the role that the translated
advertisement will play in the target setting.
1.8 Semiotics and symbolism in advertising translation
This section discusses semiotics and symbolism as issues that are particularly relevant
in advertising in general and in advertising translation in particular. We begin with
semiotics because advertising involves using many signs to persuade the audience and
it is therefore important for translators to know how to decode the signs used in the
source advertisement.
1.8.1 Semiotics
Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols, what they mean and how they are used. Ron
Beasley and Marcel Danesi state that “semioticians focus their attention more on what
an advertising feature means and on how it generates its meaning” (2002: 24). In other
words, semioticians examine the tools that advertisers use to persuade and the
denotative meaning of the signs that they use in their advertisements.
Maya Pines (1982) has offered this explanation of semiotics:
Everything we do sends messages about us in
a variety of codes. We are also on the
receiving end of innumerable messages
encoded in music, gestures, foods, rituals,
books, movies, or advertisements. Yet we
seldom realize that we have received such
48 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
messages, and would have trouble explaining
the rules under which they operate. What
semiotics does, Pines adds, is teach us how to
decipher these rules and “bring them to
consciousness. (In Berger 2004: 15)
Advertisements can be interpreted at two levels: surface level and underlying level.
The former involves the use of specific types of signs in a highly
creative manner to create a personality for the product (images,
colours, words, repeating stories…). These are both “reflexes” of, and
“traces” to, the underlying level‐where the concealed meaning of the
text lies. (Beasley and Danesi 2002: 20)
In other words, the surface level is the denotative level and the underlying level is the
connotative level.
“The goal of semiotics in advertising is, ultimately, to unmask the arrays of hidden
meanings in the underlying level, which form can be called signification systems”
(Beasley and Danesi 2002: 20). Semiotics enables translators to understand the
message that is conveyed through the words and images of advertisements and
therefore to know how to render these messages with the signs that are embedded in
the culture of the target setting:
A signification system in advertising can be defined as the set of
meanings that are generated for a product by a systematic
association of various signifiers (brand name, logo, ad texts…)
with implicit signifieds relating to personality, lifestyle, desires…
(Beasley and Danesi 2002: 23)
“In his theory of semiology (study of signs), Saussure described a language as a system
of signs which have meaning by virtue of their relationships to each other. Each sign
comprises a signifier (a word) and a signified (a concept). Each sign has meaning only
by virtue of its place in the system, and the fact that this system is known and shared by
its users” (Cook: 61).
In other words, the interpretation of signs depends on the environment of the people
who interpret them. Advertisers should therefore understand that people may interpret
an advertisement differently in different spheres. For this reason, if the advertising
translator wants consumers to perceive the intention of an advertisement clearly and
not to misunderstand it, he should choose signs that are appropriate for the culture and
49 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
the ideology of the target setting and he should be able to make a good combination of
all the different signs contained in an advertisement, with a synergy between the visual
elements and the written text:
Visual elements, like language, convey cultural values and stereotypes,
and sometimes clear indexical and symbolic relationships can be
recognised. For instance, cultures have different “high modality”
colours (Scollon and Scollon in Torresi 2008: 67), and colours may take
up political, social or even commercial indexical values that are
relevant in one community only. (Torresi 2008: 67)
Visual elements carry many connotations as they portray what the user will be like or
look like when using a given product. Visual elements thus reflect the images of the
consumers when using some products. Beasley, Danesi and Perron claim that “the
higher the number of connotative chains generated, the greater is the likelihood that the
product will appeal to consumers” (in Beasley and Danesi 2002: 108‐109). If consumers
like the ideas that are portrayed through the visual elements of a given advertisement,
then they will buy the product.
According to Williamson: “advertisements must take into account not only the inherent
qualities and attributes of the products they are trying to sell but also the way in which
they can make these properties mean something to us” (Adab 2004: 167). Translators of
advertising materials need to know how to handle the semiotics of advertising materials
in the sense that they should be able to translate the connotative meaning of an
advertisement as well the visual. Similarly, the use of visual elements will enable the
translator to use few words. For instance, the Coca‐ Cola slogans “always cool” and
“things go better with a coke” linked to the pictures on the advertisements. When we
look at the images of advertisements, we can easily see the message that the advertisers
want to pass across. In an advertisement:
The individual components (image, language, sound etc.) only merge
into a meaningful message when the text is perceived in its entirety,
understanding is to a great extent dependent on the users’ ability to
integrate the multisemiotic components into a complete whole. (Resch
in Snell‐Hornby 2006: 138)
The translator of an advertisement therefore needs to be able to merge all the elements
of an advertisement in order to enable the reader to perceive the message clearly and
easily.
50 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
It is clear from the above discussion that signs are crucial in translating advertisements,
but there are also a number of different kinds of signs:
Signs, we must recognize, take a number of different forms. Words, of
course, are their most familiar form—they stand for things, ideas,
concepts, and so on. But signs have a number of other forms that we
might consider. (Berger 2004: 11)
In advertising, images, colours, symbols, icons and specific words play the role of signs.
1.8.2 Symbolism
The use of symbols is of great importance in advertising. Symbolism is “the use of
symbols to invest things with a representative meaning or to represent something
abstract by something concrete” (Encarta Dictionary 2009). In advertising, symbols
enable companies to convey their vision to the public. The symbols used should have
particular features that enable consumers to differentiate a one company from another.
Symbols should be striking if they are to attract the public. Moreover, when symbols
portray the culture, the ideology and preferences of people, consumers are likely to
accept the product. However, when symbols used in the advertisement do not fit the
context in which a given product is advertised, the product may be rejected by the
public. For this reason, advertising translators have to know which symbols will appeal
to the public they target. For instance, Miao argues that:
The Chrysanthemum, the national flower of Italy, is used only in
funerals in some Latin American countries, for the flower is considered
to be evil by the people there. Rose and lily are symbols of love and
friendship in many countries, but they are used to mourn the dead in
India and some European countries. So they can never be used as
decoration or a brand‐mark. Yellow flowers imply disloyalty in France,
and purple flowers are for funerals in Brazil (In Yin Cui 2009:12‐13).
Companies also use celebrities to represent them. Jennifer Edson Escalas & James R.
Bettman argue that these celebrities mean that the advertisement will attract more
attention, partly because celebrities are usually attractive people. In addition a celebrity
who is regarded as an expert on a particular matter will be more credible to the target
51 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
market. Generally the celebrities chosen are popular and therefore allow the consumer
to identify positively with them. The choice of celebrities is determined by multiple
factors such as the fame of the celebrity, the average age of his or her fans and his or her
domain of activity. Sometimes, consciously or unconsciously, consumers make choices
based on the choices of their celebrities. They often think that their celebrities have
good taste and consequently that their choices of products or services are good.
Celebrities chosen should have good reputations in order to send positive messages to
the people who look up to them. For instance, in the 1950’s, Coca‐Cola used the popular
American soprano “Lillian Nordica” in their advertisements. Additionally, “recent
research indicates that consumers construct their self‐identity and present themselves
to others through their brand choices based on the congruency between brand‐user
associations and self‐image associations” (Escalas and Bettman: 5). Consumers
therefore adopt a brand because they recognize themselves in the image portrayed by
that brand.
Consumers may adopt a brand only because they identify with the celebrities that
endorse that brand and if they do not like the image portrayed by those celebrities, they
may not use the brand. When users cease to identify with a brand they may cease to use
that brand. The choice of a celebrity also depends on the culture of the target audience.
A scantily dressed female idol in the West might not appeal or may be offensive in more
conservative Muslim countries.
Colours are also symbols in advertising. Colours portray different ideas in different
cultures and their meanings should be known by marketers. Similarly, a brand may
decide to choose a given colour to portray a given idea just as Coca‐Cola has chosen the
red colour as its main colour because it is immediately visible and familiar. Here are
some examples of culture‐specific colour connotations in the United States, France and
Canada:
United States and Canada
Red: Excitement, warning, sex, passion, adultery, safety rescue, hot, spicy
Yellow: Visibility, cautionary, happy, sunny, cowardice
Blue: Trustworthy, official business, philosophy, soothing
Green: Environmental, outdoorsy, masculinity, freshness, healthy, envy, jealousy,
inexperience
52 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Orange: Visibility, refreshing, danger
Purple: Nobility, bravery, law, excess
Pink: Feminity, childhood, fun, sweetness
Brown: Dullness, boring, fertile, strength, unprocessed, poverty
Gold: Money, wealth luminosity
Black: Death, evil, sin, nothingness, business, adult, formal, sexy
White: Clean, pure, elegant, antiseptic
(Mario andJesúsMaroto2001: 15)
France
Red: Blood, passionate love, lust, virile
Yellow: Summer, joy
Blue: Water, reliability, trust
Green: Outdoors
Gold: Decoration, light, luxury
Orange: Earth
(De Bortoli and Maroto 2001: 19)
Animals can also be used as symbols. For example, Coca‐Cola uses the white polar bear
as a symbol of freshness and to emphasise that its drink can be consumed at a very low
temperature.
We therefore observe that an advertising translator should take all these notions into
consideration in order to produce an effective advertisement. A misused symbol may
have negative effects in the target setting. Additionally, for persuasion to be achieved,
symbols should attract consumers. However, the symbols contained on logos often
remain unchanged because it is the identity of the brand; it is through these symbols
that the brand is recognised.
53 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Chapter Two: Theoretical framework and methodology
2.1 Theoretical framework
In the previous chapters, we have given an overview of advertising and of advertising
translation. Additionally we have discussed relevance theory, skopos theory and
functional equivalence which can be used to discuss translated advertisements and to
translate advertisements. We also mentioned DTS which is a useful framework to
describe the different translated advertisements because it enables us to make a good
comparative study of the source texts and of their translations and to identify the
reasons behind the choices made by the translators. Relevance theory and functional
equivalence are appropriate theoretical tools for analysing the translation of
advertisements because these theories have a common aim which is that “a translation
should convey to the receptor language audience a literal interpretation of the original
or one closely resembling it” (Gutt 1991: 69). Skopos theory is critically relevant in this
study for its concept of “skopos” as advertising has a specific purpose which is to
persuade, and in the majority of cases to persuade to buy. Skopos theory advocates that
a translation should be assessed in terms of its skopos or purpose in the target setting.
The broad theoretical framework of this research is DTS because it performs a
descriptive analysis of 30 advertisements of Coca‐Cola in order to understand the issues
at hand in translating advertisements. Our goal is not to perform a prescriptive analysis.
