Issues in cross-cultural studies of advertising audiovisual material

This article presents an approach to cross-cultural studies of advertising audiovisual material that departs from the typical rigid marketing models. It favours a more qualitative inductive approach to corpuses, in which audiovisual texts are not approached or compared through the use of standardised American tools. After reviewing the usual marketing tools, the article focuses on the steps researchers can usefully take, from the gathering of audiovisual texts from two different environments to their classification, two important steps that are critical in such studies

The power of the local in sports broadcasting: a cross-cultural analysis of rugby commentary

This article explores how local pressures intersect to produce differing broadcasts in 2 cultural contexts. This is achieved via a cross-cultural analysis of a decade of tele¬vised rugby union matches between France and New Zealand and interviews with leading commentators in both countries. The authors argue that although the over-arching commercial imperative to capture audiences might be the same in both coun¬tries, and despite global tendencies toward homogenized presentation of sports events, there are local differences in expectations about which kinds of audiences should be captured, and these lead to different practices and emphases in the live broadcasts. The authors suggest that in each country, broadcasts are the result of a complex set of pressures that interact to produce broadcasts with “local” flavor and characteristics

DIY in the DNA: Macro Context and National Myth as Enduring Advertising Discourse

This study shows how national contexts recurrently foreground specific myths in advertising to increase consumers’ ‘knowledge’ of the positioning of brands and their ‘liking’ of these brands. From an extended sample of New Zealand television commercials, the research isolates the theme of ‘Kiwi Ingenuity’ as an important tool to advertise a wide variety of brands. At a micro level the study illustrates how hyperbolic characterisation works to attach emotional meanings to brands and products, in particular how ingenious characters are used as hyperbolic cultural signs. The study situates these micro representation strategies in their macro cultural context, arguing that the mechanics of national myths in advertising needs to be understood within the geopolitical context

The discourse of New Zealand and French television advertising: a comparative approach

This thesis explored two television advertising discourses. In a response to a need for more qualitative inductive approaches to cultural/national advertising whereby each culture is seen as unique and is not compared to another through the use of standardised American tools and values, this study blended specific quantitatively oriented strategies with interpretive sensitivity in an effort to engage in a cross-cultural “de-naturalisation” of New Zealand and French television advertising specificities. In this endeavour, the contrastive framework was particularly helpful as it made possible the “de-naturalisation” of advertising representations that are usually taken for granted in a particular culture. The exploration revealed interesting specificities peculiar to each advertising environment. The identification of major discursive objects in the television advertising discourse of each country, the subsequent in-depth analysis of these discursive objects, together with insight into communicators’ thinking, showed that the French and the New Zealand television advertising discourses differ both in terms of communicative approach and in terms of selection of imagery. Two main findings emerged from this study. The French television advertising discourse can be characterised by a heavy reliance on seduction, to the point that advertising and seduction were almost fused. This reliance on seduction was illustrated in the frequent use of feminine soft signs such as female voice-overs and female seductive characters, and the strong reluctance of French communicators to use a direct communicative approach. Interviews with French communicators revealed that their reliance on seduction - embodied in a range of texts that appeal to aesthetics, set up metaphorical or emotionally charged situations, and use female bodies and voices - was due to their being caught in strong traditional discursive formations on politeness and money that create knowledge about the act of selling as a shameful activity. In the New Zealand television advertising discourse, the act of selling was not considered as a shameful activity but was well accepted as the foundation of the communication exchange between advertising communicators and their potential viewers. As a result, New Zealand television advertising discourse did not rely as much on soft signs, on concealment, aesthetics, or on creating the illusion of emotion as French television advertising did, but used a more immediate, direct, and authoritative communication approach. This approach was embodied in the overwhelming amount of male characters and male voice-overs used in commercials, as well as in a majority of explicit messages. Whereas French communicators argued categorically that explicit reference to national values was not helpful in advertising, New Zealand communicators assumed that nationalistic discourse would have a commercial value and would inspire New Zealand viewers to consume products or brands. Their usage of discourses followed a cultural logic prescribed by a strong discursive tradition on the importance of nation. Products or brands were recurrently placed within a national framework embodied in linguistic forms, and so viewers were invited to think of themselves as citizens, and to think about products or brands in terms of their socio-national universe. In order to promote consumption, New Zealand television advertising also drew on sport as a combination of masculinity rituals, social instruction, moral training, and declarations of identity. Mythical kiwi ingenuity imagery was also instrumental in the promotion of consumption and in giving models of consuming behaviour to subject viewers. The thesis revealed that the content and form of advertising messages springs from communicators’ cultural communicative habitus. The choice of advertising elements is made according to rules of cultural communication based on traditional discursive formations internalised by individuals evolving within a particular institutional and cultural structure

