Intercultural communication
Format MLA
Volume of 22 pages (6050 words)
Assignment type : Dissertation

Title： An Analysis of Advertisement translation from the Perspective of Cultural Differences—The Case of McDonald’s.

Thesis Motivation (background or meaning)
In an era of economic globalization and trade intensification, various advertisements of foreign brands flooded into Chinese market. In the meantime, along with the advance of national “The Belt and Road” Initiative, an increasing number of Chinese enterprises will go abroad and serve the people in other countries along the line. Within the framework of international marketing strategies, advertisement, as a kind of intercultural communication and the carrier of both language and culture, plays an increasingly important role. Recently, McDonald’s, the largest American fast food brand has decided to change its Chinese translation version into “Jin Gong Men”, which caused a heated discussion in China because the new translation is different from its original widespread name “Mai Dang Lao” either at literal meaning or at associative meaning. McDonald’s case is a good example to analyze the advertisement translation from the perspective of cultural difference. It is therefore significant to take into consideration advertisement strategy combined with translation skills in different contexts.
Main problem
To enter into international market, companies have to communicate with consumers of different languages and cultures. Therefore, there emerged a new multiculturalism-nucleated structure in marketing strategy in the world, which takes cultural difference into consideration. McDonald’s advertising campaign consist of trademarks such as product or service names, slogan and content of commercial ads, and with the change of times, the translations varied as well. The thesis aims, on one hand, at exploring McDonald’s intercultural communication strategy after entering China; on the other hand, it aims at underscoring McDonald’s ads campaign in China by studying its various translation since 1990. The thesis concludes that the advertisement environment between China and the Unite Stated has many similarities and differences, which McDonald’s applied both globalization and localization strategies. It highlights the importance of advertisement translation towards market development and the advertisement translations should actively comply with the local era background.

Outline
1. Introduction
Background: the globalization and trade intensification among countries and the increasing importance of understanding cross-cultural communication in advertisements; the “The One Belt and Road”; the research method; languages and cultures; analysis of McDonald’s name change.
2. Strategies in Advertisement from Intercultural Communication
2.1 Comparison with advertising environment
2.1.1 Differences between Chinese and American
2.1.2 Similarities between Chinese and American
2.2 Strategies used in McDonald’s foreign advertisement
2.2.1 Global standardization
2.2.2 Localization
3. Translations of McDonald’s advertising campaign in China
3.1 The history of Chinese version brand name as “Mai Dang Lao”
3.2 The success of “Happy Meal” translation
3.3 The changes of advertising slogan
4. Importance of advertisement translation in global market
4.1 The emotional transmission of advertisement translation
4.2 The innovation of advertisement translation
5. Conclusion
The thesis concludes that China and the United States enjoy different advertising environments. International companies should seek common points while reserving difference of culture when conducting global advertisement strategy. Besides, the advertisement translation should be taken seriously in terms of effective emotional transmission and innovation.

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