Cross-cultural Communication in Russian Advertising

Abstract

The processes of globalization/glocalization in contemporary world give rise to s cross-cultural communication across the cultures (Gudykunst, 2003) where a crucial role is played by advertising. The current investigation is dedicated to cross-cultural aspects of Russian advertising and deals with the adverts created for Russian and foreign companies working in Moscow in late 2000s to mid 2010s. The study aims to highlight not so much economical or political components of cross-cultural advertising communications as their cultural constituents. The analysis of textual and visual content of the adverts based on the semiological approach (Barthes, 2013) showed that cross-cultural communication in advertising in Russia mostly involves “global symbols” (Urri, 2002), well-known touristic referents of concrete cultures. Symbols from the sign systems of different cultures are not only translated by advertising by means of semantic codes alien to them, but the signs and their referents are re-encoded in a substantial way. The postmodern cross-cultural game in advertising constructs the culture’s external and internal self-representations on the basis of its external ethnic images which have developed in foreign cultures. Cross-cultural communication in Russian advertising creates a multi-layered blend of cultures and imparts new cultural meanings into authentic artifacts and images and the semiosphere of the intercommunicating cultures in general. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s5p250