English print advertisements for cosmetic and hygienic products and their Persian translations

Transcription

1 English print advertisements for cosmetic and hygienic products and their Persian translations A critical discourse analysis Bahareh Lotfollahi, Saeed Ketabi and Hossein Barati Advertising is an important part of marketing and greatly influences the way people behave and think. It communicates information about products and at the same time tries to persuade people to buy them, which makes the translation of advertising materials a challenging, yet necessary task. Using critical discourse analysis, this study aims to examine English print advertisements for cosmetic and hygienic products and their Persian translations. The sample consists of seven matching pairs selected from brochures and catalogs available at Isfahan drugstores between 2010 and Fairclough s framework (2010) is adopted to analyze verbal elements. In order to analyze the visual components of advertisements, Johnson s (2008) approach to the study of advertisements is employed. The analyzed data reveals significant differences between the source and target texts in terms of their textual, discoursal, and ideological features. Keywords: advertisement, Critical Discourse Analysis, translation Introduction Advertisements can be defined as texts that are designed to attract our attention (Goddard 1998). Nicola Woods (2006) states that the function of advertising is promotional: to draw attention to a given product or service and to maximize their memorability. In order to do so, advertisements employ attractive and memorable texts and images to capture the target audience s attention (Woods 2006). Guy Cook (1992: xiv) contends that writing on advertising is difficult, not only because advertisements use language, music, and pictures in a special way but also for a host of social and cultural reasons. Therefore, in analyzing Translation and Interpreting Studies 10:2 (2015), doi /tis lot issn / e-issn John Benjamins Publishing Company

2 278 Bahareh Lotfollahi, Saeed Ketabi and Hossein Barati advertisements general theories of language and literature are not always helpful (Cook 1992: xvi). In Cook s view, advertisements represent a special kind of discourse arisen from new technologies which can create new kinds of relationship between participants. Johnson (2008) agrees, considering advertising to be a discursive whole, with its own conventions and discourse features. The special discoursive features of advertisements that are used to persuade the addressee to buy a product or use a service are, therefore, worth studying (Kim 2006). For this reason, Translation studies has gradually incorporated advertisements as one of the text types within its scope, taking communication and culture as key terms (Adab and Valdes 2004: 164). Print advertisements are typically a combination of verbal and visual components. An ad has meaning, Johnson (2008: 3) writes, by virtue of the verbal and visual imaging of its text as interpreted by a spectator. Through language and visual images, Johnson goes on to say, advertising packages discourse codes that grind out representations of the social world (5). Meriel Bloor and Thomas Bloor (2007: 141), therefore, describe advertisements as multimodal, exploiting both linguistic and pictorial resources. Johnson (2008) argues that advertising has moved away from product representations and information toward images that are not directly related to the products, which means that consumers make sense of advertisements by inferring a connection between the images and the product. In Imaging in Advertising, Johnson (2008: 2), who describes advertising as a circulator of evolving ideological codes, explores the type of discourse images presented in advertising, especially the role of verbal codes in the imaging process. Her approach to understanding verbal and visual elements is part of a broader area that she terms discourse imaging in advertising. To make sense of advertisements, Johnson argues, addressees interpret the interaction between verbal and visual elements within a meaningful cultural context insofar as, The meaning of any image is always embedded in other patterns of cultural representation (Johnson 2008: 5). Target culture norms are, therefore, an important factor in interpreting the message of advertisements that are translated from one language into another (Al-Shehari 2001). The effect translation has on discourse imaging in advertisements is the focus of this paper. A large number of products available in Iran are imported from countries which use English as the global language of business. To make Iranian consumers familiar with these products, producers make use of translation. During the transfer from English into Persian, the power relations and ideologies involved in these advertisements might change. However, relatively little research has been

