Cross Cultural Awareness in Advertising

An important part of advertising is understanding the audiences values. When an advertisement is developed in the United States, ad agencies need to be aware that if they are planning on releasing this campaign internationally they must first understands cultural values. Other countries ideals on  family, religion, and politics can greatly vary. Also the language must be carefully selected, therefor not just one slogan or message can be developed. It must fit the appropriate audience. In the article International Advertising: Understand Cultural Differences by Neil Payne, he mentions a miscommunication by an advertisement for Ford Pinto that was launched in Brazil. Ford noticed that their sales were extremely low in Brazil and later found out that Brazilians did not want to purchase a car that meant "tiny male genitals". Slip ups such as this one makes Ford look culturally ignorant and has left a drastic financial dent in their sales. Check out more marketing translation mistakes.  As Americans things such as colors, numbers, and images do not have much meaning to us, but in other cultures these things can be a significant part of their cultural lifestyles. For example the Chinese believe red to be a spiritual color. Therefor advertising must be cautious not to offend anyones beliefs or values.  

Coca-Cola has recently made a cultural mistake when developing a new advertisement for their famous soda. The article in the Moscow Times entitled: Coca-Cola Bows to Believers informs that "Hoping to tap into a growing tide of patriotism, the U.S beverage giant have placed pictures of religious sites together with is logo on fridges in kiosks shops in Nizhny Novgorod, the country's third-biggest city." Now many Orthodox believe that this advertising campaign is not only offensive but is blasphemy . Yet Coca-Cola states that their cultural offensiveness as not intended.