The DTS paradigm includes many concepts which are relevant in the analysis of
translated advertisements. We will discuss those concepts in order to understand why
the DTS a useful framework in identifying translation strategies. The first concepts that
we are going to examine are translation shifts and their analysis:
The structural differences between translations and their source may
be described as ‘translation shifts”. A shift might come from the
translator’s decision to render function rather than form, or to
translate a semantic value on a different linguistic level, or to create the
correspondence at a different place in the text (using a strategy of
compensation), or perhaps to select different genre conventions.
(Pym 2010: 66)
54 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Pym (2010: 66) argues that there at least two ways of comparing translation shifts
namely: bottom‐up analysis and top‐down analysis:
Bottom‐up analysis starts from the smaller units (usually terms,
phrases or sentences) and works up to the larger ones (text, context,
genre, culture); top‐down analysis goes the other way, starting with the
larger systemic factors (especially constructs such as the position of
translations within a sociocultural system) and working down to the
smaller ones (especially categories like translation strategies).
We therefore observe that bottom‐up analysis can be identified with the prior analysis
of source and target texts whereas top‐down analysis can be identified with the
identification of translation strategies used by professional translators. Additionally,
Toury’s three levels of analysis are essential in the analysis of translations. The three
levels of analysis of Toury (In Pym 2010: 71) are as follows: “all that translation… CAN
involve,” “what it DOES involve, under various sets of circumstances,” and “what it is
LIKELY to involve, under one or another array of specified conditions”. In other words,
the first step in the analysis of translations is to examine the prior meaning and function
of the translated text. Secondly, the second step is to examine the possible meanings and
functions of the translated text under the various sets of circumstances in which we
analyse them and finally the last step is to examine the possible meanings of that
translated text under the specified conditions in which we analyse them. Delabastita (In
Pym 2010: 71) elaborates on Toury’s three levels of analysis as follows, relating them to
the notion of norms:
55 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
1 Level of system: theoretical possibilities For each translation problem or source text, it
(“can be”) is possible to envisage a whole range of
possible or theoretical solutions or target
texts.
2. Level of norms: culture‐bound constraints On the intermediate level of norms, some of
(“should be”) these possible relationships will be
recommended or even required as being the
only ones that can generate “genuine”
translations, whereas others will be dismissed
or even simply ignored.
3. Level of performance: empirical discursive We can then observe which relationships have
practice (“is”) actually materialised in a given cultural
setting. By definition, these empirical
relationships constitute a subset of the
possible relationships; their degree of
frequency in a given cultural situation is a
crucial indication that certain norms have
been at work.
Translators therefore have a wide range of possibilities offered to them when they
embark on a translation process. However, they should only keep the possibilities that
respect the cultural and linguistic norms of the target setting and that convey the real
meaning of the original text in the target audience. Similarly, Toury argues that:
Translating as a teleological activity par excellence is to a large extent
conditioned by the goals it is designed to serve, and these goals are set
in, and by, the prospective receptor system(s). Consequently,
translators operate first and foremost in the interest of the culture into
which they are translating, and not in the interest of the source text, let
alone the source culture. (In Snell‐Hornby 2006: 49)
This assertion critically fits the context of the translation of advertisements because the
choices of the translators of advertisements are determined by the function that the
translated advertisement is supposed to play in the target setting. In other words, the
main focus of the translator of advertisement is on the target culture.
56 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Moreover, Toury’s concept of norms is important in determining the social conditions
that affect translations. Toury defines norms as:
The translation of general values or ideas shared by a community …
into performance instructions appropriate for and applicable to
particular situations, specifying what is prescribed and forbidden as
well as what is tolerated and permitted in a certain behavioural
dimension. (In Pym 2010: 73)
However, the term “norm” in the DTS paradigm should not be associated with “a set of
rules or official regulations”. In DTS, the term norm “usually operates at a wider, more
social level” (Pym 2010: 73). In other words, the concept of norm in the DTS paradigm is
like an informal collective agreement. Norms in this case are therefore social and
professional rules that condition translations. Toury distinguishes between
“‘preliminary norms’ which concern the selection of the kind of text and the mode of
translation (direct/indirect…), and ‘operational norms’, which would cover all the
decisions made in the act of translating (Pym 2010: 74). Chesterman on the other hand
distinguishes between “‘professional norms’, which would cover everything related to
the translation process, from ‘expectancy norms’ which are what people expect of the
translation product” (Pym 2010: 74). Translators are therefore subject to the norms
instituted by their sponsors and target audience. For instance, Coca‐Cola likes universal
slogans. This means that very often, Coca‐Cola translated slogans are an adaptation of
Coca‐Cola slogans launched in the United States.
DTS therefore provides a useful framework to describe the way in which advertising
translators translate and the reasons behind their choices by identifying the translation
strategies used by the professional translators of Coca‐Cola.
For the purpose of this study, we also use Skopos theory, functional equivalence and
relevance theory. Skopos theory and functional equivalence are functionalist theories.
Functionalist theories are relevant in the translation of advertisements because of the:
[F]irst basic principle of functionalism which could be paraphrased as
“the translation purpose justifies the translation procedures", and this
could easily be interpreted as “the end justifies the means.” Then there
would be no restriction to the range of possible ends, the source text
could be manipulated as clients (or translators) see fit. In a general
57 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
theory, this might be acceptable enough, since one could always argue
that general theories do not have to be directly applicable.
(Nord 2002: 3)
However, this does not mean that the translator should not respect given norms.
Indeed:
[T]ranslation practice does not take place in the void. It takes place in
specific situations set in specific cultures, so any application of the
general theory, either to practice or to training, has to take account of
the specific cultural conditions under which a text is translated.
(Nord 2002: 3)
Additionally, relevance theory is relevant to this study because an effective translated
advertisement is also determined by the extent to which it is relevant to the target
audience. Gutt (1991: 101‐2) argues that:
If we ask in what respects the intended interpretation of the translation
should resemble the original, the answer is: in respects that make it
adequately relevant to the audience – that is, that offer adequate
contextual effects; if we ask how the translation should be expressed,
the answer is: it should be expressed in such a manner that it yields the
intended interpretation without putting the audience to unnecessary
processing effort.
This means that the translated advertisement even when implicit should be easily
understandable for the audience and should be relevant to them.
This study takes the form of a comparative analysis of print advertisements that form a
corpus. Moreover, we discuss the relevance of the advertisements in the corpus by
analysing the message and presentation of the advertisements in relation to the views
and ideology of the period when they were produced and the setting where they were
produced. Additionally, we discuss the purpose of the different advertisements when
making our analysis and we discuss the way in which they have fulfilled their purpose
in the English setting and particularly in the different target French settings.
58 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
2.2 Methodology
As we said previously, we analyse our corpus within the framework of DTS. We selected
30 print advertisements in order to examine the translation of Coca‐Cola
advertisements.
A semiotic analysis enables us to understand the message that the images of the
advertisements convey and to assess whether the images fit with the messages.
Secondly, we carry out a stylistic and content analysis; this means that we firstly discuss
the stylistic devices used by marketers in order to convey their messages and finally we
identify the translation strategies used by the professional translators of Coca‐Cola.
Since it is important to adopt appropriate methodological steps in the analysis, we use
Nord’s model of text analysis to analyse the source texts. We use Schjoldager’s
microstrategies which are relevant in this study because they enable us to make a micro
analysis of the advertisements. Microstrategies deal with specific problems at the micro
level, i.e mainly in connection with words, phrases and sentences.” (Schjoldager 2008:
89). Schjoldager’s microstrategies will therefore be useful to make a comparative
analysis of our advertisements in order to discuss the choices of Coca‐Cola translators.
We also use House’s notions of covertness and overtness which will enable us to assess
whether the translation are natural in the target setting or if they look like translations
in order to identify the translation strategies used by Coca‐Cola translators. We start
with “Nord’s WH‐questions” which are useful in analysing the source texts and in
determining the translation brief.
The analysis of the source text guides the translation process in that it
provides the basis for decisions about:
(a) the feasibility of the translation assignment,
(b) which source text units are relevant to a functional translation, and
(c) which translation strategy will lead to a target text meeting the
requirements of the translation brief. (Nord. n.d: 5)
“Nord’s WH‐ questions” are useful because they enable translators to understand the
text well before translating and to understand the intended aim of the text. When
translators have fully understood the text and its aim, they can therefore undertake the
59 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
translation of that text and they can easily manipulate that text in the target language.
Nord’ WH‐questions will therefore enable us to understand the reasons which have
guided the choice of given translation strategies by Coca‐Cola translators. Nord’s WH‐
questions are as follow:
who transmits,
to whom,
what for,
by which medium,
where,
when,
why,
a text with what function?
on what subject matter does he says
what,(what not),
in what order,
using which non‐verbal elements,
in which words,
in what kind of sentences,
in which tone
to what effect? (Nord, 2005: 41)
Schjoldager’s microstrategies (2008: 89109)
Vinay and Darbenelt’s (1958, 2000) famous and very influential model of translation
procedures is the main source of inspiration of Schjoldager for this taxonomy of
microstrategies (Schjoldager 2008: 89). Schjoldager’s microstrategies are also inspired
by a model of five transformation categories developed by Delabatista (1989, 1993)
(Schjoldager 2008: 91). Here follows the table of Schjoldager’s microstrategies.
60 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Direct transfer Transfers something unchanged
Calque Transfers the structure or makes a very close
translation
Direct translation Translates in a word‐for‐word procedure
Oblique translation Translates in a sense‐for‐sense procedure
Explicitation Makes implicit information explicit
Paraphrase Translates rather freely
Condensation Translates in a shorter way which may
involve implicitation (making explicit
information implicit)
Adaptation Recreates the effect entirely or partially
Addition adds a unit of meaning
Substitution Changes the meaning
Deletion leaves out a unit of meaning
Permutation Translates in a different place
We discuss these microstrategies in detail below:
Direct transfer
“Direct transfer takes a source‐text item and leaves it unchanged in the target text.
Vinay and Darbelnet (1958, 2000: 85) refer to this as “borrowing” (2008: 93).
61 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Calque
“A calque transfers the structure of a source‐text element to the target‐text or makes a
very close translation of it. The result tends to be a target‐text item that seems
unidiomatic in the target language” (2008: 93).
Direct translation
“The difference between direct translation and calque is that, whereas calque results in
a conspicuous (and sometimes incorrect construction) in the target language, the result
of a direct translation may be regarded as idiomatic, i.e linguistically inconspicuous and
correct. Direct translation translates in a word‐for‐word procedure, often by use of
linguistic equivalents” (2008: 93).
