COMMUNICATING THE STEREOTYPE OF “OTHERNESS” IN EUROPEAN ADVERTISING: CULTURAL AND NATIONAL “FAKE MULTICULTURALISM”
Journal Title: Journal of Languages for Specific Purposes (JLSP) - Year 2014, Vol 1, Issue 1
Abstract
In its quest for the destination of an ‘all-encompassing’ communication, European advertising builds an image of complexity and oppositions. Constructed as a mingling of cultural values, intensive consumerism and creative touches, the story of advertising is a never-ending analysis of nowadays globalized societies. Moreover, its ramifying story of acceptance, assimilation, rejection and stereotypy brought advertising at a position in which the debate over intercultural representation and consumer behavior is crucial. Consequently, the main question that arises is: in the realm of the thirsty and goods-addict consumers, what type of discourse should advertising in Europe use, so as to emphasize pluralism and still maintain culturally personalized approaches. It is, therefore, the purpose of this paper to explore and analyze the congruencies and disparities between advertising and its social, cultural and economic repositories, on the background of Europe’s image. In this respect, some questions can be formulated: How does advertising pertain to organizing its communication with the overly globalized consumer markets? Is the stereotypical label hereby inserted in such a communicational direction with consumers, and if so, what are the features of an “addressing otherness” discourse with respect to ad typology? Another aim of the current paper is to evoke the level at which European advertising fails to stick to the intercultural framework of reference, through a presentation of the stereotypes of “otherness” and the implied “fake multiculturalism.” The idea behind this assumption is that, while representing ethnic groups differently or by use of a derogatory mechanism, the message cannot be that of Europeanness. Moreover, the focus on linguistic choice of advertising vocabulary is linked to the issue of “linguistic fetishism” and, more importantly, it shows that the variety of linguistic panel in Europe sometimes prevents consumers from decoding the message of advertising. The sphere of this domain allowed for a new analytical introspection in the appearance of this marketing mix, which led to further wanderings in the realm of an advertising that is both plural and rigid. Such an economic force, combined with intercultural representation, serves as an effective means of changing the fairytale of consumerism abuse into a fairly-oriented European happy-end story of multicultural consumers in the land of promising advertising.
Authors and Affiliations
Ioana Mudure-Iacob
Keywords
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