3 English print advertisements for cosmetic and hygienic products and their Persian translations 279 conducted on this issue, especially in the context of Iran. 1 Therefore, using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) viewpoint the present study compares the discourse imaging in English print advertisements for cosmetic and hygienic products with that of their translations into Persian. Because such an approach requires the study of text and image together, we will use Fairclough s model to analyze the advertisements in this corpus. Critical discourse analysis Critical Discourse Analysis is a sub-discipline of discourse analysis that takes a critical viewpoint on discourse in society. According to Teun A. Van Dijk (1998: 352), CDA is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context. CDA is interested in the ways language and discourse are used to achieve social goals and in the part this use plays in social maintenance and change (Bloor and Bloor 2007: 2). CDA is based on the premise that language is not powerful in itself, but rather acquires power when powerful people make use of it (Wodak 2002: 10). Therefore, CDA pays particular attention to the language used by people who exercise such power (Wodak 2002). For Fairclough (2010), the term critique adds a normative element to analysis by concentrating on the wrongs in a society and the ways they could be righted. He also distinguishes between negative and positive critiques. Negative critique refers to the analysis of how societies produce and perpetuate social wrongs, while positive critique refers to analysis of how people seek to remedy or mitigate them, and identification of further possibilities for righting or mitigating them (ibid: 7). Fairclough (2010: ) provides a three-dimensional framework for analyzing discourse: 1. Amouzadeh (2002) analyzed a few advertisements of pre- and post-revolutionary Iran, and showed how pre-revolutionary advertisements present western social reality or ideology while post-revolutionary advertisements present social realties related to Iran s society. Amouzadeh and Tavangar (2007) also studied pre- and post-revolutionary advertisements in Iran by means of Jakobson s (1971) structuralist distinction between metaphor and metonymy to show the use of pictorial metaphor and metonymy in advertisements of these two periods. Khodabandeh (2007) investigated rhetorical figures in newspaper headlines of English and Persian advertisements and revealed that advertising language in Iran does not directly reflect the society and also it does not have the same functions as it does in western countries.

4 280 Bahareh Lotfollahi, Saeed Ketabi and Hossein Barati 1. Discourse-as-text: the linguistic features and organization of concrete instances of discourse. 2. Discourse-as-discursive-practice: discourse as something produced, circulated, distributed, and consumed in society. 3. Discourse-as-social-practice: the ideological effects and hegemonic processes in which discourse operates. Corresponding to these three dimensions of discourse, Fairclough (1989: 26) distinguishes between three dimensions, or stages, of critical discourse analysis: a. Description is the stage which is concerned with formal properties of the text. b. Interpretation is concerned with the relationship between text and interaction with seeing the text as the product of a process of production, and as a resource in the process of interpretation. c. Explanation is concerned with the relationship between interaction and social context with the social determination of the processes of production and interpretation, and their social effects. The three-dimensional framework for analyzing discourse proposed by Fairclough (2010: 133) which is employed in this study is presented in Figure 1. Process of production Text Process of interpretation Description (text analysis) Interpretation (processing analysis) Discourse practice Explanation (social analysis) Sociocultural practice (Situational; institutional; societal) Dimensions of discourse Dimensions of discourse analysis Figure 1. A three-dimensional model of discourse (Fairclough 2010: 133) Fairclough s (2003) approach to text analysis, which we have adopted for this study, is a relational approach insofar as he posits several levels for analysis, focusing on the relations between these levels. These relations are categorized into external relations of texts and internal relations of texts (Fairclough 2003).