Oblique translation
“The difference between oblique translation and direct translation is that whereas
direct translation pretends to cover all the meaning potential of a source‐text item, (i.e
linguistic meaning), oblique translation does not pretend this, but attempts to cover the
contextual meaning of the source‐text item. Put differently, whereas direct translation
operates in a word‐for‐word procedure, oblique translation operates in a sense‐for‐
sense procedure (functional equivalence)” (2008: 97).
Explicitation
“This microstrategy makes implicit source‐text information explicit in the target text”
(2008: 99).
Paraphrase
“When paraphrasing, translators render source‐text meaning rather freely. Thus,
though the source‐text meaning is rendered, it is rendered in a way that is difficult to
define precisely. Vinay and Darbelnet would probably refer to my paraphrase as
modulation” (2008: 100).
Condensation
“When condensing, a translator renders the contextual meaning of the source text, but
in a shorter way” (2008: 102).
62 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Adaptation
“Adaptation recreates the effect of a source‐text item. This recreation may focus on one
aspect of the source‐text item while ignoring other aspects. Adaptation is similar to
oblique translation and paraphrase, but is more creative and often attempts to imitate
the source‐text author’s thinking process” (2008: 103).
Addition
“Addition means that the translator adds a unit of meaning to the target text” (2008:
107).
Substitution
“Substitution means that the translator changes the source‐text meaning. The target text
is obviously a translation of a given source text item, but its content (semantic meaning)
has changed. If the change involves a rewriting of the source text, we are by definition
no longer dealing with a microstrategy, but a (target‐text oriented) macrostrategy”
(2008: 106).
Deletion
“Unlike condensation, where a source‐text item may appear to have been deleted but is
still implicitly present, deletion means that certain source‐text units of meaning are
missing from the target text altogether”(2008: 108).
Permutation
“When the translator realises that a given source‐text effect cannot be rendered in the
target text, usually for linguistic or stylistic reasons, and decides to make up for this loss
by recreating the effect somewhere else in the target text, s/he makes use of
permutation”(2008: 109).
We have complemented these microstrategies with House’s notions of covert and overt
translation.
Covert and overt translation
“In an overt translation, the source text as a piece of work with a certain status in the
source language community must remain as intact as possible given the necessary
transfer and recoding in another language” (House, 1997: 68).
House (1997:69) defines a covert translation as “a translation which enjoys the status of
an original source text in the target culture.” According to House, “a source text and its
63 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
convert translation have equivalent purposes; they are based on contemporary,
equivalent needs of a comparable audience in the source and target language
communities” (1997: 69).
In the theoretical framework, we discussed the relevance of the theories that we apply
to our study. In the methodology we discussed the steps that we will follow in the
analysis. The next chapter now consists of the analysis of the corpus.
64 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Chapter Three Corpus analysis
3.1 Analysis of source and target advertisements
In this chapter, we analyse our corpus using Nord’s WH‐questions. Nord’s WH‐
questions are useful because they enable us to identify the function of the source
advertisements, to identify the medium used to convey the message as the medium
influence the way in which the message is conveyed and translated, to know where and
when the advertisements were produced as this information will enable us to
understand the sociological, ideological and cultural factors which influenced the
advertisers and advertisers translators’ choices and to identify the kind of sentences,
the non‐verbal elements and the kind of words used to convey the message to the public
in order to be able to discuss the choices of translators. In the second section, we use
Anne Schjoldager’s microstrategies (2008) and House’s notions of covertness and
overtness (1997) to identify the different translation strategies used by Coca‐Cola
translators. Our sets of advertisements serve as real life examples to understand the
issues at hand in the translation of advertisements.
The analysis of the source advertisements is as follows:
Who transmits: The Coca‐Cola Company is the author of these advertisements. The
nature of the company was described in some detail in the Introduction (12‐13).
To whom: Coca‐Cola addresses consumers from the United States, France and Canada.
Coca‐Cola consumers are heterogeneous because Coca‐Cola is a drink that teenagers,
young adults and old people can consume. Moreover, the advertisements target all
social classes because the language is simple and the ideas described in the
advertisements mostly revolve around the idea of happiness. Moreover, Coca‐Cola is not
an expensive drink.
What for: The advertisements have a referential or denotative function the Coca‐Cola
Company wants to inform consumers about Cola‐Cola and to persuade them to drink it.
Moreover, the advertisements have an operative or persuasive function because they
aim at persuading people to drink Coca‐Cola.
65 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
By which Medium: The messages of the advertisements were transmitted in writing
through Magazines such as La Revue Populaire, McCall’s Magazine and National
Geographic, cardboards, posters, ink blotters, newspapers such as Newsweek and
websites.
Where: The English advertisements were produced in the United States and the French
advertisements were received in Canada and in France.
When: 1905 to 2011.
Why: The English advertisements were made because the Coca‐Cola Company wanted
to present and sell its drink, Coca‐Cola, in the United State; the French advertisements
target Canada and France. Advertisements are the most useful way to present a product
to the public. In the advertisements, the Company gives the different advantages of
consuming this drink. They mostly relate the consumption of this drink to themes of
happiness and enjoyment.
A text with what function: The advertisements analysed have a persuasive function.
These advertisements give one main promise “drink Coca‐Cola and you will be really
refreshed and happy “and they consequently give the advantages of drinking Coca‐Cola
in order to persuade consumers to drink it. Coca‐Cola advertisements show in images
what consumers can gain from a bottle of Coke. Coca‐Cola also assures consumers that
its drink is delicious and of good quality. The Coca‐Cola Company therefore uses
adjectives such as “refreshing”, “delicious”, “better” and “great” to insist on the good
taste of Coca‐Cola. Moreover, they use the technique of generalisation to show that
Coca‐Cola is appreciated by everybody. This is exemplified in slogans such as “the drink
everybody knows” and “the greatest pause on earth”. The advertisements also have an
emotive function because the Coca‐Cola Company uses superlatives such as “greatest”
and “best” and themes such as hospitality and positivity, freedom and happiness. The
emotive function is also perceived through the representation of happiness with images
that show happy couples and smiling people. Finally, the connotative function which
enables advertisers to draw the attention of consumers to products is perceived
through the use of imperatives in sentences such as “have a coke” and “drink Coca‐Cola”
and pronouns such as “you” and “everybody” which enable the Company to create a
personal interaction with consumers.
66 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
On what subject matter does he say what: The Coca‐Cola Company says that its
product is delicious and refreshing, it brings happiness, it is well‐known, it is the
greatest pause on earth, it is sparkling, etc.
What not: Coca‐Cola only says things in praise of its drink. Coca‐Cola does not mention
the content of the drink, nor its nutritional value. Coca‐Cola only persuades consumers
that its drink is good and tasty.
In what order: In the majority of its advertisements, Coca‐Cola only uses as slogan or a
sentence to qualify its products and in some advertisements, after the slogan and the
images, it includes sub‐texts in order to suggest more reasons for purchase.
Using which non–verbal elements: Coca‐Cola uses illustrations and colours to pass its
message across to its different audiences. Images play a key role in the persuasive
function of advertisements because they allow the audience to see in images why they
should buy a given product, in this case, Coca‐Cola. Coca‐Cola use facial expression such
as “smile”. Eye contact is also important in Coca‐Cola advertisements because in the
majority of the advertisements, the people face the readers. The postures of the people
present on the advertisements also give us ideas about what they are doing and what
they intend to demonstrate. The dominance of the red colour in Coca‐Cola
advertisements is equally a mark of the Company and the clothing of the people on the
advertisements also show the different periods of the advertisements.
In which words: Coca‐Cola uses simple vocabulary. This means that people can easily
understand the message that they are conveying. The Coca‐Cola Company also uses
appealing images in its advertisements which can easily captivate readers. Superlatives
such as in the sentence “the greatest pause on earth” and comparatives such as in the
sentence “it is the real thing” are also used persuasively.
In which kinds of sentences: Coca‐Cola use simple, short and active sentences such as
“the pause that refreshes”, “accepted home refreshment”. The use of simple and active
sentences can be justified by the fact that it is important to use simple, short and active
sentences in advertising because they enable consumers to understand the message
without misconception, to remain focussed and not to get bored while reading the
advertisements and finally to easily keep the message of the advertisement in mind. The
sentences are imperative, persuasive and declarative. Declarative sentences such as
67 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
“refreshes you best” and “good taste for all” are used to create a truthful relationship
with the readers. Suspension points are also used in many sentences and they
emphasise the emotive function of these sentences.
In which tone: Coca‐Cola uses suprasegmental features such as italics, bold type and
quotation marks in its advertisements in order to achieve its aim which is to persuade
consumers to drink Coca‐Cola. Coca‐Cola selects particular words such as refreshing,
delicious and sparkling and uses affirmative sentences such as. “Accepted home
refreshment” and “the drink everybody knows”.
To what effect: Coca‐Cola aims to persuade lots of consumers to buy and drink Coca‐
Cola.
In the second part of this section, we follow the taxonomy of microstrategies of
Schjoldager as explained in the previous chapter complemented by the notions of
covertness and overtness of Julianne House in order to identify the translation
strategies used by Coca‐Cola translators.
68 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
3.2 Semiotic analysis and identification of translation strategies
Illustration 7: Drink CocaCola delicious and refreshing7
Semiotic analysis
English original
In this 1905 advertisement from the United States, the skopos is to persuade consumers
that Coca‐Cola tastes good and refreshes well and they should therefore drink it.
On the surface level, we observe the popular American Wagnerian dramatic soprano
Lillian Nordica. “She was one of the first American sopranos to become a success in
Europe” (theCoca‐Cola Company.com). She wears a straight‐fronted corset. “The
straight‐fronted corset (also known as the swan‐bill corset and the s‐curve corset) was
a type of corset worn from the start of the nineteenth century until around 1907. Its
name derives from the very rigid straight busk that was used at the centre
7http://www.adbranch.com/lillian‐nordica‐new‐face‐of‐coca‐cola/lillian_nordica/
69 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
front”(Corsetheaven.com). “When tightlaced, the straight‐front corset put a great deal of
pressure on the lower abdomen. This caused the S‐curve silhouette: the wearer's hips
were thrust back, giving a deep curve to her lower back, and her chest was thrust
forwards” (Corsetheaven.com). In her hair, Nordica wears a diamond tiara and she
holds a black ostrich feather fan in her hands. Nordica is positioned against a mirror
with the red colour that is reflected on it and she has placed her hand on the vase. Next
to her hand, there is bottle of Coca‐Cola and beside the bottle, a red rose. At the top of
the image, we read “drink carbonated Coca‐Cola in bottles 5 cents” at the left and we
read “delicious, refreshing” at the right. We also observe that the background colour is
green. “For decades, many of the classic Coca‐Cola paintings, billboards and
advertisements were designed with a solid green background” (theverybestofCoca‐
Cola.com).
