Bier, parfum, kaas: language fetish in European advertising

Abstract

In current intercultural advertising in Europe, languages are used not for their communicative function (what could be termed their utility value) nor any of the other more established functions of language in advertising communication, for example persuasion or hyperbole. Instead, it is their symbolic function that has come to have the greater value. Thus, it is unimportant whether the advertisee understands the foreign word in an advertisement, so long as it calls up the cultural stereotype of the country with which the language is associated. We have, therefore, in Marx's terms 'form without content'. Language in intercultural advertising has become fetished, imbued with value, existing as a thing on its own. In this article, the existence and functioning of language fetish in European advertising is explored. By examining a range of both pan-European advertisements and specifically intercultural advertisements, we can see how languages have become fetished with values based on deep-seated perceptions of the cultural identities of other European countries and regions.