5 English print advertisements for cosmetic and hygienic products and their Persian translations 281 Analysis of the external relations of texts includes analysis of their relations with other elements of social events, and more abstractly, social practices and social structures (Fairclough 2003). Analysis of relations of texts to other elements of social events includes analysis of how they figure in Actions, Identifications, and Representations (Fairclough 2003). For example, looking at the clause in terms of Actional meanings includes looking at categories of speech function (Statement, Demand, etc.) and at grammatical mood (declarative, interrogatives, imperative) (Fairclough 2003). Analysis of the internal relations of texts considers the following: 1. Semantic relations: meaning relations between words and longer expressions, between elements of clauses, between clauses and between sentences, and over larger stretches of text (Allan 2001; Lyons 1997). 2. Grammatical relations: the relationship between morphemes in words, between words in phrases, between phrases within clauses, and between clauses in sentences (Eggings 1994; Halliday 1994; Quirk et al. 1995). 3. Vocabulary (or lexical ) relations: relations of collocation. i.e., patterns of cooccurrence between items of vocabulary (words of expressions) (Fairclough 2003: 36 37). 4. Phonological relations: relations in spoken language, including prosodic patterns of intonation and rhythm; graphological relations in written language e.g., relations between different fonts or type sizes in a written text. Finally, as Van Dijk (1998) mentions, since actions are controlled by the mind, influencing people s minds through manipulation and persuasion can control their actions. This is exactly what advertisements do in persuading addresses to purchase a certain product or service. Methodology The corpus of the study is comprised of English print advertisements for cosmetic and hygienic products and their Persian translations. The latter are freely available at Iranian drugstores in brochures and catalogs. A total of 100 of such brochures and catalogs available at drugstores in the Iranian city of Isfahan were collected between 2010 and Thirty brochures and catalogs were selected randomly from this corpus. Randomization was used to reduce bias as much as possible in sampling. However, all instances of the advertisements in these brochures and catalogs were not included in the data set. The rationale for choosing a sample was that all examples should be ideologically loaded and infused with evaluative vocabularies which made them be a suitable target for CDA. Only 7 matching pairs (including

6 282 Bahareh Lotfollahi, Saeed Ketabi and Hossein Barati the English texts and their Persian translations) were in line with the objectives of the study, and therefore were selected for analysis. Next, all parts of these advertisements, as defined by Judy Delin (2000), were analyzed: the headline, body copy, signature, and slogan. The headline is typically eye-caching, intriguing, or sometimes shocking. The signature part is often a graphic that is the brand name of the product or the company itself, and it may incorporate a small picture of the product. The slogan is the verbal element that usually accompanies the signature. Also, relevant to our analysis was the categorization of products in marketing research into high-, medium-, and low-involvement goods (Kim 2006). High involvement products are those of a higher price and are not purchased frequently. Examples of high involvement products include automobiles, kitchen appliances, and jewelry. Low-involvement products are packaged goods which are generally inexpensive. Such products are purchased frequently by consumers and include hair-care and food products. Medium-involvement products are those which fall around the center of the involvement continuum. Watches, television sets, and cameras are considered examples of medium-involvement products. The products chosen for the study cosmetic and hygienic goods are typically categorized as low-involvement (Kim 2006) insofar as they are readily available at almost all drugstores in Iran at a relatively low price and are purchased regularly by all consumers and by women in particular. The corpus covered a wide range of cosmetic and hygienic products, such as lipsticks, mascaras, sunscreens, moisturizers, deodorants, shampoos, and so on. The ads included in this corpus were classified from a geographical point of view as: Australian, European (France, Turkey, Germany, Denmark), and American. Data analysis The data for this study were analyzed using CDA models applied to the study of translation. For the analysis of verbal texts, the above-mentioned framework proposed by Fairclough (2010) was used. But because advertisements are typically multi-semiotic, that is, they contain visual images as well as text, Johnson s (2008) approach to advertising was chosen. This approach allowed us to categorize the images and to analyze the ideological codes embedded in them. First, each selected advertisement was analyzed in terms of the external and internal relations of the texts. Second, an analysis of the discourse features of the advertisements was completed. Third, an in-depth analysis was conducted to see how these representations can be interpreted as ideologically significant. Then, a comparison of these features in each of the source and target text pairs was made

