DISSECTING PRINT ADVERTISEMENTS IN TERMS OF

GLOCALISATION, LANGUAGE AND EMERGING

CONSUMERISM

Along with the development of globalization all over the world, a new trend called
glocalisation is also evolving. Simply, it is a campaign of think globally and act locally
and this campaign is spreading like fragrance mainly because of the influencing
behaviour of media and technology. It is through the help of mass media communication
that people from any corner of the world communicates with each other. Mass Media is
now emerging as the biggest and the largest tool of communication. It uses various media
technologies to reach out to the large population of the world. In this technologically
advanced industrial world, advertising forms the backbone of the industry that makes
products and services accessible to the consumers by making them aware of the choices
in the market and ultimately decides the fate of that product. But the very soul and root of
advertising and consumerism lies in the unsatisfied nature of man. Mans never ending
desires and lack of contentment is the real trump card of the advertisers and profit thirsty
companies. So, consumerism is a phenomenon that emerged as a result of advanced mass
media technology and culture, which encourages the purchase of goods and services
beyond necessity and in excess. Advertisement plays a major role in promoting
consumerist culture among people too. Once, we all were of the view that a good thing
sells itself; a bad thing needs advertising but, this view has now changed drastically and
we have advertisements for almost everything and anything.
To make profit in business and industry, they need large scale advertisements to
introduce their products or services in the market. Thus advertisements are paid, nonpersonal form of communication about organization/ products/ services that is transmitted
through mass media (Nair 120).Advertising has the ability to push the demand of a
product or service through its ability to control and manipulate consumer behaviour,
especially their spending habits. It manages to do this by gaining the trust of the people
through the effective use of language which is sometimes loaded with emotions, trust,
credibility, wickedness, business, and so on. The flexibility of the language is exploited to
the fullest for developing the consumerist culture among people. Along with this
glocalisation also plays a role in it.
The word glocalisation itself has the implication of the idea of combining local
and global. It is just a way to make something unfamiliar in the disguise of familiar. In
the industrial and commercial fields, glocalisation meant the adaptation of an
international or global product in local grounds to suit the needs and demands of a local
consumer to increase the profit and this is done through advertisement. As the product
caters to the needs and demands of a local consumer, the advertisement also should be
brought out in the same way since, advertisement reaches the consumer before the
product. So, for establishing a successful market locally, a copywriter should consider
language as well as the new trend called glocalisation in creating an advertisement.
Indians from each and every community are influenced by their own customs and
traditions. As language has many indigenous usages and expressions, which are
commonly used in the life of every Indian, an advertiser can use them to explain their
claims and indirectly establish a market in India. Everyday language has its impact on

people, which is much greater than that of a foreign language. The ultimate profit they
gain is an established market, reputation, customer satisfaction, trust and money.

Cadbury is an International chocolate brand, which is widely consumed in India

by all age groups. They westernize the Indian tradition by replacing hand-made milk
sweets with Cadbury chocolates, thus captured the Indian market. India being a festive
country, involves in a lot of selling and buying sweets and savouries. Knowing this
weakness of Indians over festivals, they launch Cadbury Dairy Milk with the
advertisement caption Shubh Aarambh, kuch meetha ho jaaye (web). Here, advertisers
exploited the tradition and culture of India, to get a local impact from the consumers for a
global product. Also, they used the technique of transliteration to cash in on the
traditional weaknesses of Indians. Transliteration is a letter-for-letter equivalent method
of writing by using the alphabet of another language (Syamala 114).
India is a religious country and believes in the concept that, a sweet beginning is a
good beginning. For that, in India, there is a custom of having sweets on such occasions.
Being an International brand, they used these tradition and custom for their profit and to
influence Indians to establish a market. To convey this idea clearly they used common
Hindi language in the alphabet of English.
They try to replace any sweet with only Cadbury Dairy Milk for a good start
as a shakun in India. The same thing happens in the caption meethe mein kuch meetha
ho jaaye, here too the habit of Indian people having sweets after dinner is utilized again,
a localized version of advertisement.

Earlier women in the house used to make sweets with their own hands and distribute
among friends and relatives for every celebration. But now, as there is no time for such
things in this fast moving world, Cadbury comes with a solution for those who still stick
on to the tradition and custom of Indians. Indian sentiments are exploited to disguise a
purely western product to overthrow other influential Indian products.

This is another advertisement of Cadbury diary milk in another country,

emphasizing the importance of the chocolate in a celebration like independence in
Pakistan. When the country changed, the purpose of having Dairy Milk also changed and
that is to share the spirit of freedom. These all are just different techniques to develop
consumerism even from the local communities of a country.

Coco Cola is a very popular brand of beverage with their catch phrase open
happiness. In the above add they gave a caption that conveys the importance of
togetherness globally between countries and also the importance of Coca Cola in such a
get together. They emphasize that, celebrating together with Coca Cola is important
because this is to the community, to the country, and to the planet. They are indirectly
showing concern for the local issues of racism, violence and war between individuals and

nations over their country, religion or community. Thus gives the suggestion of
togetherness with their product Coco Cola.

When the advertisement for the same product appeared in India, it then charged
each moment of happiness a Coca Cola with the caption, Chhoti ho ya badi, har khushi
mein Coca Cola!. The changes they made to cater to the audience of India was the use of
transliteration methods, kindling the emotional weaknesses of Indian people and
featuring well known celebrities from film world who influence the people more.
In all these cases, they just tried to market their product more effectively and also
in a more familiar and common way. Through glocalisation and the manipulating
language, images, culture, and tradition, they tried to get into the local community by
crossing the boundary laid for a stranger. Once they get into the market, then they can
establish properly and flourish ceaselessly towards their ultimate goal or profit.

Work Cited
Nair, Latha, et al. English for the Media. New Delhi: Cambridge UP India, 2014. Print.
Syamala, V. A Textbook of English Phonetics and Structure for Indian Students.
Trivandrum: Sharath Ganga Publications, 2010. Print.