The lead story in a major media outlet in the UK, Skynews, features citizen outrage against McDonald’s.  Skynews reports that a single word in a McDonald’s ad has provoked incensed debate and outcry. It is not an insulting or offensive word, and looks like a perfectly innocent choice by McDonald’s. But online chat rooms are buzzing with indignation.

The TV commercial promotes the Pound Saver Menu, and begins with the phrase “the pound, also known as a bob”.

A bob is slang for a shilling (one twentieth of a pound), which was eliminated from the British monetary system in 1971 (a pound is a little more than a dollar or a euro).

As someone ironically posted:

  “I suspect the nearest it (the commercial) got to the UK before transmission was when it was dreamed up in an English themed pub in Hollywood.”

Others have demanded that McDonald’s serve them twenty burgers for one pound.

But language does evolve, and it can be argued that today a few people actually do call a pound a bob.

McDonald’s spokesperson swiftly responded to the outcry: “Although a ‘bob’ was formerly used as a slang term for the shilling until the introduction of decimalisation in 1971, research has shown it is now more commonly used as slang for a pound or money in general.”

BEHIND THE NEWS

What’s the big deal? With vegetarian burgers in India and locally farmed meat in France, McDonald’s has worked hard to be a culturally sensitive company and a good local citizen. But don’t worry — the brand is unlikely to be damaged, and the debate provides valuable free media space for the “one pound” offer. Perhaps Skynews didn’t have any other headline news that day.

Still, this is a good reminder of three important cross-cultural facts:

1.    People DO NOT like it when their language is misused, even slightly, by big foreign companies. It can be felt as insulting to their sense of national pride. After all, we spent years at school struggling to master our language’s unlikely grammar and vocabulary. And now some giant from abroad tells us how to speak! Never mind that local brands mix up their words and grammar all the time.

2.    We tend to be most sensitive when the one making the mistake is our neighbour or shares a common language. An Austrian Marketing Director once said to me, tongue-in-cheek: “the Germans speak the same language as us, minus the humour”. And we all know the saying “America and Britain are divided by a common language.”

3.    Would “Consider Different” have had the same impact as Apple’s “Think Different”? Would the BMW campaign work as well by promising “Happiness” rather than “Joy”? As every advertising copywriter knows, a single word CAN make a world of difference – whatever the language.

As this blog demonstrates, global brands sometimes shoot themselves in the foot because they do not take local culture difference and sensitivity into account.

However there is such a thing as being TOO oversensitive.

Google’s strategy in China has been to portray the brand as completely Chinese. This “when in Rome do as Romans do” tactic has now gravely backfired.

Facing the well-established, dominant Chinese search engine Baidu, not only did Google adjust to local censorship requirements. It dressed itself from head to toe in local clothing.

First Google translated its name to mean “Valley Song”.

Then it used refined Chinese calligraphy and even traditional Chinese poetry in its advertising.

If you didn’t know, you would have thought Google is Chinese.

Google turned a blind eye to two cultural facts.

1. There is very high sensitivity in China to foreigners “stealing” Chinese culture, due to colonial history and a fierce, renewed sense of patriotism.

Baidu swiftly countered Google’s advertising with a violent but effective patriotic commercial.

It portrayed a “wild west” dressed American (representing Google) in an intense calligraphy competition against a genuine Chinese master (representing Baidu). The Chinese master wins, showing the American for what he is - a fake.  The American spits blood and falls dead, to the delight and cheers of the Chinese audience.

2. You cannot underestimate the importance of the Chinese government.

When you say a company is “good”, it is generally NOT understood to mean “it does no evil”, but simply that it is approved by the government.

The government portrayed Google’s efforts to digitalize Chinese books as a foreign attempt to steal Chinese heritage - again undermining Google’s attempts to look like a “good Chinese company”.

The result

Today, after all Google’s efforts, Baidu retains more than 70 percent of the Chinese market. Its brand is severely damaged in the biggest growth market in the world.

Although there may be a genuine plot to sabotage Google, it may be that the search giant’s “threat” to pull out of China is a mask for commercial and cross-cultural failings, and possibly a counter-tactic to put pressure on the government.

It will be fascinating to see how “Google vs. China” plays out.

In the meantime, it is worth remembering one fact: going completely local may not only betray your international brand’s DNA, it is also a high risk cultural strategy that can easily backfire.

The news:

The Polish city of Sosnowiec launched a campaign to encourage tourists from the French cities of Roubaix and Les Meraux, and Morocco’s Casablanca to visit the city. The campaign ran both on and offline and featured two young, attractive models seen to be gesturing in a positive way. The gestures, unlike in Poland where they have positive connotations, are highly offensive and can be considered sexually abusive in the Mediterranean and some Arab countries.

