Colonial, Postcolonial, and Global Advertising

This article highlights the importance of colonial and postcolonial dynamics in the language of advertising as it has been evolving towards globalisation from the centre to the periphery. It underscores the textuality that has framed the concept of colonial expansion and trade of commodities from the “centre” of the empire to its Commonwealth and postcolonial “periphery.” Whereas in the rhetoric of advertising the standardised model was centripetal until the 1950s, the language of diversity in advertising points to the representation of localisation stemming from inclusiveness. Language standardisation for advertising campaigns, as opposed to language specificity and localisation, highlights the thematic corpus focusing on Australian products and the Commonwealth. Beyond an oversimplified binary opposition, there is the central issue of power dynamics and propaganda in advertising as an instrument of imperial cohesion (i.e. Camp Coffee and South Africa) and reinforced identity of the “centre.” In addition, the impact of the media and new technology has given currency to new idioms, jargon, and verbal creativity.