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Article published In:
Language for Specific Purposes
Edited by Antoon De Rycker, Kris Buyse and Lieve Vangehuchten
[ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics 162] 2011
► pp. 36–62

The Language of Graphic Advertising in The UK

Cultural Considerations

| Centre for Academic English, Stockholm University

The aim of this article is to explore the influence of cultural values on the design and communicative style of British graphic advertisements for food and beverages, particularly in relation to Hall’s context dependence and Hofstede’s individualism index. The motivation for this study comes from the increasing importance of international trade and cross-cultural and intercultural communication strategies. Additionally, previous research projects (ELISE, ELUCIDATE, ELAN) have emphasized the dramatic effect the lack of these skills has on business effectiveness. Therefore, Guillén-Nieto’s correlations model between culture-specific and language-specific behaviour (2009) was adopted, and 100 British advertisements were collected and analyzed. First, a qualitative examination of the sample using ATLAS.ti and SPSS software tried to identify any patterns present in the sample. Second, the realization of the aforementioned patterns was considered. The results of these analyses highlight the fact that the language-specific behaviour associated with context dependence is clearly visible in the sample, whereas the individualism index does not seem to be as influential in the design of press advertisements for food in the UK. Finally, some guidelines are provided in order to aid international companies in advertising their products more effectively in the UK.

Published online: 1 January 2011
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.162.03gar
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