“The language of beauty: localization processes and transcreation phenomena in nationally-targeted advertisements”,

The aim of this paper is to carry out a synchronic analysis of the language of cosmetics advertising, taking into account the adverts for beauty products published in three different national editions (British, Indian, and Italian) of the monthly magazine Marie Claire. The focus is on nationally-targeted advertisements, localization strategies (Pym 2013) and transcreation processes. Focusing on the localization process, specific attention will be given to the culture-specific traits of the textual advertising strings in order to highlight the similarities and differences which affect the language use. For the purposes of responding to the needs of a ‘designed audience’ (Bell, 1984), the textual message of an advertisement is submitted to a ‘reshaping’ process. The ‘wizards’ in charge of this operation are named transcreators and they localize the advertisement, ‘tuning’ it with the target culture by exploiting endogenous rhetorical features and culture-specific linguistic strategies. Playing the role both of translator and cultural advisor, the transcreator is in charge of what George Ho calls an introcultural process. Drawing from the principle of genetic engineering and introgression, according to Ho “translators retain the ‘strains’ of the source culture, then modify them and implant the modified ‘genetic material’ into the target culture to produce the transgenic text or message” (Ho, 2004, 225). In the present paper the ‘transgenic texts’ analyzed belong to the domain of hair and skin (anti-aging and moisturizing) care. The data collected have led to remarkable results; the most striking ones emerged from comparing anti-aging product ads in the three magazines. As a matter of fact, it was not possible to compare British and Italian advertisements with the Indian counterpart because Marie Claire India has not even a single advert concerning anti-aging (trying to answer to the question “Why?” is one of the challenges of the paper). In the Indian edition of the magazine, moreover, all the ads concerning cold creams are about eliminating dark spots and protecting the skin from the sun; fair complexion intended in the Indian English nuance (Kachru, 1983) is one of the most important qualities of an eligible bride.