MIRROR, MIRROR - SOME POSTMODERN REFLECTIONS ON GLOBAL ADVERTISING

Global advertising succeeds when it is perceived in semiotically-equiv alent ways by multicultural consumer segments. Before campaigns can be standardized it is necessary to identify segments of consumers who sh are an ethos, since this represents the foundation for creating advert ising executions that can be understood multiculturally. This paper de velops the argument that fashion and food products-what people put on and in their bodies-enable the universally-held need of self-expressio n, and in that sense their perceptions are thereby driven by a common ethos. Certain consumers, apart from their resident cultures, regard t hese products in essentially equivalent, self-relevant ways, so they a re prime candidates for global, if not wholly standardized, advertisin g. Two multicultural segments for which these products are especially self-relevant are identified: (1) the world's economically-elite consu mers (a segment which has been widely recognized); and (2) the post-Wo rld-War-II generations of consumers in Western societies (a ''postmode rn'' segment, which is only coming into recognition). Using both conte nt analysis and semiotic interpretation, international print advertisi ng for fashion and food products aimed at the latter segment is illust rated with a view toward explaining what makes it mulitculturally unde rstood (and, in that sense, ''effective''). Overall, this stimulus-sid e analysis demonstrates the use of semiotics as a way of thinking abou t global advertising, particularly in an imagistic postmodern world.