“Glocalization” and Intercultural Representation in Filipino TV Commercials: A Multidimensional Discourse Analysis

Abstract

This paper looks at how Filipino “glocalizes” international brands in TV commercials and how it links to customers’ culture and norms in the Philippine context. Four TV commercials from the food industry were purposively identified as target samples. These samples were then compared to other TV commercials in two different contexts, namely, Thailand and the USA to see the process of glocalization and interculturality. Improvised tools from Kress and Van Leeuwen’s inter-semiosis (2006) and O’Halloran’s SF-MDA (2011) framework were used in data analysis. Findings on multimodal-discourse analysis suggested that TV commercials constructed the “glocal” identity in various representations such as visual, sociolinguistic, characterization, and sociocultural connection. It is argued that these combinations of findings provide some support for the conceptual knowledge between glocalization and interculturality within the contemporary customer culture.