7 English print advertisements for cosmetic and hygienic products and their Persian translations 283 in order to understand the translation decisions that were taken. And finally, the images of the advertisements were analyzed along with the accompanying text in order to find the ideological codes that lend them their meaning. It is worth mentioning that the analyzed ads were all written in English and were translated by the companies that import the products to Iran. 1. ST: Ego the science of healthy skin ايگو دانش سالمتي پوست TT: Back translation: Ego the science of skin health Regarding the English version, what is represented here is a relation between two identities: Ego and science. This example also presents an action implying a social relation: the addresser is giving the addressee information, telling him/her something which implies a social relation between someone who knows and someone who does not. Looking at this clause in terms of Actional meaning, it is a minor clause which does not have a verb and appears to be a Statement. The example presents a judgment in saying it is rather than perhaps it is. In terms of evaluation, this clause is evaluative in that it implies that Ego products are desirable. The choices of vocabulary ( science, healthy ) show desirability. The text relations in the Persian translation are significantly altered. This could be related to the literal translation of the noun phrase healthy skin as skin health, or پوست.سالمتي The head of the compound healthy skin is skin in the ST; however it is health, or, سالمتي in the TT compound. This shift could lead to changes in evaluation. Ego products are considered desirable in the ST because they are made according to the science of skin, which is dermatology. Here, the producer implicitly refers to the quality of the products and the care that goes into their production. However, what is given prominence in the TT is health, or, سالمتي while skin, or, پوست is in the subordinate position. The voice in this ad is that of a pharmaceutical company. The institution claims authority by projecting a specific professional identity for the potential addressee ( scientific ). The structure of the ad follows traditional print advertising for cosmetic and hygienic products: a slogan and a signature. This ad features a large graphic of the brand name of the company ( Ego ) which is located in a dark blue background. Embedded in the signature is a map of the world, implying that Ego products are universal and available all around the world. 2. ST: Lovely Family Skin Begins With QV سالمت پوست خانواده با کيو وي آغاز مي شود TT: Back translation: The health of family skin begins with QV

8 284 Bahareh Lotfollahi, Saeed Ketabi and Hossein Barati What is represented in the English sentence is a relation between lovely family skin and QV. Time is represented in the tense of the verb. Global space-time is realized by using a simple present tense, which Fairclough (2003: 152) refers to as the timeless present. The timeless present does not represent the present time, but an unlimited time span. Global space-time is constructed as actual and real in a sequence of factual statements (Fairclough 2003: 154). The sentence is an action which implies a social relation: the addresser is giving the addressee information. It is a declarative statement of fact. This example is also a judgment, saying it begins rather than perhaps it begins. In terms of evaluation, this example includes an evaluative element realized as an adjective ( lovely ), which refers to desirability. سالمت پوست خانواده In the Persian translation a relation is established between سالمت پوست ( health of family skin ) and QV. The head of the Persian compound con- ( health ); however, it is skin that سالمت ( health of family skin ) is خانواده stitutes the head in the ST compound lovely family skin. This shift in the orders of the elements in the TT, resulted from literal translation, and translating love- زیبایی ( health ), instead of choosing a closer equivalent such as سالمت ly into ( beauty ), could lead to changes in evaluation. QV is considered desirable in the ST because it produces beauty, expressed in the adjective lovely. In the TT, however, health is given prominence. It should be mentioned that the shift in the orders of elements is not due to grammatical restrictions and so can be considered an effect of cultural difference. The repetition of vowel sounds, or assonance, in skin and begins which, as Durant and Lambrou (2009) note, can create a more subtle effect than alliteration, is lost in the TT. However, choosing سالمت ( health ) as the equivalent of lovely creates alliteration of /s/ in Persian. The structure of this ad is composed of a headline and a signature. What is represented is an image of a young woman in a lying position, gazing at a 4 5 month-old baby sleeping next to her, with their noses touching. The woman is smiling at the baby. The theme is simple: skin as lovely as that of a baby can be achieved by using QV products. Using this picture of a young mother and her baby also reinforces the idea of family, which appears in the headline another term with positive connotations. As Johnson (2008) notes, the face plays the leading role in contextualizing beauty and holds power and is the site of cleanliness. The face here is a synecdoche for one s total appearance (Johnson 2008). 3. ST: BIODERMA Biology at the service of dermatology بايولوژي درخدمت درماتولوژي TT: Back translation: Biology at the service of dermatology

