Advertising Adaptations between Globalization and Locality: Case of Snickers

Abstract

By comparing the American and the Turkish versions of television commercials arising from the Snickers' global advertising campaign You are not you when you are hungry, this article examines how commercials are adapted to appeal to a sense of locality through the strategies of locality. To explore how locality is represented in advertising, three localization strategies (national language, culture, humor) employed in advertising adaptation are analyzed. Using interviews with focus groups and an advertising practitioner, the author argues that advertising plays an important role for construction and reproduction of locality in everyday life. The author asks which values and codes are employed in advertising adaptations and how they are articulated to discourse of consumer culture in the media materials. The article also discusses the significance of advertising adaptations within the overlapping contexts of global formats, national media, and local identities.