On the underlying level, the straight‐fronted corset was the accepted fashion at that
time in the Unites States.This therefore explains why she is dressed that way. Nordica
was famous in the American and European musical world
(Heritage_collectors_columns_collecting calendars). Nordica is used as a symbol of fame
and success and consequently as someone who knows about quality. She is used here to
encourage people to drink Coca‐Cola because it is delicious and refreshing. Because she
is a celebrity, consumers might have thought that drinking Coca‐Cola as she did would
show that they are refined and they consume quality products. In this advertisement,
Nordica is therefore a persuasive means to show that Coca‐Cola is a good drink and a
drink of good quality. Moreover, the Coca‐Cola bottle is a symbol of Coca‐Cola. It is used
in the advertisement to enable consumers to recognise it at fountains. Nordica is a
symbol of music and the rose is a symbol of love and passion. The rose may have been
used here to show that Coca‐Cola lights the flame of love and that Coca‐Cola is the best
drink for romantic moments. There is a connection between music and love in this
advertisement and Coca‐Cola is in the middle of that connection. In life, music
accompanies romantic moments in a unique way and here Coca‐Cola is presented as the
drink that should be consumed when enjoying romantic moments while listening to
music. Moreover, the rose may be used here to show that drinking Coca‐Cola attracts
suitors and the fact that Nordica is beside the rose may be a symbol to show that as a
70 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
beautiful and popular celebrity who was capable of attracting so many suitors,
consumers may also enjoy that privilege by drinking Coca‐Cola.
Illustration 8: Buvez CocaCola8
French translation
This is the first French advertisement poster of Coca‐Cola from 1922. Looking at the
content, we can observe that it is a translation of illustration 7. However, the two
advertisements are completely different in terms of images. The skopos of this
advertisement is to persuade people that Coca‐Cola is delicious and refreshing and
therefore to invite them to drink it. This text thus has the same skopos or purpose as the
source text.
On the surface level, we observe a white polar bear in the snow who is giving some coke
to the sun that is exhausted and thirsty after trying to melt the snow. Beside the polar
bear, there are two bottles of Coca‐Cola. At the top of the image, on the right, we read
“boisson gazeuse” and at the bottom of the image, in the centre, we read “Buvez Coca‐
Cola. Délicieuse, Rafraichissante.” The expression “carbonated drink” which is “boisson
8http://www.coca‐cola‐france.fr/125‐ans‐d‐histoire/les‐success‐stories/les‐sagas‐publicitaires‐
reclame.html#0
71 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
gazeuse” in French is on the right side while it appears on the left side in the English
advertisement. The invitation to drink Coca‐Cola is placed at the left side of the English
advertisement while it is placed at the bottom in the French advertisement with the
slogan “delicious and refreshing”. Finally, at the bottom of the image, we read “dans tous
les cafés, bars etc”. We therefore observe that the French text is almost the same as the
English but the image and layout is a recreation.
On the underlying level, the sun symbolises thirst and fatigue and the bottles of Coca‐
Cola symbolise the drink that relieves fatigue and eases thirst, “Coca‐Cola”. The sweat
on the sun symbolises its intense physical activity and its fatigue as it is trying to melt
the snow. The image of the polar bear giving some Coca‐Cola to the sun symbolises the
fact that Coca‐Cola is a drink that really refreshes. The cluster of verbal and visual cues
in this advertisement enable the Coca‐Cola Company to present its drink as refreshing
and delicious, the ideal drink for a hard earned break after hard work. The polar bear,
being an Arctic animal, is also a symbol of cold. The sun symbolises intense heat. The
sun and the polar bear therefore symbolise the fact that Coca‐Cola refreshes in all
seasons and everywhere. In terms of written text, the sentence “drink carbonated Coca‐
Cola” is an imperative sentence used to address consumers directly.
Identification of translation strategies
The elements that help retain persuasion in the French setting are: first, the use of the
imperative and secondly the illustration which features the polar bear and the sun in a
very cold place. The illustrations create a synergy with the written text and enable the
translator to show the refreshing and delicious side of Coca‐Cola. The images enhance
the description of Coca‐Cola as a tasty and refreshing drink by using significant symbols
of thirst and fatigue. Persuasion is effectively retained in the French advertisement and
strategies used by the translators to translate persuasion in French are as follows:
Firstly the translator has made use of permutation by deleting the adjective
“carbonated” which means “gazeuse” in the sentence “buvez Coca‐Cola” to place it in the
phrase “boisson gazeuse”. The adjective “carbonated” has been placed the right side
with the word “drink” while it is at the left side with the term “Coca‐Cola” in the English
advertisement. Moreover, there is an addition in the French translation as the translator
72 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
tells consumers that they can find Coca‐Cola in all bars and cafés etc. We also notice the
addition of the word “boisson” in English “drink”. The word “boisson” here is used in the
French translation to refer to “Coca‐Cola” which is mentioned at the bottom of the
advertisement. Moreover, the translator has deleted the price 5 cents in the French
advertisement. This deletion has enabled him to adapt the advertisement to a French
setting.
Illustration 9: The drink everybody knows9
Semiotic analysis
English original
The English advertisement is a 1939 blotter advertisement from the United States of
America. The skopos or purpose of this advertisement is to show the popularity of Coca‐
Cola.
On the surface level, we observe a hand holding a bottle of Coke. The tilt of the bottle
leaves no doubt that the person to whom the hand belongs is about to drink the Coca‐
Cola. On the left side at the top of the image, we have the logo of Coca‐Cola on which is
written “drink Coca‐Cola, delicious and refreshing”. The hand with the Coca‐Cola drink
is in the centre and the slogan “the drink everybody knows” is on the right at the
bottom. Moreover, the advertisement has a strong green background colour.
On the underlying level, this hand may symbolise anyone’s hand holding a bottle of Coke
to drink. The fact that the hand carries a bottle of Coca‐Cola is an indication that
everyone knows and can drink Coca‐Cola; in other words, it means that Coca‐Cola is the
drink of all the white consumers present in the United States because the fact that the
9http://www.buvard.com/infos/COCApays/original/USA1939a.html
73 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
hand holding the drink is white restricts the audience to a white audience. The use of
the hand rather than the use of a whole person is a symbol of all the white people’s
hands without difference.
Illustration 10: La boisson connue de tout le monde10
French translation
The French translation is a 1939 blotter advertisement from Canada. Its skopos or
purpose is the same as the source advertisement. The use of the same image in the
target‐text is justifiable because the symbol of the hand can have the same effect in the
Canadian culture as there is no indication of regionalism in the advertisement.
In terms of written text, the pronoun “everybody” which has been translated by the
expression “de tout le monde” in French is used to show that Coca‐Cola is favoured by a
larger number of people across the world. Similarly, the definite article “the” which is
rendered in French by the definite article “la” is used to present the drink as unique.
Identification of translation strategies
The translator has succeeded in retaining persuasion in French by making use of
permutation. The permutation of the verb in French has enabled the translator to
change the register. The register in French is elevated because if the translator had
written in a current register, the sentence would have been “la boisson que tout le
10http://www.buvard.com/infos/COCApays/original/CAN1939fr.html
74 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
monde connait”. The use of an elevated register has enabled the translator to produce a
more refined and therefore an advertisement that is more catchy in French.
Illustration 11: The greatest pause on earth11
English original
Semiotic analysis
The English advertisement is a 1940 blotter advertisement produced in the United
States. In this advertisement, the Coca‐Cola Company qualifies Coca‐Cola as “the
greatest pause on earth”. In other words, Coca‐Cola is the best drink to consume when
we are taking a pause wherever we find ourselves.
On the surface level, we observe a clown who is taking a pause while drinking a Coca‐
Cola. In his left hand, the clown is holding a duck. The clown is dressed like a typical
clown; he wears an oversized brightly coloured costume and a very small hat. His face is
painted; there is a red lipstick on his mouth and the tip of his nose is painted red. The
slogan “the greatest pause on earth” is on the left side at the top of the image, followed
by the clown who is in the centre and the logo on which is written “drink Coca‐Cola,
delicious, refreshing” on the right side at the top”. The advertisement has a strong green
background colour.
On the underlying level, the clown symbolises joy. “By 1940, [the Unites States] were
poised to enter the Second World War and to go through a series of industrial,
technological, and social changes”(Circus in America). People therefore felt
disillusionment and depression and they needed something joyful to remind them of all
11http://www.buvard.com/infos/COCApays/original/USA1940c.html
75 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
the good times they had and also to encourage them to have hope because the dark
period of war will come to pass. The circus was “America’s preeminent touring
entertainment enterprise” (Circus in America). Coca‐Cola then used the image of the
circus to remind them that after the war, everything would be alright again. Thus, an
advertisement with a clown was important because it was a way to invite people to
laugh, to be happy and to have hope despite the difficult situation that they were going
to face during World War II. The image of the clown which symbolises the circus was a
good way of telling people not to despair and to continue to go to the circus especially
because at that time the Circus was also going through a difficult period.
The smile of the clown symbolises happiness and the fact that he drinks Coca‐Cola is a
symbol that people should enjoy their quiet and calm moments with Coca‐Cola because
it brings happiness.
In terms of written text, quotation marks are used to make the declaration universal. In
other words, Coca‐Cola uses quotation marks in order to show that it is quoting from
many people around the world. The definitive article “the” is used to present the drink
as unique. The use of “greatest” and “on earth” in the same sentence to qualify Coca‐Cola
is an exaggeration. The exaggeration is used to emphasize on the fact that Coca‐Cola is
the best drink when we are taking a pause or when we are relaxing after hard work.
Similarly, this exaggeration shows the superiority of Coca‐Cola. Finally Coca‐Cola is
metaphorically compared to a pause.
76 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Illustration 12: “Le meilleur repos qui soit”12
French translation
The French text has the same skopos as the source advertisement. The use of the same
image in the French setting is justifiable because the clown symbolises joy in many
western cultures. We also notice that the translator has used the English quotations
marks in French. By using the English quotation marks in French, the translator
emphasizes the message.
Identification of translation strategies
In order to retain the persuasive impact in French, the translator has made use of
adaptation as he has partially recreated the effect of the message. Firstly, the translator
has replaced the noun “earth” by the verb “soit” which is the subjunctive form of the
verb “to be”. Secondly, the translator has replaced the adjective “greatest” by “meilleur”
in French which is “best” in English. Moreover, the translation has kept the exaggeration
by replacing the expression “on earth” with “qui soit” which means “ever” in English.