9 English print advertisements for cosmetic and hygienic products and their Persian translations 285 In this example a relation is established between two identities: biology and dermatology. The example is also an action which implies a social relation. It is a minor clause which does not have a verb and it seems to be a Statement. In terms of evaluation, biology and dermatology are implicitly valued as desirable. The Persian translation, which is a literal one, has the same status. It is a minor clause, which does not need a verb. Through the use of words taken directly from medical discourse ( biology and dermatology ), this dermatological laboratory claims authority and presents a specific professional identity for the potential addressee. By keeping these English words in the Persian version, the translator adds to the desirability of the products in the TT as English is considered a prestigious language in the target culture. Three tubes of products are represented in the ad. A torn piece of white paper serves as the background. These tubes are under a red and orange umbrella. There is a light shade of orange above the umbrella. The ad implies a metaphorical relationship between the ripped paper and the skin of the face. The umbrella is also used metaphorically to represent the fact that the product protects the skin by absorbing harmful sun rays. The light shade of orange is a pictorial synecdoche for the sun. 4. ST: LIERAC THE LANGUAGE OF YOUR SKIN ليراک راز زيبايي ماندگار TT: Back translation: Lierac the secret of permanent beauty Lierac is the language of your skin is the headline of the ST ad. In terms of evaluation, this clause is evaluative in that it implies that Lierac products are desirable. The Persian translation does not have the same status with regard to text relations. Here, a relation is established between Lierac and the secret of permanent beauty زيبايي ماندگار ).( راز Therefore, what is valued here is permanent beauty, which explicitly expresses desirability. In other words, beauty which is the implicit evaluative element in the source text has been made explicit in the target text. Also, the translator has increased the level of commitment in this ad by adding the.( ماندگار ) permanent adjective As Fairclough (2003) notes, pronouns warrant attention in text analysis. Your is generic, including everyone. Generic reference is associated with the universal (Fairclough 2003). The addresser excludes him/her here. Also, the generic you [and the corresponding your] is considered a colloquial pronoun (in contrast to one ), referencing everyday practical experience (Fairclough 2003). However, there is no second person possessive adjective in the Persian translation. This could be caused by the translator s desire to keep the social relations between the producers and women who are the potential consumers of cosmetics in Iran on polite terms.

10 286 Bahareh Lotfollahi, Saeed Ketabi and Hossein Barati Language is a polysemous word that is metaphorically used to refer to the way you express yourself through your skin. This brand belongs to the category of anti-aging products, which generally promise to bring back a youthful appearance. References to the so called anti-aging ingredients in this ad (hyaluronic acid and especial herbal extracts) reinforce such a claim. Alliteration of /l/ in English is replaced with that of /z/ in Persian version, which contributes to preserving the stylistic effect of the headline. The image of the ad features a bottle of the product against a black background. There are two glass balls around the bottle, a small one on the right side of the bottle and a larger one behind it, shining brightly. These gleaming balls contain small colorful pieces of plant parts that are used in these products (black flowers ), which reinforces the message of the ad: you will have bright, beautiful skin by using the product. 5. ST: Fa Experience Pure Freshness! احساس طراوت و شادابي با محصوالت TT: Fa Back translation: Feeling of freshness and purity with Fa products Looking at the English clause in terms of Actional meaning, the primary speech function is Demand. The sentence type is imperative. In terms of evaluation, this clause is evaluative in that the words pure and freshness are quite explicit; a feeling of freshness is desirable. These two polysemous words, which appear together, suggest a tactile image of the coolness and cleanliness created by using Fa products. Regarding the Persian translation, this imperative sentence is translated as a phrase, which leads to some shifts in the external and internal relations of this text. Looking at this text in terms of grammatical mood, it is a minor clause without a verb. The avoidance of the ST imperative in favor of expository, rather than argumentative devices i.e., preference for description over exhortation reduces the immediacy of the advertiser-consumer relationship, thereby creating distance (Sidiropoulou 1998). This avoidance of the ST imperative may be the result of cultural differences, which forced the translators to tone down the personalized relationship between producer and consumer. Instead of keeping the evaluative adjective pure, two nouns are used in an additive relation in the TT. Despite this addition, the loss of the adjective reduces the desirability of the product in the TT by losing the effect of hyperbole in the TT. This brochure includes a signature, a headline, and a body, which includes the name of the product accompanied by images. The products being advertised include a body spray, deodorants for men and women, a shower gel and an aftershave

