The Portrayal of Cross-Cultural Aspects in Digital Toothpaste Advertisements: A Semiotic Study

Abstract

Contemporary life has been governed by advertisements that have cultural depictions to attract region bound target customers. Multinational companies design different advertisements for different cultural settings, and although it increases the advertising cost, yet the survival of multinational companies depends on fascinating indigenous cultural elements in advertisements. This study aims to unravel those hidden cultural signs in advertisements of two toothpaste brands Oral-b and Sensodyne across six continents. It explores the cross-cultural aspects through the lens of Roland Barthes’ semiotic theory. This qualitative study reveals that advertisements are designed keeping in mind the socio-cultural aspects of the target audience. These ads become appealing to the target customers of that culture, but the same advertisement may not influence the audience of another culture. The study contributes to a better understanding of cross-cultural advertisements; hence, it motivates to avoid cultural shock elements which can ruin any industry.