Do images travel well across cultures?
The relevance of visuals in the translation
of international print ads as a multimodal process
Dr Isabel Santafé-Aso
Centre for Translating Cultures
February 2014
Global Advertising

Began in 1950s in US then expanded to non-US companies from
1970s

Products available internationally

Global market with similar needs and habits

Standardised international marketing campaigns
A global advert is the one that is virtually unaltered in all
countries where it is released with the exception of
translation. (Onkvisitit and Shaw, 1990:95)
Internationalisation

Translation: one-to-many-procedure
Target Text 1
Source Text
Target Text 2
Target Text 3

Based on linguistic equivalence

Translation used to facilitate and economise global campaigns

Overlooks text-image relationship
Are images universal?

Images communicates characteristics of the advertised product
(Scott, 1992)

Images are polysemous (Barthes, 1997)

Is it possible to create an image with no cultural references?

Function of images in the message:
Persuade
Provide
information
Create
emotions
Culture-bound
Image-Text Linkage
Anchorage
Relay
Five Strategies for the Translation of Ads


Smith and Klein-Braley (1997) suggest five main strategies that suit
standardised ads. In all the strategies the image remains unaltered
Why using this methodology?

Analysis of the different translation roles

Critical evaluation of considering images as universal
Strategy 1
No change
Strategy 2
Export ads
Strategy 3
Straight
Translation
Strategy 4
Adaptation
Strategy 5
Revision
Strategy 1 No Change
Strategy 2 Export Ads
Strategy 3 Straight Translation
Strategy 4 Adaptation
feel
look
Strategy 4 Adaptation
Strategy 4 Adaptation
Strategy 5 Revision

No evidence found

Equally valuable to consider the limits of the translator's role

Borderline between adaptation and creation?
Different definitions for adaptation from different translation scholars
Smith and Klein-Braley (1997) No visual changes
Jettmarova et al. (1997)  Visual changes (partial/total adaptation)
Duro Moreno (2001)  Visual changes (adaptation is recreation)

New terminology to define 'translator' and 'translation'
localisation
adaptation
transcreator
copywriter
translator-adaptor
co-writing
Conclusions

Images communicate as much information as words and a bare
linguistic translation would jeopardise the text-image relationship

The advert should be approached from a multimodal perspective

The role of the translator should not only limited to the transference
of words

Extra-linguistic aspects need attention in translators' training
Conclusions
'The essence [of translation] remains unaltered but
translation form and procedures have evolved, mainly
due to technological advances'
(Newmark, 2003:69)
Thank You!
¡Gracias!