Moscow Times: words such as “sale”, “discount” and “free Wi-Fi”, which regularly appear in advertisements and signage in Moscow, are breaking the law. According to the Moscow Times, “The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service is planning to expand a crackdown on advertising using foreign words, with initial hearings in a spate of recent cases expected this week”.

They may think it's English but it looks like Italian!

In a recent case, the unfortunate owner of Japanese fast-food chain Yaposha got in to trouble for putting up a billboard that said “Happy New Menu” with the words “Happy” and “New” spelled out in English on a building facade.  Other recent ‘outrageous’ examples were the use of  “New Collection” and “Halloween”.

Хэллоуин is the word for Halloween, which, if you can read Cyrillic, is a straight transliteration of Halloween. There is no Russian equivalent of “All hallows’ e’en”, or the evening that dead spirits come back to walk the earth for one night. Although I wonder how many western kids actually know any more than that it’s a night when you can dress up in a scary outfit and go ‘trick or treating’. Yet another bourgeois, capitalist import adopted by teenage New Russians.

Local rules and regulations are ignored at your peril…

As anyone with experience in international advertising will tell you, the more culturally remote the country, the more you need to take care.  But often, familiarity can also blind those who should know better. For example, a friend of mine based in the US and with many years of international ad production and execution experience was aghast to find that a US colleague had gone ahead and shot an expensive TV campaign, for broadcast in the UK, without getting script and storyboard clearance from Clearcast first.

“All ads intended for broadcast on analogue and digital terrestrial, cable and satellite channels owned by ITV, GMTV, Channel Four, Five, Sky, IDS (Virgin Media) and Turner, must be submitted to Clearcast for approval.”

Similarly, French law forbids all advertising in certain product categories: abortion services, contraceptive methods, tobacco products. Advertising is also regulated by medium and by industry sector.  Some sectors have extremely detailed regulations (e.g. automobile driving schools) whereas others have only a few regulations.  Special laws also govern the use of  comparative advertising, so popular in the US.

Le Bureau de Vérification de la Publicité regulates advertising in five ways: (1) issuing guidelines, (2) offering legal advice when requested by advertisers and agencies, (3) monitoring claims made in advertising media, (4) reviewing all television commercials before they are aired, and (5) receiving and investigating consumers’ and competitors’ complaints about specific advertising.

This ad for Levi's loose fitting jeans incoporates concepts of seduction, romantic story, and humor.

My thanks to Ronald E Taylor for the following summary of the defining characteristics of French advertising:

In a 1993 study of French advertising creative directors, four characteristics emerged from a series of qualitative interviews that describe the essence of the French approach to advertising. The four charactertistics are : la séduction, le spectacle, l’amour, and l’humour.

La séduction:  The French verb “seduire” does not always carry the same connotation as the English word “seduce.” One meaning of “seduire” is to “lure to sexual intercourse,” but more commonly it means to tempt, to fascinate, to attract, to charm, or to entice. A good French advertisement is one that tempts the consumer with its offering.

Le spectacle:  “Spectacle” incorporates the meanings of sight, an attraction, a show, a play, a story, a lavish production, high production values. A good French ad is one that has the drama, the entertainment value, the production values, and the excitment of the theatre.

L’amour:  Romance and innuendo are integral parts of French culture and as such form an integral part of French advertising. A slogan such as “the coffee of desire” (un café nommé désir) brings together two cultural expectations for advertising: (1) romantic notions should be expressed or alluded to whenever possible and (2) advertising should not focus on product functions.

L’humour: Humor is central to French advertising. It may take the form of ribald approaches that may be shocking to Americans or the humor expressed in the playful use of words and amusing associations.

In essence, all countries have rules about advertising and some have additional laws aimed at protecting their language from the potentially caustic affects of international English.  I know from personal experience that you will see and hear English incorporated into advertising in countries such as Germany, Holland, Italy and across Scandinavia, to name a few.  But that does not necessarily imply that English goes anywhere, anytime.

Remember that every language has its puns, clichés, proverbs and slogans, so act local:  show the locals you are savvy to their needs.  It is better than looking like a cheap-skate or running foul of bodies such as the imposingly named Federal Anti-Monopoly Service of Russia.

[You can read the Moscow Times article in full by clicking on the link in the first line.]