11 English print advertisements for cosmetic and hygienic products and their Persian translations 287 for men. What is significant in such ads is the discourse of male-female relationships (Johnson 2008), which suggest the idea that personal beauty can be obtained by women by using certain products, while beautiful women can be obtained by men by using certain products (Baker 2005: 25, cited in Johnson 2008: 144). The word new on one of the products is a term used mostly in ads for cosmetic and hygienic products; it serves to create the effect of novelty and innovation (Johnson 2008). 6. ST: FACE DOUX ULTIMATE INNOVATION FOR YOUR SKIN براي زيبايي پوستتان نهايت نوآوري را به ارمغان آورده ايم TT: Back translation: We have brought ultimate innovation for the beauty of your skin In the ST a relation is established between Face Doux and the ultimate innovation. Looking at this clause in terms of Actional meaning, it is a minor clause that does not have a verb, and it seems to be Statement. In terms of evaluation, this clause is evaluative in that the phrase ultimate innovation is quite explicit. It is assumed that this product provides the latest innovation. This ad speaks directly to young women, since the audience is addressed directly with the use of your. This minor clause is changed to a statement in the target text. The target text is a declarative statement. The elements of social events are represented in the form of activity ( have brought, or ارمغان آورده ايم,( به and the object of this form of activity (ultimate innovation, or نوآوري.( نهايت Time is included in the tense of the verb (present perfect)., نهايت نوآوري or for the beauty of your skin, here precedes, براي زيبايي پوستتان or ultimate innovation, which means the focus is on the beauty of your skin and not on the ultimate innovation. This modification in the order of the elements, adding an evaluative element ( beauty, or,( زيبايي and using an action verb ( have brought, or ارمغان آورده ايم ( به shows that what matters here are persons (we) or the social relations of production, not objects (the products). Also, the second person possessive adjective, your, is translated in a way that is peculiar to Persian, a null-subject language. Possession could be expressed by possessive adjectives or by adding possessive suffixes to nouns in Persian. And so, Your, which could be singular or plural in English, is expressed by a plural possessive suffix in the TT. This brochure contains advertisements for repair creams, moisturizers, antiacne, anti-wrinkle, and lightening creams. The ad for these products represents the lower part of the face of a woman applying the product to her face with one hand, while holding a fresh, pink flower next to her face in the other hand. Here, the face functions as a synecdoche for one s total appearance. Moreover, placing a flower

12 288 Bahareh Lotfollahi, Saeed Ketabi and Hossein Barati beside the face of the woman also promotes a pictorial metonymy (Amouzadeh and Tavangar 2007: 155). Regarding the brand name, Face Doux, doux is a French word meaning soft, sweet, or gentle. The model used in this ad has an artificially blemish-free skin to manifest the visual metaphor that matches the product name, leading to the image of a future of clear skin (Johnson 2008: 116). Innovation is a technology term used in this ad for seeking the consumer s interest in state of the art products (Johnson 2008: 170). 7. ST: Ellaro INSPIRED BY ELEGANCE االرو TT: الهام بخش زيبايي Back translation: Ellaro Inspires beauty The English version establishes a relation between: Ellaro and elegance. Aspects of the physical world are represented as activity ( inspire ) and the object of this form of activity ( Ellaro ). What is important here is the object or the quality of the product, not the person or the social relations of production. In terms of evaluation, this clause is evaluative in that it explicitly implies that Ellaro products are desirable. This evaluative phrase includes the adjective elegance as an evaluative element. The Persian translation does not have the same status with regard to text relations. Here, Ellaro itself is inspiring while in the ST it is inspired by something ( elegance ). The grammatical form of the TT is state not action; therefore, once again, what is important is the product not the people. This evaluative statement is realized as a relational process. The attribute is an adjective بخش ), الهام or inspiring ). Also,, زيبايي or beauty, is an expression which explicitly triggers desirability. The ad for this product shows half of a dark-skinned black woman s face with large lips and heavy make-up and half of the face of a young white woman. Both faces have flawless skin. What is significant in this image is the contrast between black skin and white skin. There are differences between black skins and white skins. Taylor (2004) notes that often women of color will look 10 years younger when compared to their counterparts with white skin. The melanin in the skin absorbs the ultraviolet light and prevents many of the changes that we associate with aging. What is interesting is how this ad for moisturizers, vitamin creams, anti-aging and anti-wrinkle creams, and sunscreens, speaks indirectly to women of color in order to bring them into the discourse of wrinkles and other facial signs of aging (Johnson 2008).

