by Inês Sofia Carvalho
When creating an advertisement, we must have in mind important aspects such as who the audience is, our main goal with the ad, the message we’re trying to convey… All of this demands a great effort of everyone involved. Having that said, the process of coming up with a food related ad varies between cultures.
Obviously the first thing we must consider mind is language. This can be a real problem if you’re an American trying to produce an ad targeting British people as you would need to change some pretty basic aspects of languages, as basic as adding an “u” (favourite in AE and favourite in BE). Although this sounds very simple and quick to do, bear in mind that someone is trying to catch the possible buyer’s attention and it must be done perfectly, otherwise it will be an unsuccessful ad.
Moving on from language, we also must realize that different countries/cultures have different mindset than ours. What to us may sound or look like an inoffensive joke, to other it can be offensive. One example of an ad that caused controversy was a Nike one. This one cause controversy all around the United States, but not to the whole world. The campaign I’m talking about is “Just Do It” by Nike, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the company’s iconic marketing slogan. In 2018, the sports company decided to run a series of ads featuring portrays of famous athletes and their quotes. One of such athletes was NFL’s Colin Kaepernick, who had previously cause controversy back in 2016 for kneeling during the national anthem as a form of protest racism. Many North American felt deeply insulted for such act, while others defended the athlete. Many other countries who understand the unsettling amount of racism of the United States defended the company as well as Kaepernick.
Cultures see the importance of a product differently and portray it differently too on ads. To give another example I’m going to use the well-known brand McDonalds to showcase a particular ad. In 2010, a French McDonalds showed a young boy portraying a same-sex relationship that caused the company’s COO Don Thompson to ban the ad from airing in the US when in France received approval.
Food comes in many ways and shapes and we must get creative if we want to appeal a certain audience with an ad. However, keep in mind that not everyone shares the same values, thoughts and languages so we must try to catch the attention of everyone around the world.
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