Blurring the boundaries of sports public relations: National stereotypes as sport announcers’ public relations tools

Live media coverage is a key element of the relationship between a sport and its publics. The role of television producers, including announcers, is to connect effectively with the public, creating an entertaining and engaging package that keeps viewers watching. In considering this as an aspect of public relations, this paper explores how national stereotypes function to present a consistent and easily interpretable set of messages that capture publics by reinforcing their existing understandings and by providing resources for enhancing the drama and uncertainty that is such a desirable aspect of the sport audience experience. Mapping the elements of the stereotype of Frenchness in rugby union as a case study, our analysis is based on interviews with well-known French and New Zealand rugby union announcers and analyses of a decade of broadcasts of France versus New Zealand tests. We conclude that the use of stereotypes, based on the creation of differences between national teams, can be conceived of as an effective form of public relations which heightens interest and reinforces patriotic subject positions for viewers and therefore mobilises a national public

The power of stereotypes: Anchoring images through language in live sports broadcasts

Televised sport offers a rich context for investigating the processes that influence particular uses of language. Here, the authors consider how pressure on sport commentators to connect with audiences results in reliance on preestablished narratives that draw heavily on stereotypes. They investigate how television sport commentators negotiate tensions between stereotypes of a particular country’s playing style and on-field action that challenges those stereotypes. Their interdisciplinary approach—drawing from social psychology, communication, media studies, sport studies, and cultural studies—provides a textual analysis of New Zealand commentary in a pivotal Rugby World Cup game between France and New Zealand. The authors identify three different ways in which national stereotypes lead commentators to produce interpretations that do not always accurately represent the action on the field. They conclude that sport commentary in an international context operates to create and reinscribe symbolic differences between nations, even in the face of visual evidence that is ambiguous or actively contradicts the words used to describe it. The analysis demonstrates how powerfully national stereotypes influence commentators’ representational choices

Perceptions of hard sell and soft sell vocal styles across countries: Lessons from France and New Zealand

This study explores soft sell and hard sell vocal appeals across two different countries, France and New Zealand. We use quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze consumers’ familiarity with, and attitudes towards, hard sell (fast, loud, high to mid pitch, upbeat voice conveying energy and enthusiasm) and soft sell (slow, soft, low to mid pitch voice conveying warmth and allure) vocal advertising messages. Our results indicate that consumers’ vocal preference depend on their previous experiences and culture, thus global marketers should take into consideration cultural idiosyncrasies when designing advertising vocal strategies

Genetic structure in the Amazonian catfish Brachyplatystoma rousseauxii : influence of life history strategies

The Dorado or Plateado (Gilded catfish) Brachyplatystoma rousseauxii (Pimelodidae, Siluriformes) is a commercially valuable migratory catfish performing the largest migration in freshwaters: from the Amazonian headwaters in the Andean foothills (breeding area) to the Amazon estuary (nursery area). In spite of its importance to inform management and conservation efforts, the genetic variability of this species has only recently begun to be studied. The aim of the present work was to determine the population genetic structure of B. rousseauxii in two regions: the Upper Madera Basin (five locations in the Bolivian Amazon) and the Western Amazon Basin (one regional sample from the Uyucali-Napo-Maraon-Amazon basin, Peru). Length polymorphism at nine microsatellite loci (284 individuals) was used to determine genetic variability and to identify the most probable panmictic units (using a Bayesian approach), after a significant departure from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was observed in the overall dataset (Western Amazon + Upper Madera). Bayesian analyses revealed at least three clusters in admixture in the five locations sampled in the Bolivian Amazon, whereas only two of these clusters were observed in the Western Amazon. Considering the migratory behaviour of B. rousseauxii, different life history strategies, including homing, are proposed to explain the cluster distribution. Our results are discussed in the light of the numerous threats to the species survival in the Madera basin, in particular dam and reservoir construction