13 English print advertisements for cosmetic and hygienic products and their Persian translations 289 Discussion Like other countries, advertising and the translation of ads for cosmetic and hygienic products are controlled by businesses in Iran. Moreover, the majority of the ads for these products are part of multinational campaigns, since most of these products belong to multinational brands and companies. Analysis of the seven English-Persian pairs of advertisements revealed differences in textual, discoursal, and ideological features. One of the most significant observations concerning the translated ads was the avoidance of imperatives. There is a tendency to use imperatives and also first/second person pronouns in the ST which was not reflected in the target versions. This difference is due to the effect of tradition and culture which restricts the use of imperatives and also first/ second person in Persian. While in English, first/second person pronouns are used to create intimate relations or face-to-face conversations; and, imperatives educe personal involvement in advertising (Torresi 2010), social norms in Iranian society demand respect and formality in social relations. This observation the avoidance of first/second person pronouns and imperatives is in line with Sidiropoulou (1998) who showed a similar trend in advertising translation from English into Greek. She states that these distancing devices [avoiding imperatives and first/second person pronouns] are used in advertising in order to ensure the appropriate social distance between producer and consumer which is reduced by the use of the devices which maximize directness (Sidiropoulou 1998: 12). As in Greek, the persuasive strategy in Persian: requires more distance between producer [and] consumer which would make the producer sound less biased and would allow the consumer more mental space to process the information offered. It is as if the producer presupposes that the consumer is going to take up the role of the denier and is, therefore, prepared to leave space for objections (Sidiropoulou 1998: 12). However, what differentiates the use of these distancing devices in Persian from Greek is the nature of the conversational style between men and women in Iranian culture. It is a social norm for men to be conservative in their cross-sex conversations. The analyzed data shows how Iranian translators attempt to keep the formal relation peculiar to Iranian society between advertisers, with unknown gender generally supposed to be male, and their female customers. Advertising in general plays a key role in the culture of consumption (Johnson 2008: 205). What is clear is that ads for cosmetics use verbal and visual imaging strategies which take advantage of conventional beauty ideals and the quest for youth. (Johnson 2008: 148) The themes that were observed in the corpus of ads included facial rejuvenation, women of color, the use of technology and medical

14 290 Bahareh Lotfollahi, Saeed Ketabi and Hossein Barati discourse which are in line with the findings of Johnson (2008). Elements of nature were observed too. Johnson (2008) believes that using technological terms signals to a consumer that the product is credible. Ads for beauty products are creative in suggesting that technology has added a distinctive feature to a particular product. According to Johnson (2008: 164), appeals to science and technology as a rational foundation for a positive orientation to a product are constructed to engage only a superficial level of understanding: the form of technology rather than its performance As Williamson (1978: cited in Tuna 2004: 223) notes, because of the ideological meaning it has in society and its close association with another powerful referent system, nature, science is a rich referent system in advertising. Therefore, what advertising discourse of such products represents is the pressure on women to confirm to particular and in almost all cases unattainable beauty standards. (Johnson 2008: 148) In the texts analyzed, language was also used as a means for imposing certain ideologies associated with beauty and youth. Based on the findings of this critical analysis of ads, the writers of these texts were seen to use certain adjectives in order to represent desirability. Other strategies such as hyperbole, metaphor, synecdoche, metonymy, imagery, alliteration, and collocation were observed, which all contribute to creating effects in advertising discourse. Conclusion The present study investigated shifts in imaging discourse in translation of advertisements from English into Persian. It aimed at investigating the ways in which language is employed by the advertisers as a powerful social institution to construct certain realities. Cosmetics play an important part in western culture; however, it seems that they do not have the same social meaning in Iran as in the western countries. The wording in English ads shows that women in western cultures are less concerned about aging, and cosmetics are more associated with the quality of life rather than beauty. The use of technological and medical terms and elements of nature and science confirms this claim. However, modifications which are made by Iranian translators such as adding the word زیبایی ( beauty ) and using it in noun phrases with extreme adjectives ( permanent beauty ) reveals the growing fear of aging which is becoming an obsession for Iranian women. Such modifications make use of exaggeration as an appropriate strategy in Iranian culture to guarantee the superiority of the products in the target culture. As a result, the target text ads seem less realistic than their source texts.

