Asian flavor in Russian advertising

The influence of neighboring Asian cultures is also evident in the region. Exotic cuisine can be expected at Chinese and Japanese restaurants and cafes that bear Chinese, Japanese or Korean names, written either in characters, or transliterated in Cyrillic or Latin letters - for example, Night club ‘Jumanji.’ When disguised in Roman letters, Asian words are often taken for English ones, which, for a common person, makes an impression of the increased Americanization of Russian advertising. For a person, not educated enough, the Romanized Chinese toponym Formoza (the old name of Taiwan) in Компьютеры Formoza если вы думаете о будущем [Computers Formoza if you think about the future] may sound quite exotic.

Like in many other countries in the world, Russian children and teenagers are keen Asian martial arts. There are quite a few advertisements promoting martial arts clubs in English: Kyokushinkai Karate; Taekwon-do, etc. The latter word has a number of spelling variants in Russian: тхэквондо (the adequate transliteration of the Korean word), тэквондо (translation transcription through English), and таэквондо (transliteration from English). The use of the English form puts an end to the long-standing disputes on which Russian form is correct.

Asian influence is also observed in calquing phrases. Thus similar to Ichiban, an often occurred Japanese name of restaurant in California (USA), we found a store NumberOne (written in one word in English) in the Siberian city of Irkutsk. The Japanese meaning disguised in the English form testifies to the intercultural influence in Russian advertising.

Russian and English names are sometimes stylized in the Asian way and the letters are written in a character-like manner. Stylization is also evident in presenting European words in a Chinese or Japanese-like syllabic structure, with syllables following each other in consonant-vowel clusters, e.g., MoDaMo (clothes from Germany) – the word, when pronounced, is associated with the European madam but in writing it looks very much Japanese with its open syllables consisting of a consonant and a vowel.

Elements of Asian cultures are also traced in Russian Far Eastern names of companies: Gold Dragon (a building materials company), Japanese Sakura (a frequent element in shop and restaurant names), as well as Chinese toponyms (Shanghai, Peking, etc); Yin–Yang (medical company that uses traditional Chinese and Korean ways of treatment) – this big company’s name (its headquarter is located in Khabarovsk and branches are spread all over Far Eastern Russia) is written in Cyrillic erroneously – Инь-Янь (instead of Инь-Ян), which testifies to the necessity of introducing intermediary translation (Proshina 2005), i.e. translation from regional Englishes as Lingua Franca, in a wider scale, since many Russians get acquainted with Chinese philosophy, medicine , martial arts, etc. through English-language texts that might be written either by Chinese or Western authors. It often happens that Asian names perform a decorative function – they sound exotic and say nothing (but for the origin, probably) about the product. This may be illustrated by the name Banzai of the company that imports cranes and excavators from Japan to Russia. A war cry of Japanese samurai is negatively flavored both in English and Russian (cf. banzai attack, banzai charge) (Proshina 2004); however, in this case it is just an exotic sound associated with Japan.

The study reveals that English plays a distinguished role in Russian advertisement. English advertisements carry out several functions: interactive, informative, attractive, and decorative. The innovative, creative or decorative functions of English in the Russian Far East are fulfilled through deliberate insertion of English expressions, English-Russian code-mixing or code-switching, and language play in mass-media, brand names of companies and stores, outdoor billboards, and print advertisements. Far Eastern Russian ads are under the influence of the English language, global advertising discourse, Asian culture, and American values.

Abundant English presence in labeling products, company names, and slogans is predictable because multinational corporations decide not to customize their message. English names of Russian stores and agencies in the Far East can be explained by the fact that English is considered a marker of Westernization, internationalism, modernization, innovation, prestige and fun. Roman, Cyrillic and stylized Asian scripts are used as a physical manifestation of English words. English glocalization in ads can be used for both functional and social reasons. A typical feature of advertising in the Siberian and Far Eastern territories of Russia is the influence and presence of Asian cultures, languages and scripts.

The semantic analysis of ads in Asian Russia reveals the predominance of words imposing the values of high status of an individual, businesslike way of life and fashion, strive for technological progress. Some of these trends testify to the change of stereotypical values ascribed to the Russian culture.

In new linguistic and social settings, some English words (like VIP, studio, salon, hall), which are used in Russian advertisement, change their meaning and bring forth semantic deviations of Russian English.

The formal analysis of ad structure shows use of English in all structural parts of advertisements. English influence is observed in a number of ways, from employing words and sentences in this language to code-mixing including shift of letters and word switching. English proves to be a means of creativity, which is so important for advertisement. In Asian Russia, the creative possibilities for advertisers increase due to the influence of neighboring Asian cultures, scripts and languages.

It is not necessarily that English or Russian-English mixed ads are intended for a bilingual customer. About one third of all English-containing ads do not correspond to the functional objective of their company, that is to say they are semantically empty for an English-knowing bilingual. These ads are not used in their informative function but have rather attractive or decorative functions, hinting at a high prestige, glamour, and impressiveness of their company and promising the same to their customers. At the same time, the ongoing increase of English-affected ads in Russian, especially those that have an informative function, testifies to the growing number of English-knowing Russians, whose level of English knowledge might range from the beginning to the advanced and proficient. The repeated use of English in ads facilitates learning the language and, therefore, ads can be applied to teaching and learning English.

In sum, English usage in the Russian Siberia and Far East has grown rapidly over the past two decades. All indications are that English will continue to enhance its interpersonal, informative, attractive, and decorative functions there.

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Appendix
Plate 1. Advertisement of a karate section in Komsomolsk-na-Amure, with the name of the martial arts section in Roman Japanese, the Wellcome word in Cyrillic English and the rest in Russian.

Plate 2
Advertisement of a hotel, beginning with the welcoming phrase in three languages – Russian, Chinese, and English (Vostochnaya Asia Magazine. Vladivostok. Spring-summer, 1998, 64)

Plate 3