In my last blog, I talked about the literal translation & liberal Translation strategies in the advertisement translation which is based on reader’s Psychology. Now I am here to talk some other strategies about this aspect.

1. Combination of literal translation & liberal translation – the enhancement of cultural image.

Sometimes in some advertising English translation, pure literal translation or liberal translation could not make Chinese consumers understand its meaning, or could not express translation the exact meaning of original advertisement .This can be translated by combining literal with liberal translation to achieve the effect that make the finishing point. Some examples are as follows:
With boundless love in it, the drink is more than sweet. 融入无穷的关爱，它比蜜还甜。

The advertiser uses the rhetorical device—personification in this advertisement, he personifies the product. Enjoyment of consumer to the drink is compared to the attachment of lover. Therefore, the sweet drink is like the sweet love. Then “boundless love” is put into in Chinese “无穷的关爱” in literal translation. Both the original and translation touch people at heart and produce a strong emotion atmosphere, which makes the potential consumer’s heart miss a beat when they notice this advertisement.

2. Parody-absorb the quintessence of each language.

A parody, also called send-up or spoof, in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or pokes fun at an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation. As the literary theorist Linda Hutcheon puts it, “parody is imitation, not always at the expense of the parodied text.” Another critic, Simon Dentith, defines parody as “any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemic allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice.” Often, the most satisfying element of a good parody is seeing others mistake it for the genuine article.

Read Also: Types of Translation

Ugly is only Skin-deep. 其貌不扬

Maybe people feel strange at the first sight of this advertisement, but when they think of the proverb “Beauty is only skin-deep”, they feel it reasonable. This advertisement applies the proverb and use paradox. The meaning of this advertisement is “the precious quality under the ugly exterior”. Actually, it is not really to say that the exterior appearance of the car is ugly, but to emphasize its internal beauty. And for Chinese, it also has the proverbs “金絮其外，败絮其中” and “其貌不扬”. By using paradox, we can say “败絮其外”. But compared the two proverbs, “其貌不扬” is much better.

From analyses above, people can understand that how to make the source and target advertisements have the equivalent effects in propagating translation methods. The target consumers will not waste their time to think of the words, phrases and texts that their products and service relies on the versions of translation to a large extent. Various kinds of them are not familiar.

The consumers will prefer to accept the information of advertisement in translation within in the range of their knowledge of the world. Only when the target consumers easily understand what the advertisements mean, can they be possibly interested in its information and accept what is advertised and be convinced to take certain action as the advertiser and translator intend.