Globalization, advertising and promotional translation

Globalization and advertising / promotional translation – variously also termed ‘localization’, ‘adaptation’, ‘rewriting’ or ‘transcreation’ – are related in many ways. Firstly, the globalization of markets naturally brings about the possibility to advertise or promote products and services through global (i.e., untranslated) marketing strategies or, alternatively, adopting a glocal approach – i.e. developing a source text that is as little culture-dependantdependent as possible, which is then translated to best suit the local market. Secondly, global or glocal advertising and promotion facilitate the circulation of stereotypes and traits that are given for granted, thus posing critical issues of hegemony and power imbalances and yielding to feminist or postcolonial critiques. Thirdly, the globalization of translation studies, combined with a concern for the profitability of international marketing when reaching out to markets with a high purchasing potential, has led to the emergence of an Asian ‘school’ of advertising and promotional translation that typically engages with specific issues, such as brand name translation. Suggested future directions of research are a closer connection between marketing and translation studies, and the inclusion of the concept of translanguaging. Interdisciplinarity may also work both ways and concepts from translation studies may more systematically cross-fertilize disciplines such as social, cultural and gender studies.