The English advertisement is limited in time and space as it specifies the fact that Coca‐
Cola is the greatest pause on “Earth”, whereas the French translation is not limited in
time and space. Moreover, the adjective “meilleur” in French is more powerful than the
adjective “greatest” in English because something can be great without being
marvellous or sublime. However, something cannot be best without being marvellous
and sublime.
Illustration 13: "Your thirst takes wings"13
12http://www.cocacolaclub.org/docs/newsletter_blotter.pdf
77 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
English original
The English advertisement is a 1941 metal sign. The skopos of this advertisement is to
tell consumers, especially men in uniform that Cola‐Cola will banish their thirst.
On the surface level, we observe a female pilot wearing a flight cap and goggles. She is
holding a bottle of Coke ready to drink. She is therefore enjoying Coke while in service.
The Coca‐Cola logo is at the top on the left side, followed by the woman in the centre
and the slogan “your thirst takes wings” on the right side at the top. Finally, the
advertisement has a strong green background colour.
On the underlying level, the female pilot symbolises the people who were sent overseas
to fight during World War II. “In 1941, America entered World War II. Thousands of
men were sent overseas. The country, and Coca‐Cola, rallied behind them. Woodruff
ordered that every man in uniform got a bottle of Coca‐Cola for 5 cents, wherever he is,
and whatever it costs the Company”(heritage.coca‐cola.com). Moreover, the use of
quotation marks enables the Coca‐Cola Company to transform the declaration “your
thirst takes wings” into a direct declaration of people who were sent to fight overseas.
Through this advertisement, Coca‐Cola was therefore tied to the difficult moments of
the people who were sent overseas for the war. In other words, Coca‐Cola developed a
deep emotional bond with consumers by showing them that Coca‐Cola is a drink that
will accompany them in every situation, even in the most difficult situations in order to
enable them to carry on their duties easily and happily. Moreover, the wings of the
airplane behind the pilot introduce a visual metaphor. Coca‐Cola is visually compared
13http://www.buddelbini.com/tin‐sign/soft‐drinks_coca‐cola/metal‐sign_cocacola‐your‐thirst‐takes‐
wings_275.html
78 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
here to the airplane which is an engine which flies. The use of the second personal
pronoun deictic “your” is used to address the consumers directly. The fact that the pilot
goggles while looking up shows that she sees her thirst fly and she is amazed. Finally,
the advertisement has a strong green background colour.
Illustration14: “Votre soif s'envole” 14
French translation
The French version of the advertisement is an illustration on a tray. It has the same
skopos as the original. The images are similar to those in the English advertisement. On
the images, only the slogan has been translated by “votre soif s’envole” and the sentence
on the logo has been translated by “Buvez Coca‐Cola, délicieux et rafraichissant”. We
also notice that the translator has used English quotation marks in French. The use of
the same image is justifiable because France was also involved in World War II at that
period. Moreover, the use of the English quotation marks in French enables the
translator to emphasize the declaration.
Identification of translation strategies
In order to retain the persuasion, the translator has made use of oblique translation
because he has translated “takes wings” by “s’envole” because “prendre des ailes” which
is the direct translation of “takes wings” does not have the same meaning as ‘fly’ or ‘go
14http://www.delamaison.fr/plateau‐stratifie‐pilot‐coca‐cola‐p‐88731.html
79 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
away’ in French. In fact the expression “prendre des ailes” which is a figurative
expression and is associated with the French writer and poet Ronsard; it means “to be
impassioned”.
Illustration 15: “How about a coke”15
English original
Semiotic analysis
This is a blotter advertisement from 1944. The skopos of this advertisement, as in those
above, is to invite people to drink a bottle of coke.
On the surface level, we observe three young women dressed in red and white, blue and
white, and yellow and white respectively. They are smiling. They are drinking coke and
making a face‐to‐face invitation to consumers. On the left side at the top of the image
there is we have the slogan “How about a coke” in quotation marks, followed by the
three women in the centre and on the right side, we have the Coca‐Cola logo at the top
on which it is written “Coca‐Cola, drink”.
On the underlying level, the rhetorical question “How about a coke” accompanied by a
face‐to face invitation from three women smiling while drinking Coke is used to make a
direct appeal. The omission of the question mark in the suggestion “How about a coke”
is a persuasive way of making a suggestion without actually allowing consumers to
answer. In other words, the Coca‐Cola Company does not encourage consumers to
answer the rhetorical question “How about a coke”. The Coca‐Cola Company therefore
shows through this technique that the majority of people to whom Coca‐Cola is
proposed will always say “yes” and this is because Coca‐Cola is a good drink. Moreover,
15http://www.buvard.com/infos/COCApays/original/USA1944a.html
80 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
the use of the inverted commas is also a persuasive technique because it enables Coca‐
Cola to use the direct quotation as if “How about a Coke” was a direct quotation taken
from many people across the world. The use of the inverted commas is therefore a way
of presenting the suggestion as universal. The use of the blue and yellow colours
symbolises excitement, happiness and trust. In other words, these colours are used to
show that Coca‐Cola is good; it brings happiness; consumers should trust its quality and
people are always excited when it comes to drinking Coca‐Cola. This advertisement is
particularly relevant because it was in 1944 that advertisements began to be aimed at
teenagers in the United States (kclibrary.lonestar.edu) and in 1944, it was still the
period of World War II; this means that it was a period of depression and sadness. Coca‐
Cola is therefore presented in this advertisement as the ideal drink to counteract
depression and sadness.
Illustration 16: “Si on prenait un coke” 16
French translation
The French image is similar to the English image. The translator has used English
quotation marks. The content is translated as “Si on prenait un coke” and the verb
“drink” on the logo is translated by “buvez”.
The use of the same image in the target setting is justifiable because the colours have
the same symbolism in Canada and in the United States and the image portrays an
invitation to cheer up and to drink Coca‐Cola. Moreover, the use of the English quotation
marks enables the translator to emphasize the message.
Identification of translation strategies
16http://www.cocacolaclub.org/docs/newsletter_blotter.pdf
81 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
The translation has been done with minimal changes. The English advertisement uses
the informal phrasal adverb “how about” to extend an the invitation, and the French
advertisement also uses informal French with the expression “si on” which is the
idiomatic translation of “How about” and which is also use to make suggestions or
extend invitations. However, in French, “how about…” is often translated as “et si on…”
rather than just “si on…” The translator has therefore made use of an oblique translation
with the technique of ellipsis.
Illustration 17: Hospitality in your hands17
English original
Semiotic analysis
17http://archives.newyorker.com/default.aspx?iid=17303&startpage=page0000079
82 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
The English advertisement was taken from The New Yorker, February 14, 1948. The
New Yorker magazine is an American magazine of news and leisure based in New York
City. The magazine began on February 21, 1925. The skopos of this advertisement is to
persuade consumers to welcome their guests with Coca‐Cola because serving Coca‐Cola
is a true sign of hospitality.
On the surface level, the advertisement features two women in a kitchen. We observe
one of the women happily carrying four bottles of Coca‐Cola on a tray presumably to
take them to her guests. In the kitchen, we also see a fridge and a table on which there is
a bunch of red roses and a dish full of pop‐corn. Moreover, we see items such as two
flowerpots with red flowers and some kitchen items. The second woman is taking some
biscuits from a container and she is looking happily at the first woman. The women are
wearing wear blue and pink dresses respectively. There is a sub‐text below the image
on the left side and, on the right side, we observe a box of Coca‐Cola bottles with the
Coca‐Cola logo which reads Coca‐Cola, “Coke”.
On the underlying level, Coca‐Cola is metaphorically compared with hospitality. In other
words, when you serve Coca‐Cola, you serve hospitality. It is therefore Coca‐Cola that
renders the hands hospitable. The blue, pink and red colours symbolise excitement,
trust and fun. The smiles of the two women are a symbol of joy and happiness. The
women are happy and the woman carrying the tray of bottles is happy to receive her
guests with Coca‐Cola because she is confident that they will like it. The images portray
the post‐war era with people gathering together to have fun. The images suggest that
serving Coca‐Cola is a good way of welcoming guests and a good way of showing
hospitality.
83 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Illustration 18: De vos mains hospitalières18
French translation
The French advertisement is a Canadian 1948 Coca Cola cardboard sign from Quebec. It
has the same function as the original advertisement. The French translation only
features the woman in blue from the original advertisement happily carrying four
bottles of Coca‐Cola on a tray presumably to take them to her guests. She is next to the
fridge and there is a bunch of red flowers on the table and a tray of popcorn. The Coca‐
Cola logo is on the left near the bottom. The use of almost the same image in the target
setting is an indication of internationalization. The use of the same colours is justifiable
by the fact that colours in the United States and in Canada have the same connotations.
Identification of translation strategies
In order to retain the persuasion in the French setting, the translator has replaced the
noun “hospitality” by the adjective “hospitalières”. This change is important because the
literal French translation of the expression “hospitality in your hands” which is
“l’hospitalité dans vos mains” would not have worked well. Therefore, in order to retain
18http://www.aubreysantiques.com/cocacolaadvertising.htm
84 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
persuasion in the French setting, the translator has made use of adaptation and also
paraphrase. In French, the hands are described as hospitable from the beginning. The
advertisement shows that because the hands are hospitable, they serve Coca‐Cola. In
the French advertisement, consumers’ hands are characterised as hospitable from the
beginning while in the English original, it is Coca‐Cola that renders the hands hospitable.
There is therefore a change of point of view in the French translation.
Illustration 19: Good taste for all19
English original
Semiotic analysis
This is a 1950s Canadian Coca‐Cola die cut sign. The skopos of this advertisement is to
persuade consumers that Coca‐Cola tastes good.
19http://www.aubreysantiques.com/cocacolaadvertising.htm
85 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
On the surface level, the advertisement features Santa Claus happily holding a bottle of
Coca‐Cola in his right hand and putting his left hand up as a sign of invitation as he looks
at the public. On the advertisement, we can read “Good taste for all” and “Take enough
home”. Moreover, we observe tinsel on the right side of the image with the Coca‐Cola
logo in the form of a Christmas tree decoration with “serve Coca‐Cola” written on it.
On the underlying level, the tinsel, the ball decoration, and Santa Claus symbolise
Christmas. In addition, Santa Claus is an icon of winter as we can see from his clothes.
Santa Claus was used to remind people that Coca‐Cola was not only a drink for summer
but for all seasons. Moreover, Santa Claus is a symbol of happiness; a symbolof wishes
fulfilled. The Coca‐Cola Company therefore uses all the important symbols of Christmas
and Santa Claus in its advertisement to attract consumers. Christmas is therefore used
here to persuade people in a particular way because Christmas is one of the most
important festivities in the world. The bottle of Coca‐Cola is a symbol that Christmas is
joyful and important. The Coca Cola advertisements popularised the typical image of
Santa Claus through its advertising campaign. The Coca‐Cola advertisements helped
shape the image of Santa Claus with a red suit and a white beard.