15 English print advertisements for cosmetic and hygienic products and their Persian translations 291 Since cosmetics do not generally have a connection with deeply rooted religious beliefs and socio-cultural values of the Iranian people, and are not strongly rooted in their cultural heritage, it is perhaps unavoidable that these ads, on both a verbal and a visual level, will undergo some adaptation through the translation process. While the analyzed samples selected from the corpus revealed shifts in the use of language, it did not reveal any serious adaptation in the use of visual images, which are such a prominent feature in ads for cosmetic and hygienic products. The images in the analyzed ads were not adapted to the socio-cultural context of Iran. This is especially surprising if we acknowledge that, Visual language is not despite assumptions to the contrary transparent and universally understood; it is culturally specific (Kress and Leeuwen 2006: 4). Avoiding adaptation of visuals to the socio-cultural context of Iran by Iranian translators has some implications for Iranian culture. Visual images in advertisements for cosmetics play an influential role in the development of female attitudes regarding ideal facial skin images, and this may in turn have an impact on their behavioral patterns. The images of female models with Western standards of female in such ads lead to serious concern for appearance and facial image dissatisfaction, especially among Iranian young people. Therefore, only a determined Western stereotype of beauty is valued. This, in return, entails efforts to achieve such ideal faces. And, it is observed that quests for attaining Westernized beauty are starting at an early age in the context of Iran; Iranian teenage girls now put a lot of make-up in public. These changes in behavioral patterns and social values of Iranian women which are leading to value themselves for their physical appearance are contradictory to social values of the Islamic society of Iran. Finally, certain ideologies and cultural values which are less considered as part of Iranian culture are reflected in English advertisement for cosmetic and hygienic products and their Persian translations. A large number of translations in this corpus are literal translations in which no serious attempt is made to adapt them to Iranian culture. In order to make such ads congruent with the religious society of Iran, they do need some adaptations on both verbal and non-verbal levels. References Adab, Beverly, and Cristina Valdes Introduction. The Translator 10 (2): DOI: / Al-Shehari, Khalid Sharaf The Semiotics and Translation of Advertising Texts: Conventions, Constraints and Translation Strategies with Particular Reference to English and Arabic. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. Allan, Keith Natural Language Semantics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

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17 English print advertisements for cosmetic and hygienic products and their Persian translations 293 Appendix Picture 1 Picture 2

18 294 Bahareh Lotfollahi, Saeed Ketabi and Hossein Barati Picture 3 Picture 4

19 English print advertisements for cosmetic and hygienic products and their Persian translations 295 Picture 5

20 296 Bahareh Lotfollahi, Saeed Ketabi and Hossein Barati Picture 6

21 English print advertisements for cosmetic and hygienic products and their Persian translations 297 Picture 7 Authors addresses Bahareh Lotfollahi Department of English Faculty of Foreign Languages University of Isfahan Iran Hossein Barati Department of English Faculty of Foreign Languages University of Isfahan Iran blotfollahi@yahoo.com h.barati@gmail.com Saeed Ketabi Department of English Faculty of Foreign Languages University of Isfahan Iran S.ketabi@yahoo.com