Global Communication Through Advertising
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Global Communication Through Advertising

Our world has changed considerably in the last few decades through global communications. Our advancements in technology on platforms such as; computers, high speed data servers, mobile phones, and the internet have created a worldwide culture of mass communication with audiences that are ever changing in diversity and ethical make up. While communicators typically aim to be straight forward and clearly understood, there are numerous factors that can create a filter or barrier in which the message is perceived which can result in ineffective and unfavorable results in respect to mass communication through technology. Those who seek to communicate through global advertising are on the front lines of the war to communicate past all cultural barriers.
Diversity is the term used to illustrate the broad difference in people. Ethnicity, religion, gender, age, and culture are all differing examples that create diversity from one person to the next. Communicating with others from unfamiliar backgrounds can be a challenging process. “One statistician notes that if the world were a village of 1,000 people, the village would have 590 Asians, 122 Africans, 96 Europeans, 84 Latin Americans, 55 members of the former Soviet Union, and 53 North Americans” (Beebe, 2013)) When we consider all of the many unique individuals that make up the world’s population, it becomes clear that the effort put into communication must be well thought out from multiple perspectives if we wish to penetrate an audience who is made up of such diverse individuals. Even when the audience is narrowed down into specific groups of people who share similarities, no one person is one hundred percent like the next so it is important to learn how to communicate effectively across multiple cultures and the various levels global diversity can present.
An example of a barrier associated with diversity that can affect communication is the impact of cultural differences; each culture is packed with its own set of symbols, traditions, and norms that are common within them, but are not practiced globally. When we do not take the time to open our minds and hearts to other cultural norms, we may not only embarrass ourselves, but someone else when we are put into a situation that we did not foresee because we failed to communicate properly. After all, communication is how we make sense of and share the information around us. It is critical then for a communicator to ensure they are privy to the ethics of other cultures.
Ethics, which is the moral code of values in which a person, or group of people hold closely to, are often deeply engrained within a culture, and differ from one to the next. Culture has a great impact on influencing our ethical values, and because of the large difference and diversity between people, the greater potential there is for misunderstanding one another; creating a direct relation to communication. Ethics and cultural diversity can affect communication and also decision making. For example, Coca Cola is one of the most widely known brands in the world. Coca Cola is a company that had it’s beginnings in America and since has become a company that communicates through advertisements across the world. Chinese translation also proved difficult for Coke, which took two tries to get it right. They first tried Ke-kou-ke-la because when pronounced it sounded roughly like Coca-Cola. It wasn't until after thousands of signs had been printed that they discovered that the phrase means "bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax", depending on the dialect. Second time around things worked out much better. After researching 40,000 Chinese characters, Coke came up with "ko-kou-ko-le" which translates roughly to the much more appropriate "happiness in the mouth"(Hill, 1999). Every minute is valuable to the communicators in a world where technology is exponentially advancing.
In the earliest days of the last century global communication begun in the form of the radio. Everyone from politicians to corporations found their voice to the world in a way they had never imagined. They could reach hundreds of thousands of people across an entire continent creating a unified sharing of ideas that would ultimately shape the way an entire culture thinks. After the invention of the television in the 1920’s communication became both a visual and auditory experience allowing millions of people to see and hear movie stars, presidents, musicians, and cartoons characters once only found in drawings in the newspapers. It also opened up a whole new world for the ambitious entrepreneur to communicate his or her business through advertising. Our world is connected in an unprecedented way through technological advancements such as smart phones allowing nearly every person in the world to be globally connected. Global advertisers need to advance just as quickly in order to connect with an ever changing and integrated diversity of cultures.
One recent study in 2014 found that “consumers significantly primed products advertised using Asian American spokesmodels with model minority attributes; however, the products using Caucasian spokesmodels were rated significantly higher on brand attitude and purchase intention” (Phua, 2014). Global diversity has reached a point where it has crossed cultures and extended past the boundaries of arbitrary geographical lines. When the advertisers of technology seek to communicate their brands to a global market there is a perception that one culture produces a better product and therefore is in their best interest to insert Asian people into their commercials. By the same token, it is difficult for Companies like Japanese based company Sony to communicate their products to American and European cultures. In 2006, Sony came out with an advertisement for their handheld gaming platform the PSP which was being released in both black and white. The advertisement showed a white woman grasping the face of a black woman (Team Grasshoper, 2011). This represents how easily our global lines of communication can be misunderstood across different cultures.
Communication today has primarily transitioned to our mobile phones. Everything from how we feel, to who we love, and what we love to buy is experienced through a device that fits in our hands. Everyday new advancements in technology bring with it new ways for advertisers to communicate with their consumers. Programs have been developed to track each individuals’ internet browsing history and develop advertisements to communicate specifically to that person. Even politicians must spend hundreds of millions of dollars to develop unique campaigns and commercials to communicate with specific regions of the United States. As global companies and world leaders continue to advertise themselves in a world of technological advancements, expert communicators will be needed to conduct research studies, imagine new forms of advertisements, compete with diversity and seek to be an ethically viable choice for the global masses. In a short time, the barriers of language diversity that have separated the diversity of cultures will be brought down with advanced translation software; opening up a new world for all people to communicate and advertise ideas in ways we can only imagine.

References

Beebe, S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Ivy, D. K. (2013). Communication: Principals to live by. Pearson. Pg. 145 Adapted from Information Please Almanac (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990) and World Almanac and Book of Facts (New York: World Almanac, 1991), as cited by Lustig and Koester, Intercultural Competence, 11.
Hill, G. (1999, Jul 17). 'Ke-kou-ke-la - bite the wax tadpole'. The Belfast News LetterRetrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/324512074?accountid=458
Phua, J. (2014). The Influence of Asian American Spokesmodels in Technology-Related Advertising: An Experiment. Howard Journal Of Communications, 25(4), 399-414. doi:10.1080/10646175.2014.956600
Team Grasshopper. (2011). 21 of the Worst Marketing Campaigns, Flops, Follies & Faux Pas. Published in Marketing & Brands on Jul 19, 2011. http://grasshopper.com/blog/21-of-the-worst-marketing-flops-follies-faux-pas.