86 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Illustration 20: Bon goût pour tous20
French translation
The French advertisement is similar to the English advertisement in terms of images
and the “good taste for all” is translated as “bon goût pour tous” and “take enough
home” is translated as “emportez‐en chez vous”.
Identification of translation strategies
In order to retain the persuasion, the translator has made use of a direct translation to
translate the expression “good taste for all”. However, he has made use of adaptation to
translate the expression “take enough home”. While the English advertisement urges
consumers to take enough drinks home, the French advertisement on the other hand
does not emphasize the notion of “enough”, it only urges people to take some drinks
home. In French, the determiner “enough” has been translated by the indefinite
personal pronoun “en” in French which means “some” in English. We therefore observe
that while the English original urges consumers to take many bottles of Coca‐Cola home,
20http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/LookAround/advertspot_cocacola6.htm
87 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
the French translation does not emphasize the quantity and only invites consumers to
bring some Coca‐Cola home.
Illustration 21: There's nothing like giving folks what they want21
Semiotic analysis
English original
This is an English advertisement of an October 1952 advertisement from McCall's
magazine. McCall’s magazine was one of the most famous American women's
magazines. It began about 1890 as a small pattern magazine entitled THE QUEEN. By
1897, it became THE QUEEN OF FASHION. It became a large‐format women's magazine
after the turn of the century and its circulation had reached 6 million by 1960. McCall's
magazine published a great deal of fiction, with authors including Willa Cather, F. Scott
Fitzgerald, Gelett Burgess, Ray Bradbury, Jack Finney, Anne Tyler and Tim O'Brien. It
21http://www.thelabelframer.com/site/sprod.php?cat=S2lkcywgVHdlZW5zICYgVGVlbnN8U29mdCBEcm
lua3MgJiBCb3R0bGVkIFdhdGVycw==&id=1072&p=YWQ=
88 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
lasted in various forms; a recent revival lasting until 2002 (MagazineArt.Org). The
skopos of this advertisement is to show the popularity of Coca-Cola.
On the surface level, we observe a group of five young people at a picnic on a sunny day.
We observe three of them who are having a barbecue. There are three girls and two
boys. There is one girl who is kneeling in the grass and taking some cold bottles of Coca‐
Cola out of the red Coca‐Cola ice‐box which is open. There are two girls and one boy
next to the barbecue and there is one boy who is coming towards the girl who is taking
some bottles of Coca‐Cola. We observe that her friends are trying to attract her
attention. The slogan reads "there's nothing like giving folks what they want". At the top
of the image, on the left side, we observe the Coca‐Cola logo which reads “serve Coca‐
Cola” and just under the logo we have a box full of Coca‐Cola bottles, followed by the
slogan and the sub‐text.
On the underlying level, the image of the young people trying to attract the attention of
their friend who is kneeling next to the ice box of Coca‐Cola is a symbol of the fact that
people like Coca‐Cola. In other words, it symbolises the fact that Coca‐Cola is popular.
The image also ties Coca‐Cola to happy moments in the lives of its consumers as the
young people at the picnic symbolise friendship, joy and fun.
89 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Illustration 22: Rien de tel que de donner aux gens ce qu'ils veulent22
French translation
The French advertisement was taken from La Revue Populaire published in 1952 in
Quebec (Canada). La Revue Populaire (1907‐1963) was a mass‐market leisure Canadian
advertisement with distribution that went from 5000 copies to 125 000 copies in less
than 50 years. La Revue Populaire appeared at a period when there was a population
concentration in towns and widespread school attendance. At the time, traditional
magazines no longer met the demands of readers who were drawn increasingly from
the general population. Ordinary people were looking for the variety, lightness and
entertainment that French and American magazines were proposing. At first, the
intended audience of La Revue Populaire was the general public. However, between the
two world wars, things became difficult as there was a proliferation of magazines and
considerable competition. Magazines at the time therefore needed to be more attractive
22www.cafr.ebay.ca/itm/...ad‐COCA‐COLA...Coke‐/360410708823
90 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
in order to attract readers and survive. For this reason, La Revue Populaire focused on a
female audience (L’encyclopedie Canadienne).
The French advertisement has the same function as the original advertisement. Apart
from the box of bottles besides the Coca‐Cola logo which is different from the box of
Coca‐Cola bottles in the French advertisement, the French advertisement and the source
advertisement are identical. This is therefore an instance of internationalization as
there are no Canada‐specific cultural elements.
Identification of translation strategies
In order to retain the persuasion in the French context, the translator has used oblique
translation. The translator has deleted the phrase “there’s” which translates as “il y a” in
French. This technique is called ellipsis, which is the deliberate omission of a part of a
sentence or a text. In this context, the ellipsis enables Coca‐Cola to emphasize the
message. Secondly, ellipsis enables Coca‐Cola to use an informal style with the
consumers in order to be closer to them. Finally, the Coca‐Cola Company uses ellipsis in
order to act as if the object of conversation was already known.
91 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Illustration 23: Almost everyone appreciates the best23
English original
Semiotic analysis
The English advertisement comes from the National Geographic magazine back page in
1955. The skopos of this advertisement is to show the popularity of Coca‐Cola.
On the surface level, the advertisement features Santa Claus who is drinking some Coke.
The slogan reads: “Almost everyone appreciates the best”. At the bottom of the image on
the left, we also observe two little twin girls dressed identically who are holding a
carton of Coca‐Cola that they have taken from the supermarket trolley in front of them.
We also read “America’s preferred taste” and to the right of that there is the Coca‐Cola
23http://www.ebay.com/itm/1955‐COCA‐COLA‐AD‐SANTA‐ALMOST‐EVERYONE‐APPRECIATE‐BEST‐
/260787538079
92 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
logo and a bottle of Coke. Under the bottle we read “we read “see Eddie Fisher on ‘Coke
time’ NBC Television twice each week”. Finally there is the sub‐text at the right side of
the bottle.
On the underlying level, Santa symbolises older people and the young girls symbolise
young people. The use of Santa Claus and the young girls is therefore to show Christmas
is coming, and people are buying Coke with their groceries, which pleases their children.
The reference to NBC (National Broadcasting Corporation) television is relevant
because it was the first major television broadcaster in the United States. Moreover, the
use of the expression: “See Eddie Fisher on Coke time” in the advertisement is relevant
because from 1953 to 1957, Eddie Fisher featured in several television series including
“Coke Time with Eddie Fisher”. In this advertisement, Eddie Fisher is a symbol of
success. The popularity of Eddie Fisher is exploited here to persuade consumers that
Coca‐Cola is a good drink that is also appreciated by celebrities.
93 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Illustration 24: Presque tous apprécient ce qu'il y a de mieux24
French translation
The French translation is a French Canadian advertisement. It has the same function as
the original advertisement. In terms of images, the image is slightly changed. In the
French image, the Coca‐Cola logo and the bottle of Coke is placed at the bottom of the
image on the right side and the sub‐text is on the left side without the image of the little
girls that were in the original advertisement. Finally, the sentence “America’s preferred
taste” has been replaced by the sentence “La Pause qui rafraichit…50 millions de Fois
par Jour”.
24http://archeologue‐urbain.blogspot.com/2011/12/publicite‐de‐coca‐cola‐1955.html
94 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Identification of translation strategies
In order to retain the persuasion in the Canadian setting, the translator has made use of
a target‐oriented macrostrategy by rewriting the slogan “America’s preferred taste”
completely in order to fit the Canadian context. This is justifiable by the fact that the
location had changed. Secondly, the translator had to find a sentence that would convey
the fact that Coca‐Cola is a drink favoured by a large number of people. For this reason,
he chose to emphasize the freshness of Coca‐Cola and the numbers of bottles that are
sold every day. The translator has also made use of oblique translation in translating the
slogan “almost everyone appreciates the best” into French. Finally, the translator has
used an oblique translation to translate the slogan “almost everyone appreciates the
best”. He decided to translate the superlative “the best” by the expression “ce qu’il y a
de mieux”. Rather than use the French superlative “le meilleur” to translate the English
superlative “the best”, the translator preferred to use the French comparative “mieux”
accompanied by the preposition “de” which together in French is a synonym of the
French superlative “le meilleur”.
95 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Illustration 25: Friends forever25
English original
Semiotic analysis
This is a 1956 calendar advertisement from the USA. The skopos of this advertisement
is to show that Coca‐Cola will always be there for its consumers.
25http://wunderkammershop.de/product_info.php?cPath=46_51&products_id=253
96 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
On the surface level, we observe a woman who is relaxing while happily drinking some
coke and we see a dog besides her who looks thirsty. The slogan reads: “Friends
forever” and it is placed on the left side of the image at the top while the slogan is placed
on the right side of the image at the bottom. Under the logo, we read the slogan: “It had
to be good to get where it is” We also have a calendar and we observe that we are on the
pages of March and April. March marks the end of winter in the United States and April
marks the beginning of spring. A close look at the picture enables us to see that it is
sunny but not yet warm enough for the woman to be wearing summer clothes. This is
indicated because she is wearing a jacket over her t‐shirt, a long skirt, tennis and socks.
In this advertisement Coca‐Cola is metaphorically compared to the dog that has always
been seen as man’s faithful friend. Similarly Coca‐Cola will always be there for its
consumers. Eye contact also plays a crucial role in these advertisements because the
woman is looking directly at the consumers. This is a compelling invitation to join the
Coca‐Cola world. In other words, the Coca‐Cola Company intends to assure its
consumers that Coca‐Cola will always be at their side in all circumstances.
97 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Illustration 26: Fidèles amis26
French translation
The French advertisement is from France and has the same function as the English
advertisement. The French translation has the same image as the English original. The
only change is in the months of the calendar which have been replaced by September
and October. In September and October, the days are warm and the air is fresh in France
as it is the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. The beginning of autumn is
marked by weather which is slightly sunny, and leaves change colour and fall from the
trees, as may be seen in the picture. This advertisement is therefore relevant in the
target setting as the months of the calendar as well as the image clearly portray the
26http://www.gal‐123.com/original‐vintage‐poster/4248/fideles‐amis‐buvez‐coca‐cola‐unique‐en‐son‐
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98 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
environment of the target setting and it tells consumers that Coca‐Cola is the drink for
all seasons. Moreover, the slogan: “It had to be good to get where it is” has been
translated by “Unique en son genre depuis 1886”.
