A suited-up eagle, match made in HEL, the perfect living room and some alluring edibles. What do they have in common? They were placed in the spotlight in our intriguing analysis.
We wanted to focus on the basic features of different types of advertisements that had been published in magazines in Finland. And not just any advertisements, but the best of the best, namely those awarded by the Best Magazine Ads Monthly website that is held in cooperation with M & M (“Markkinointi & Mainonta”) magazine, one of the leading marketing magazines in Finland.
What was important in our study was to find advertisements that are published in Finland and also include both English and Finnish. Not all of them did really combine the two, but that is why we were also prepared to look at aesthetic factors such as how the colors are used and what type of pictures the advertisers have come up with.
Of course one major factor that defines an advertisement is its target group, because it is meant to sell the product or the service to them. That is why we had to pay extra attention on how the target group is visible in the advertisements and if it affects things such as language choice between English and Finnish. It can certainly be said that it affects both how much English is used and even how many words are used instead of focusing on getting the attention with beautiful pictures and colors. A familiar face can also be captivating and effective advertising, at least that is what sport marketers believe because they tend to place athletes in advertisements quite often. On the other hand, the dark colors had been chosen in the clothing advertisement meant for men. There was also a brave golden eagle head that was wearing a suit, which was a very imaginative and creative way to provide mental images, which are of course essential in marketing. What was interesting about that advertisement was that the information about where the product can be bought was in Finnish. That supports the previous studies that have stated that the information one wants people to understand should be in their L1, just in case.
When it comes to companies and products that are founded and made in Finland and targeted to a more mature audience, such as Iittala and Marimekko, the use of English in advertising seemed to be less popular. There is a logical explanation for this, since language is a very strong definitive factor in “commercial patriotism”.
How about aesthetic details such as font size and bold letters? In this case one might say that size does matter, since the elements that are wanted to stick to your mind are the company logo and the brand name and they are often in a bigger font. Also, some slogans were found to be written in bold letters for the same reason.
In conclusion, one could say that an advertisement that mixes English and Finnish feels very natural to run into and it does not really stand out as disturbing or capture too much attention per se. That is proof of how the two languages really are side by side in our homeland and its linguistic environments, and how maybe something that our grandparents could not even have dreamed of has come very mundane and very much part of our everyday lives.
A link to the full article coming soon…
English in Finland 