Translating English - Vietnamese advertising slogans: A functional - cultural approach

Abstract

This paper looks at how transcreation enables the localization of English advertising slogans into Vietnamese in order to synchronize brand identity with cultural appeal. Based on skopos theory and notions from cultural pragmatics the article examines fiffteen pairs of slogans and its analysis involves also seven exemplified cases, other than five interviews to specialists in translation and marketing. The results reveal six major strategies: lexical shift, structural reformulation, metaphor adaptation, cultural substitution, emotional restructuring, and functional equivalent. These methods may work in combination in order to maintain persuasive force and cultural relevance. The agency interviewees underling the role of translators as coauthors-cum-creative who need to negotiate brand voice, guidelines, audience expectations. The study argues for expanding the concept of translation competence to include creativity, cultural awareness and strategic knowledge, and suggests incorporating transcreation models into translator training in Vietnam. These observations are relevant for the theory and professional practice of transcultural marketing.