Identification of translation strategies
First of all, the translator has used adaptation to translate the first slogan. While the
English slogan insists on the idea of “eternal friendship”, the French slogan emphasises
the idea of faithfulness in friendship.
Secondly, the translator has used a target‐text oriented macrostrategy to retain
persuasion in the second slogan as he has rewritten the slogan in the French context.
While the English slogan emphasizes the fact that it is the quality and taste of Coca‐Cola
that brought it to where it is, the French slogan on the other hand emphasizes the
unique nature of Coca‐Cola.
99 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Illustration 27: Be really refreshed with sparkling Coke!27
English original
Semiotic analysis
This English advertisement was published in National Geographic in April 1959. The
skopos of this advertisement is to show that Coca‐Cola is sparkling and refreshing.
On the surface level, we observe a woman’s hand pouring some Coca‐Cola into a glass
full of ice which is standing in the middle of a garden and there is a link established
between the freshness of the flowers and that of the Coke. The first part of the slogan
“be really refreshed” is at the centre of the image on the left side, followed by the image
of the hand pouring Coca‐Cola into a glass and on the right of the glass we read the
27http://www.adbranch.com/coca‐cola‐magazine‐ads‐from‐1950s/coca‐
cola_be_really_refreshed_with_sparkling_coke_1959/
100 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
second part of the slogan “with sparkling Coke!” Under the image, we have a sub‐text.
Under the sub‐text, we have the images of Coca‐Cola bottles, followed by the logo of
Coca‐Cola and the slogan “sign of good taste”.
On the underlying level, the way in which the phrase “with sparkling coke” is written
makes the advertisement more attractive and attracts the attention of readers to the
advertisement. Moreover, the suspension points indicate that Coke has even more
positive qualities beyond those explicitly mentioned. The exclamatory point enables
emphasizes the sparkling effect of Coca‐Cola. The fresh flowers and the glass of ice‐cold
Coca‐Cola symbolise freshness and the fact that the flowers are rising and opening is a
symbol of springtime. This image is therefore a visual metaphor of Coca‐Cola and
springtime. In this advertisement, Coca‐Cola is attributed the virtues of springtime as
exemplified in the image with the glass of Coca‐Cola which revives the flowers that were
dried up by the winter.
French translation
The French advertisement is a Canadian calendar from 1960. Its skopos is to persuade
people to drink Coca‐Cola even during winter.
On the surface level, we observe three people, two women and one man happily
drinking some Coca‐Cola after skating. They wear winter clothes and skating shoes. At
the bottom of the image, we have the 1960 calendar with the months “janvier” et
“février” which are “January and February” and the calendar starts with the slogan
“soyez bien rafraichi…avec le Coke pétillant!”, followed by the Coca‐Cola logo and the
slogan “pour la Pause qui rafraichit” or in English “for the pause that refreshes”.
On the underlying level, the snow symbolises winter and cold. The fact that two of the
people present in the pictures are drinking Coca‐Cola after skating is a symbol that
Coca‐Cola refreshes even in freezing conditions. Again, the suspension points and the
exclamation mark have the same function as the ones in the original advertisement.
This advertisement is relevant because January and February are the months of winter
in Canada. This means that consumers can easily perceive the message in the
101 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
advertisement as a representation of their environment. The image in the French
advertisement is therefore a recreation of that in the English advertisement.
Illustration 28: Soyez bien rafraichi...avec le Coke pétillant!28
French translation
Identification of translation strategies
The translator has made use of a slight adaptation by translating the adverb “really” by
the adverb “bien” meaning “well” in English. The adverb “bien” enables the translator to
emphasize the fact that Coca‐Cola really refreshes. Moreover, the translator has written
the adverb “bien” in italics in order to attract the attention to it and consequently to
emphasize the fact that Coca‐Cola is real refreshment. The exclamation and the
suspension points have been kept in French because the exclamation mark and the
suspension points render the advertisement more emotive and therefore more
appealing.
28http://www.cocacolaclub.org/popup.html?images/2007/spring_atl_regular/large/auctionitem36.jpg
102 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Illustration 29: Things go better with Coke29
English original
Semiotic analysis
The skopos of this advertisement is to persuade consumers that things go better with
Coke. The English advertisement is a National Geographic advertisement from April
1964.
On the surface level, it portrays a couple on two opposite sides of a tree, sitting on the
bundled roots of the tree. There is a small dog with them. There is also a shovel next to
the woman. The couple is happily drinking Coca‐Cola and the woman is wearing gloves
and pointing her finger at something, while the man is looking at what she is pointing at.
However, there is no sign that the couple is on a farm or in a garden, although it appears
that they are about to plant the tree and the woman is pointing out the spot. Under the
image, there is a sub‐text and under the sub‐text, we have the slogan “Things go better
with Coke” centred with the Coca‐Cola logo on the right.
29http://www.2collectcola.com/coke/43NG64Apr.html
103 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
On the underlying level, the couple symbolises love, intimacy, fun and joy. The smile on
their faces is also a symbol of happiness. The shovel symbolises the fact they are
working despite the fact that there is no clear representation of what they were doing.
The dog is a symbol of faithfulness and the tree a symbol of freshness and nature. The
denotative meaning that we draw from this advertisement is therefore that everything
is fine when Coca‐Cola is around. Moreover, the way in which the term “tout” is written
in French, in bold and capital letters really attracts the attention of readers as it makes
the advertisement stand out.
Illustration 30: Tout va bien mieux avec CocaCola30
French translation
30http://collections.delcampe.ca/item.php?id=43943621&var=Coca‐Cola‐tout‐va‐bien‐mieux‐page‐de‐
publicite‐Paris‐Match‐22‐juin‐1968‐etat‐excellent‐lot‐
32449&language=E&sessionToken=sslLogin_1387c4d8aeecc2e4bf4ac42758f945cd
104 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
The French advertisement was taken from the magazine Paris Match 22 June 1968. The
French advertisement is completely different in terms of images from the English
advertisement.
On the surface level, we can see a woman dressed in red who is talking to her son who is
dressed in yellow. We observe that the son is whispering to his mother and the mother
is smiling. The mother is holding a bottle of Coca‐Cola. Under the picture, we have a sub‐
text and read the slogan “Tout va bien mieux avec Coca‐Cola” which surrounds the sub‐
text. Moreover, the font size of the slogan is large.
On the underlying level, the mother and her son symbolise happiness, joy, love and fun.
The fact that the son is whispering in his mother’s ear is a symbol of intimacy and the
smile of the mother is a symbol of joy. Red is a symbol of love and yellow is a symbol of
joy.
Identification of translation strategies
The translator has added the adverb “bien”. This addition has enabled the translator to
emphasize the fact that Coca‐Cola is source of joy and happiness. The translator has
therefore made use of oblique translation in order to retain persuasion in the French
setting.
105 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Illustration 31: It's the real thing. Coke.31
English original
Semiotic analysis
The English advertisement is a Life magazine advertisement from February 20, 1970.
The skopos of this advertisement is to present Coca‐Cola as the real drink and true
drink.
On the surface level, the advertisement shows a glass filled with ice and Coke next to a
bottle opener and the cap from the bottle. We also observe that the drink is really fresh
as represented by the water drops around the glass. At the bottom of the image we read
“It’s the real thing. Coke” followed by the Coca‐Cola logo and at the top we read the
sentence “Real life calls for real taste. For the taste of your life Coca‐Cola".
On the underlying level, this advertisement is a symbol that Coca‐Cola is unique and
refreshing. The ice cubes in the Coca‐Cola drink, the water under the bottle and the
31http://www.adbranch.com/its‐the‐real‐thing‐coke/coca‐cola_its_the_real_thing_coke_8_1970/
106 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
glass, the condensation drops and the bubbles symbolise the freshness of Coca‐Cola. The
use of the definitive article “the” enables the Company to make Coca‐Cola unique,
wiping competitive products from the scene. In other words, Coca‐Cola is implicitly
compared to other soft drinks. This advertisement is relevant because Coca‐Cola
produced this advertisement at a period when it was facing huge competition and
imitation in the United States. This slogan had been introduced 1963.
Illustration 32: CocaCola c'est ça32
French translation
The French advertisement is a poster taken from Coca‐Cola.fr, the French website of the
Coca‐Cola Company.
On the surface level, we observe a hand holding a Coke. At the top of the image we read
“Coca‐Cola” and at the bottom we read “Coca‐Cola c’est ça” followed by the Coca‐Cola
logo.
On the underlying level, the droplets on the bottle are a symbol that Coca‐Cola is a
refreshing drink. The two pictures focus mainly on the bottles of Coke because the
advertisement is used to prove that Coca‐Cola is the real thing; it is different from other
drinks.
32coca‐cola.fr
107 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Identification of translation strategies
The translator has made use of permutation and adaptation to persuade the target
audience that Coca‐Cola is the real thing. In the English advertisement, the text begins
with the fact that coke is the real drink before mentioning “coke” while the French
advertisement begins with “Coca‐Cola” before qualifying it. The Sprite Boy character
was introduced in Coca‐Cola advertising in 1942 to convey the fact that “Coca‐Cola” and
“Coke” are two terms that reference the same product. The expression “real thing” has
been replaced by the demonstrative pronoun “ça” in French which means “this” or
“that” in English. The use of the demonstrative pronoun “ça” in French is justifiable
because it refers to all the attributes that were given to Coca‐Cola before. These
attributes include “it is refreshing”, “it tastes good”, “it is the drink for hospitality” and
many others. The demonstrative pronoun “ça” therefore enables The Coca‐Cola
Company to emphasize on the fact that Coca‐Cola is the best soft drink.
108 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Illustration 33: Live on the Coke side of life33
English original
Semiotic analysis
This is a 2011 Christmas poster. The skopos of this advertisement is to invite consumers
to live “on the Coke side of life” over Christmas; in other words, to spend Christmas
happily with Coca‐Cola.
On the surface level, we observe Santa Claus with many elves on the moon and they are
surrounded by many toys. Santa Claus is holding a hammer and he is happily drinking
some coke. We can also see the elves who are busy working. Moreover, we see some
lines resembling music lines and we observe a bottle of Coca‐Cola and the slogan “live
on the Coke side of life”. The word “Coke “is on the bottle. Furthermore, we also observe
some elves at the bottom of the page and one is holding the “c” letter of Coca‐Cola.