Behind the news:

Gestures are powerful communicators which sometimes seem universal, unrelated to language. After all, apes use them too!

But as we all now know thanks to the iconic HSBC “world’s local bank” campaign, gestures actually have different, very specific meanings in different places – an endless source of miscommunication, amusement and despair for the world traveller as well as global brands.  

There are no dictionaries we know of that fully describe the meanings of cultural gestures, although Desmond Morris, a British anthropologist, had a go at it. He spent a year watching and filming Italians, and categorized each one with a drawing and a meaning. He also found that the amount of gesturing varies significantly from one culture to another, concluding that Italians use more specific gestures than any other people around the world.

The news:

A company photo published on Microsoft’s website recently caused a scandal after it appears that the company had followed inappropriate cultural advice. On the company’s US website the photograph depicts a scene of an Asian man, black man and white woman of various ages seated around a table. This was supposed to show equality within the company in regard to race and age. For the firm’s Polish website, the image is “photo-shopped”, with a white man’s head placed on the black man’s body. This spurred outrage with bloggers and tweeters around the world. The image was hurriedly removed and Microsoft issued an official apology although they gave no explanation of why the image was edited.

Behind the news:

This is yet another example of the power of digital advertising and how brands may no longer think of different markets in isolation; they now need to consider that each digital campaign released is readily available globally. Race is a sensitive topic across all markets and should always be considered in all aspects of marketing and advertising. An effective reminder of how inaccurate cultural advice can be equally as harmful as no advice at all.

The news:

As part of its promotional material, Citroen published a map which has caused controversy and potentially damaged the brand’s reputation, particularly in Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro. The map depicts an incorrect division of land and it appears that the borders of Balkan nations that fought wars in the early 1990’s have been re-drawn. Bosnia is merged with Serbia and Croatia, Montenegro is merged into Serbia, and Slovenia has been given a large slice of Croatia. A month after the image was published Bosnia, Croatia and Montenegro sent protest letters to Citroen. Citroen replied with a letter of apology stating that all copies had been destroyed and distribution had been called to a halt.

Behind the news:

The issue is particularly sensitive as it was rumoured that the late presidents of Serbia and Croatia had made a secret pact to divide Bosnia between their ex-Yugoslavian republics. The inter-ethnic wars in Bosnia cost at least 100,000 lives, leading to the break up of the six-republic communist federation.

The news:

Schweppes released in the UK what was to be viewed as an ad that took a humorous and light hearted approach to advertising by making consumers laugh about serious, darker issues that they are currently facing. The image is titled ‘how to get a seat on the tube’ and depicts a man seated in an empty carriage wearing a sombrero and holding a box of tissues, reminding people that “Swine Flu” originated in Mexico. The ad caused outrage in Mexico and was pulled immediately, running only for one day in the Times paper after discussions between holding company Coca-cola and the Mexican Embassy.

Behind the news:

Strains of influenza have often been named after countries, but never one’s own: there is no “Spanish Flu” in Spain or “English Flu” in England. This ad seems to play on the idea of a Mexican flu, however…

Mexico suffered terrible human and economic damage following the first swine flu outbreak and in the aftermath was at pains to repair its image as an alluring tourist destination. It clearly didn’t need a global brand reminding people that this was initially a “Mexican flu”.

To its credit, the Coca-cola company quickly understood the issue and took swift corrective action.  

For some reason, we’ve recently seen an epidemic of global brands getting on the wrong side of Mexico, starting with Burger King’s unfortunate Texican burger advertising in Spain (see www.textappealblog.com): the internet spreads advertising faster than the flu travels the world.

The news:

Beyonce’s planned performance in Malaysia, part of her world tour, may be cancelled due to Malaysia’s opposition Islamist party protesting against the singer’s show. They succeeded two years ago in preventing her from visiting due to “moral issues”. The group claims that such unclad acts promote sexual promiscuousness and are a bad example for the nation’s youth. It is not just Beyonce that has spurred protest from the group but also other Western artists, who in some cases have adjusted by wearing more clothes than usual on stage. Judge for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/user/beyonce?blend=1&ob=4.

Behind the news:

Beyonce does not seem to wish to adapt her act to local demands, or be seen as caving in to a minority group in one country. And why should she? It is her career and her life. But that’s not the point.

The point is: in order not to become the hostage of circumstances outside of their control, international brands need to look carefully how they associate themselves with pop icons, and stay particularly close to the pulse of markets with fast shifting, competing internal values. 

Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country in which parts of the population object strongly to sexual suggestiveness. There is also national sensitivity, as it appeared a few years ago when the prime minister at the time banned a Toyota commercial using Brad Pitt as the pitchman, on the grounds that “Malaysians are just as handsome as Westerners.” Local political and religious groups take advantage of such sentiments for all kinds of reasons.

“Rejection reactions” such as this one is harmful to Malaysia economically, as a significant part of its activity depends on tourism, and portraying a consistently welcoming face to the rest of the world is important in attracting foreign dollars. However they also reflect a genuine internal reality of the country, where competing and contradictory values co-exist.

The news:

Sony’s commercial has caused uproar in Nigeria, with official complaints that it portrays a negative image of the nation, suggesting Nigerians are untrustworthy and prone to partake in criminal activity. During the ad one of the actors states that “you can’t believe everything that you read on the Internet” or he’d be a “Nigerian millionaire by now”. The Nigerian federal government claimed that by releasing such a statement Sony is ruining the country’s image. Sony apologised and edited the ad accordingly, changing the phrase to exclude Nigeria completely from the ad.

The Nigerian federation has also bashed the new and very successful sci-fi blockbuster film ‘District 9’. It includes a Nigerian gang of criminals, gangsters, prostitutes and cannibals, using the name of the former president as that of the gang leader. The suggestion of such negative associations with the population and particularly the idea of cannibalism have caused the film to be banned in the country and a letter has been sent to the production company asking that the scenes containing Nigerian references are deleted.

Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDGG9e00XPk

Behind the news:

What is particularly jarring to African sensitivities is the use of cannibalism – a long standing Western colonial myth perpetrated to reinforce the perception that Africans are inferior and perhaps subhuman.

Nigeria is currently attempting to counter negative stereotypes by rebranding the country as a good place to come and do business. Sony’s extreme portrayals come at a bad time for the nation.

While gangster films do need to be set somewhere – and why not Nigeria after all? – the Sony global brand unintentionally put itself in a lose-lose situation. Nigeria’s already fragile image is damaged further, and Sony alienates consumers across the emerging African continent.  

To its credit Sony immediately recognised this and quickly shifted into PR damage mode. A simple recheck on the core message may have avoided much grief and harm.  

The news:

The senior operations director for tourism agency Visit Denmark stepped down after a promotional video made to encourage international tourists to visit Denmark was released online and then criticised heavily by the media. The video tells the story of an attractive new mother whose baby is the product of a drunken one-night stand with a foreign tourist. She is in search of the baby’s father due to the fact that she is unable to remember his name or nationality because she had been too intoxicated. The video has caused backlash, as it is perceived to send out a negative message about the nation, unprotected sex and promote promiscuousness.

Watch on http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8258473.stm

Behind the news:

We can’t believe the people behind this video set out to put Denmark on the map as a sex haven: the prime place in the world where promiscuous foreign men will enjoy free sex with loose local women. Denmark is one of the most respectful countries in the world of women’s rights, and is a strict enforcer of equality in all areas of public and private life.

This is an inside cultural joke gone horribly wrong. In Scandinavian countries such as Denmark, making fun of oneself and one’s image is very common in advertising, and seen as a stylish, ironic way to avoid a direct “hard sell”. Some Scandinavian commercials use this cultural trait, and say exactly the opposite of what they mean in order to gain sympathy.

Visit Denmark probably means to convey something like “yes, we know you think Denmark is all about loose sex, and we don’t mind to poke fun at ourselves and even darken the picture. And that’s what we’re all about and why you should come: we’re unpretentious, fun, relaxed.”

A classic instance of “export marketing” gone wrong: not taking global perception into account, using an inside cultural reference as a global message, being misunderstood and instead of getting people’s sympathy, reinforcing the worst possible stereotypes of your brand.

The news:

Snickers, a brand owned by Mars produced a global TV ad, which interestingly, only created a scandal in the United States. The Human Rights Campaign, an American gay rights group, judged it homophobic and the campaign was pulled – not just in the US but globally. Despite the fact that the ASA in the UK hardly received any complaints, and UK consumers found the ad amusing Mars still pulled the plug here. The spot features the A Team’s much-loved Mr. T in a 4×4 firing Snickers at a speed walker after launching the tirade, “You’re a disgrace to the man race. It’s time to teach you to run like a real man.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bUxi_Eo6fU

Behind the news:

This example is quite extreme, I don’t think anyone could have really predicted that there would be any real controversy associated with this ad. And in reality there really wasn’t – there were scarcely any complaints in the UK, yet the ad was stopped. The interesting learning here is that political pressure groups in the US can significantly impact media abroad!

© Textappeal 2009