Proof that media is culture-specific

Check out this Indian PSA promoting safe sex.... not only is it bizarre and hilarious at the same time for us Americans, it's also highly demonstrative that media and really, communication, is much more culture-specific than most give thought to on a regular basis. This is, given the Indian media that I've seen, pretty normal in some important ways. Feel free to go rent a Hindi movie if you don't believe me :) 

(Hat tip to my media guru sister, who passed this on to me).

 

But wait a second... are you sure that I'm not just doing the ignorant thing and taking some piece of media that's meant mockingly (say, like the Colbert Report) and ascribing serious attributes to it? What if this was an ad from a popular comedy show (SNL India perhaps?) and now I'm telling you all that this is a real ad? The credits at the end make it a little odd, don't they?

So let's see.. what else is out there in the way of condom ads from India?

It turns out, according to this news item that another condom ad won an award from the UN this year. Much shorter, more serious but the point of the ad is that condom is an ok word to say - now that might be kind of different from what we'd see in America, but not as shocking as the above video. Check it out:

But wait, there's more...

You should then remember that this is an ad that was judged to be good by the UN. While the story does mention quite a bit of activity done in order to promote the campaign, it doesn't mean that this campaign was particularly effective. What it might actually speak to is the subjective judgements of largely Westernized citizens on the UN panel of judges. Oh, that and the fact that according to that article, it sounds like the campaign was only competing against 2 other campaigns for this award... Minor detail, no?

 

So, what's my point here, now that I've tied your head in knots?

Won't it be a great world when advertising and marketing messages are much better translated to the cultures that they're targeting?

Which of the above campaigns really gets people in India to use condoms and practice safe sex?

Remember, that's the goal here - to get the message across and impact people's behavior.. that's what this stuff is all about. It's not about winning awards or having something that is so funny and odd that people on the other side of the world are looking at it and passing it around to one another as a joke. This campaign is about promoting safe sex and hopefully slowing the growth of AIDS in India, the country with the most reported AIDS cases of any country in the world.

*Wow, that's a very serious goal, isn't it?*

Yes, advertising and marketing messages can be unwanted and annoying. They can be offensive or deceitful. They can even be culturally damaging.

So can any type of communication.

But when it has such a high ceiling, we should really be focusing on making it better, not arguing about exactly what is and isn't ok. And when I see media like this, I think to myself, "Damn it, we need to be making ads that communicate better to the cultures they're hoping to connect with!"

What U.S. company can effectively advertise in India? It's damn hard, isn't it?

We need people to take much more seriously the fact that in order to communicate our ideas globally, we have to be able to tailor those messages: not just language, not just images, but real cultural tailoring. Understanding, experimenting and continuing to revise those messages so that they hit home with the target audience most effectively. 

It's happening now in small ways (think about McDonald's "I'm lovin' it" or the massive growth in Spanish language media), but it's very very slow for society as a whole and this should really be changing dramatically with the Internet.

Anyone want to help speed that change up? I bet there'd be some money in there for ya :)

 

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Culture targeting, Cultural communications, media and culture

Comments

[St------ and An------]

So, what's YOUR point here, now that I've tied your paragraphs in knots?

one rhetorical question after the next. You want my list of answers, no?

[St------ and An------]

So, what's YOUR point here, now that YOU'VE tied your paragraphs in knots?

one rhetorical question after the next. You want my list of answers, no?

[Benjamin Hoyt]

Jesus, dude. 7 minutes?! WTF?! Seriously, the question I want answered is: what was the context in which this ad was run? I seriously doubt that it was run on TV, before a movie, or anywhere else that people watch it voluntarily. Far more likely, this was a PSA that was commissioned to be shown to classrooms, probably for high school kids. The audience for the 2nd ad seems likley to be much older and the short duration and style of presentation implies that it was used as a short TV spot. I'm not sure how this affects your analysis, but it's worth noting.

I'd be interested to see some numbers regarding the efficacy of the two ads that you raise so many questions about. It's kinda disappointing that you either didn't look, or weren't able to find, any data on the subject.

If I may make a suggestion, I think that there is a valid response of "what's your point?" What's your "call to action?" It's an interesting blog post with interesting video content, but you kinda fail to capitalize on that interest because I don't come away with a clear sense of what I should be doing or learning from your message.

[Sunil Goswami]

Hi Robi,
First of all thanks for your comment on my blog.

This is what I had come to say when I saw this post. Struck me as quite interesting. I live in the UK so I don't get to see any Indian ads these days. Both the videos you have posted were hilarious; the first one I didn't watch after 59 seconds, it was kinda distasteful.

On the whole, I think, it is part of a copywriter's basic education to "know his audience" which would mean cultuaralizing (making my own word here for your concept) the ad campaign. I have lived in the US and seen their ad's, now I live in the UK and watch their ads, and of course, I have lived in India the most and seen a whole lot of their ads. I'd rank them, on the basis of personal preference, India then UK then US.

They are ALL tailored to their culture. If you ask me, American ads, 95% of them are just yak-yak, only words, either from an on-screen character (a celeb if possible), or voice over on images of the product or something like that. British ads have a strong weirdness factor in them, do something absurd on screen then relate it to the product with words.

Indian ads cover a lot of ground in variety and creativity. You can watch an ad for all of 59 seconds and not know what it is all about and then just see the name of the product in the last second and you are forced to nod and admit that it "makes sense".

I have been always interested in ads, they are quite fascinating in their novel, creative ways. I miss that living in a western country, here there is too much repetition of the same ads. In India, several new ads are released every week, (I am talking about TV spots), and it's fun to watch the new ones. Believe it or not quite a few ads earn their place in water-cooler chats and such.

So, coming back to your point, I think ads are already tailored to their target cultures - Americans want information as much as possible; if you convince an American with features and benefit you can force him/her to pick up the phone and order the item right away. Hence, the yak-yak ads.

British are nice, polite people with their straightforward mindset, genteel and gentle, always trying to act prim and proper. Hence the weirdness, once you got their attention with the absurd visual, feed them the information needed to make them buy.

Indian, it's simple, so many types of people, so many sub-cultures, so many mindsets, hence, so many styles of ads.

Well, that's my 2 bits, take it or leave it. :-)

Nice post, I think I am going to read some more of your posts. You have an interesting way of picking up on things and I like that.

Regards,
Sunil

[Sunil Goswami]

hey Robi,

I just started a new blog with my friend, about Heinlein. Seeing how you said you are a big Heinlein fan, I had you in mind as the third author for this group blog. would you be interested?

Here's the URL for the new blog.
http://heinlein-mania.blogspot.com/
If you are interested, send me your email address and I'll invite you as an author.

Regards,
Sunny