33http://business.blogvasion.com/2011/12/best‐2011‐christmas‐posters.html
109 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
On the underlying level, Santa and the elves symbolise Christmas. Santa also symbolises
joy and happiness. Moreover, the music lines symbolise fun and happiness and the
representation of Santa drinking Coca‐Cola is a symbol that Coca‐Cola is a good drink
for Christmas, a drink which heightens the joyful and memorable moments of
Christmas. In terms of written text, the use of an imperative sentence is used here to
make a direct appeal to consumers. In other words, this is a direct invitation from the
Coca‐Cola Company to drink Coca‐Cola and to enjoy a happy life with Coca‐Cola.
Illustration 34: Prends la vie coté CocaCola34
French translation
In the French advertisement, the skopos is to persuade consumers to live happily with
Coke. The French advertisement does not emphasize on a given period.
On the surface level, we observe two butterflies beside the bottle and a colourful image
coming out the representation of Coca‐Cola bottle. At the centre of the image we have
the slogan “prends la vie coté Coca‐Cola” and at the bottom we have the Coca‐Cola logo.
On the underlying level, the butterflies symbolise freedom and the colourful image with
the representation of a smile on it symbolise party, enjoyment, freedom and happiness.
This image together with the message is an invitation from the Coca‐Cola Company to
34http://www.cocacolahistory.com/
110 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
be free and happy. Similarly, the image together with the message show that living on
the coke side of life means living freely and happily.
Identification of translation strategies
The translator has made use of paraphrase by replacing the verb “live” by the
expression “prends la vie” which literary means “take life” in English. There is a slight
change of point of view in the message because in English, the message “live on the Coke
side of life” means that consumers should follow the orientation that Coca‐Cola gives to
life. In other words, consumers are invited to embrace Coca‐Cola as being part of their
lives. The French message “prends la vie coté Coca‐Cola” on the other hand means that
consumers should take advantage of the resources that Coca‐Cola offers. In other words,
they should enjoy the happiness that Coca‐Cola offers to them. We therefore observe
that the English message is more representative and global than the French
advertisement.
111 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Illustration 35: Open happiness35
English original
Semiotic analysis
The English original is a 2011 cooler advertisement. The skopos of this advertisement is
to persuade consumers to drink Coke because it is a source of happiness.
On the surface level, we observe the “BRRR” formed by ice and which coming from the
Coca‐Cola bottle with some Coke. There is an ice beside the bottle on the left. The Coca‐
Cola logo is at the top and the slogan “open happiness” is at the centre, on the right
beside the bottle.
On the underlying level, the “BRRR” may be a symbol of power, the power of happiness
coming out from the bottle of Coca‐Cola. The image is also a visual metaphor between
“Coca‐Cola and “happiness”. The image is an indication that when you open Cola‐Cola,
you are opening the door to happiness.
35http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2009/coca‐cola‐open‐happiness/
112 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
French translation
Illustration 36: Ouvre du Bonheur36
The French advertisement is from France. This advertisement has the same skopos as
the English advertisement.
On the surface level, we see the representation of a wonderful world, a happy world
coming out from the shadow of the Coca‐Cola bottle. In the happy world that is
represented, we can observe someone who is happily jumping and another person who
is holding a flag. At the top of the image, we can see the Coca‐Cola logo. Besides the
bottle, at the right side, we read “ouvre du bonheur”.
On the underlying level, the flag in the colourful image is a symbol of freedom and the
two people on the image symbolise everyone who drinks Coca‐Cola. A character leaping
into the air in the background is a symbol of joy and happiness. Coca‐Cola is
metaphorically compared to happiness.
Identification of translation strategies
The translator has used the partitive article “du” before the word “Bonheur” or
“happiness” which is used for abstract and uncountable nouns. Idiomatically, nothing is
lost in the message because “bonheur” is uncountable and therefore requires the use of
36http://www.letelegramme.com/ig/generales/economie/coca‐cola‐une‐affiche‐special‐bretagne‐
reagissez‐27‐07‐2010‐1001559.php#
113 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
the partitive. The translator has therefore used direct translation to translate
persuasion into French.
The skopos of the Coca‐Cola source advertisements was to persuade consumers to drink
Coca‐Cola and the skopos of the translations was to produce the same effect or a better
effect on the target audience. Our findings enable us to observe that the translations
successfully fulfil their purpose in the Canadian and French settings because there were
no misconceptions and the advertisements were appealing and relevant in the French
language context.
First of all, the advertisements analysed are relevant because they portray the life and
culture of the periods when they appeared. Moreover, when the original advertisements
contained regional elements, these were adapted into a French context.
In terms of images, the visual element plays a crucial role in Coca‐Cola advertisements.
Coca‐Cola uses colourful advertisements to convey its message and makes use of the
symbolism of colours. The images are strongly linked to the message conveyed and it is
possible to understand the message of the advertisement just by looking at the pictures.
Coca‐Cola images feature people always smiling, having fun and enjoying life in order to
make their point and it is that emphasis on joy and happiness that makes Coca‐Cola
succeed in making people believe that when you open a Coca‐Cola, you open happiness.
In terms of symbolism, Coca‐Cola uses many icons and symbols in its advertisements
such as Santa Claus, the popular American soprano Lillian Nordica and the polar bear.
Finally, in terms of language, Coca‐Cola uses simple language, short and direct sentences
and rhetorical devices such as metaphor, ellipsis and exaggeration.
114 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
Conclusion
The aim of this research report was to discuss the translation of advertisements based
on Coca‐Cola advertisements. In our introduction, we said we would mainly focus on the
issue of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion and we said that our aim was not to
discuss whether advertising translation is adaptation but to identify the different
translation strategies used by Coca‐Cola translators in order to examine whether they
have changed over the time. We made a comparative analysis of 30 Coca‐Cola
advertisements and their translations in order to see how a multinational such as Coca‐
Cola succeeds in making its brand truly global. Our analysis of Coca‐Cola advertisements
has not enabled us to cover all the aspects of advertising translation because we focused
on print advertisement solely. However, we have addressed the main issues related to
advertising translation in our analysis which are semiotics, symbolism and persuasion.
Through our analysis we therefore made many observations which are as follows.
The first observation is that Cola‐Cola advertisements are relevant because they reflect
the period when they are produced. Again, Coca‐Cola advertisements are simple; this
means that it is easy to perceive their meanings.
Secondly, the Coca‐Cola Company mainly uses ostensive communication. Also, Coca‐
Cola uses the technique of soft‐sell in its advertisements as its advertisements are
emotional and focus on memories and feelings. In the advertisements analysed, The
Coca‐Cola Company focused on universal values such as family, love, happiness, leisure
and joy in order to describe the benefits of drinking Coca‐Cola.
Thirdly, we observed that images play a key role in Coca‐Cola advertisements. In our
analysis, we have shown the importance of visuals through a semiotic analysis of the
advertisements. Coca‐Cola images are catchy and colourful and they embark the readers
on a joyful journey where they see a better side of the world because Coca‐Cola is tied to
their joyful moments. Many Coca‐Cola advertisements were similar in images and they
fit with the written content and even the ones that were not similar conveyed the same
ideas.
In our study, we also demonstrated that colours are symbolic in advertising. Colours
such as red, blue, green and yellow are used in Coca‐Cola advertisements to portray fun,
happiness, joy and freshness. Furthermore, we observe that icons such as Eddie Fisher
115 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
and Santa Claus were used in the advertisements to persuade the audience. Symbols
such as happy people, clowns, and even hands were used effectively to persuade
consumers.
Furthermore, in terms of persuasion, we observed that Coca‐Cola persuades its
audience internationally by focusing on general cultural values such as happiness, love,
freedom and joy. It also persuades its audience by emphasizing the freshness, taste and
the popularity of Coca‐Cola.
Our analysis of the translations was based on a functionalist approach. We focused on
the purpose of the advertisements in the source and the target settings and on the
identification of the translation strategies used by Coca‐Cola translators.
Our first observation is that Coca‐Cola advertisers and advertising translators favour
unmarked forms of verbs. They use the superlative with clear positive connotations to
show Coca‐Cola as unique. Similarly, they use the imperative to address consumers
more directly and rhetorical devices such as metaphor to arouse a desire in the target
audience to drink Coca‐Cola. Both the marketers and the translators mostly use the
simple present tense. Their use of the simple present tense both in the source and target
advertisements enables them to show consumers that the qualities of the product
advertised are real and timeless.
Additionally, the microstrategies that were used are adaptation, oblique translation,
addition, paraphrase and direct translation and Coca‐Cola used a macrostrategy which
is the target‐oriented macrostrategy because in an example, we observed that Coca‐Cola
translator completely rewrote a slogan in the target setting. When there is a complete
rewriting of the original text, Schjoldager argues that we are no longer dealing with a
microstrategy but with a target‐oriented macrostrategy. The dominant microstrategies
were adaptation, paraphrase, oblique translation and direct translation. The majority of
the source images were kept in the target setting and in the majority of the
advertisements, there was no indication of regionalisms. Instances of regionalisms were
only found in the calendar advertisements. Coca‐Cola advertising translators succeeded
in overcoming cultural barriers by insisting on general values such as happiness, love,
joy and freedom which are positive concepts for almost everyone across cultures. All
the advertisements that we examined were covertly translated. This means that they
enjoyed the status of original texts in the target setting. The French translations were
functional as the translators used the procedures of adaptation and paraphrase when
116 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
necessary in order to adapt the text to the French language and setting. Since the
functionality of the advertisements is demonstrated in the advertisements, this
therefore means that the advertisements fulfilled their skopos in the different target
settings.
We also observed that Coca‐Cola strategies have not really changed over time. The
rhetorical devices that were used in the advertisements are metaphor, ellipsis and
exaggeration. These rhetorical devices enabled The Coca‐Company to present its drink
as unique, universal and special. All these findings therefore enable us to conclude that
Coca‐Cola uses the technique of internationalization as its main technique.
This thesis has not explored all the areas of advertising translation as this was beyond
the scope of this research. There are many issues related to the translation of the
different types of advertising texts which have not been explored. Website advertising,
television commercials and radio commercials use different techniques. Therefore it
would be important to examine the way these kinds of advertisements are translated in
order to understand how they function and how translators approach them. This could
be a topic for further research. Moreover, it would be important to see how translators
handle the visuals and oral elements of video advertisements.
Finally, despite the limitations of this study, it is an important contribution to the
development of research on advertising translation because it explores key issues and
because the techniques used in analysing print advertisements in this study can also be
used to examine the translation of other types of advertisements. This study provides
insight into the translation of global advertising and the analysis of images. We finally
wish to emphasize the fact that translators need to know how to transfer all the
elements of advertising materials in the target setting and they should also be able to
focus on global cultural values in translating global advertisements so that all the
audiences they target can recognize themselves in them.
117 The translation of advertisements: issues of semiotics, symbolism and persuasion
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