Recontextualisation of International Advertising Slogans and Their Equivalents in Different European Languages

1. Introduction: Stating the problem

In several European languages linguists have observed and/or studied the use of advertising slogans in contexts outside advertising, e.g. in newspapers, blogs or forums, but also in everyday speech across different age groups since the mid 1980s. Speakers have recontectualised slogans in new co(n)texts in a number of different functions, shifting or changing their meaning and lexical structure. The recall and use of advertising slogans in non-commercial contexts can be linked to their highly repetitive character and their linking function of different advertising forms within a campaign beyond different languages and cultures. Moreover, their popularity with the target group(s) has been due to their semantic ambiguity, syntactic polyfunctionality and rhetoric expressivity.

In the 80s researchers of youth language, on the one hand, explored the “recontextualisation” of advertising slogans beside other language elements from the mass media, used by the youth in their playful and creative language interaction with humorous or ironic effect for entertainment or peer group identification (Schlobinski et. al. 1993; Androutsopoulos 1997; Branner 2002). On the other hand, linguists, mostly from the field of phraseology, have described these slogans as modern familiar quotations (in German: Janich 2010; Stöckl 1998; Duden 12, 2008; in Polish: Lusińska 2007; in German and Slovenian: Polajnar 2011, Polajnar 2012a) or “sentence equivalent phraseological units” (Lüger 1999) with the potential to become used as proverbs (Lüger 1999; Polajnar 2012a; Steyer 2013). Namely, the longer familiar quotations are recontextualised, the more they become independent from a specific source, e.g. biblical wisdom, a literary or advertising source, and the more their meaning, lexical structure and function is likely to shift (cf. Quassdorf 2009; Lüger 1999; Burger et. al. 1982; Kržišnik 2000). In new co(n)texts advertising slogans have been often used modified, popularising or creating lexically underdetermined syntagmatic patterns (Bebermeyer et. al. 1977; Polajnar 2013a; Gredel 2008). As to their function slogans in non-commercial co(n)texts have not been used to identify and promote the purchase of a product or brand, but to achieve humorous or ironic effect, to support/refute and evaluate arguments or grab readers’ attention as well as to display speakers’ popculture knowledge (Polajnar 2012). In the light of the foregoing, the process of recontextualisation in this paper is to be understood as the transfer of international advertising slogans from individual (adapted) advertisements to new non-commercial co(n)texts in different languages with or without reference to the source (advertisement), possibly with a change of meaning, lexical structure and function (cf. Schlobinski et. al. 1993; Polajnar 2011). Through the process of recontextualisation the new co(n)text is linked to commercials, as it exploits persuasive elements from advertising to effectively grab readers’ attention (in titles) or butress the arguments made in the body etc. This way a genre chain or new hybridity is formed, typical of communication in the globalised world (Fairclough 2003).

So far recontextualisation of advertising slogans has been validated in individual languages, e.g. in German and Slovenian on large electronic corpora (Polajnar 2011, Polajnar 2012a, Polajnar 2012b), but not cross-linguistically/cross-culturally. Advertising slogans of international companies are, however, often adapted for foreign markets in individual foreign languages, presumably giving rise to slogan equivalents in different languages. Whether the equivalents of international slogans have been recontextualised or not and how this affects the new co(n)text, shall be explored in this cross-linguistic/cross-cultural contrastive study. This will provide us with the opportunity of seeing whether international advertising could be considered a modern source of international phraseological units^[1] as have so far been the Bible, word literature or more recently films and lyrics (cf. Piirainen 2010; Duden 12, 2008).

The novelty of this example-based study is confined to a cross-linguistic/ cross-cultural study of selected international advertising slogans and their equivalents in several European languages that have been recontextualised outside advertising. Their cotextual analysis in terms of the categories afforded by an analytical framework based on approaches from contrastive phraseology and pragma-linguistics complemented with a corpus-based and discourse analytic approach shall exemplify how multifaceted cross-linguistic/cross-cultural recontextualisation can be. In particular the following questions are to be explored:

1. What types of equivalents can be observed with international advertising slogans? What is the correlation between the slogan equivalents and the marketing strategy?

2. What is the potential of international advertising slogans and their equivalents to become recontextualised in new co(n)texts?

3. What kind of shifts or changes in meaning, lexical structure and function of advertising slogans and their equivalents does the recontextualisation cause? Are international advertising slogans and their equivalents primarily recontextualised in the original form or modified?

4. Can international advertising slogans and their equivalents give rise to modern international phraseological units?

5. Do recontextualised slogans and their equivalents contribute to the marketisation of public discourse?

2. Data and method

To show the vitality of recontextualised advertising slogans and their equivalents in some typologically different European languages (English, German, French, Slovenian and Spanish) the analysis focuses on those selected recontextualised international advertising slogans which have equivalents in most of the analysed languages and tend to be used outside advertising: Red Bull, L’Oréal, McDonald’s, Snickers, Ikea, RitterSport, Milka, Haribo and Saturn. Singular examples in former “Serbo-Croatian” and Russian (Cockta, RitterSport) have also been mentioned, to point out how multifaceted cross-linguistic/cross-cultural recontextualisation may be. These selected slogans may be regarded as furnishing the basis of a case study.

In order to arrive at a useful method to analyse the recontextualisation of advertising slogans and their equivalents in texts from electronic corpora, it was helpful to first focus on those semantic, structural, functional and cotextual properties that existing research has found to be characteristic of advertising slogans, their recontextualisation and those phraseological units that display similar characteristics such as familiar quotations and sentence equivalent phraseological units as well as international phraseological units ( See 3.1 and See 3.2), with a view to discovering the features of their recontextualisation across different languages and cultures.

Before analytical tools from different approaches, selected for the present study, will be described, let us focus on the differentiation between a “cotext” (intermediate surrounding text) and “context” (socio-cultural and pragmatic aspects of the cotext) (Sinclair 1991: 171). This differentiation is of central importance for the current study, as the analysis primarily focuses on the cotexts obtained by the search in large electronic corpora and the WWW, allowing, however, conclusions related to the broader context (cf. Steyer 2013: 15).

In the current analysis selected advertising slogans and their equivalents in new co(n)texts were subjected to a cotextual analysis in terms of the categories afforded by an analytical framework based on approaches from crosslinguistic/ cross-cultural contrastive phraseology (cf. Piirainen 2010) and pragma-linguistics (cf. Lüger 1998, Lüger1999). Additionally, a corpus-based approach (cf. Tognini-Bonelli 2001: 10) was used to obtain real data and validate the use of international slogans and their equivalents in large electronic corpora. These techniques are embedded in discursive macro-strategies of marketisation (cf. Fairclough 1997). In detail the following procedures and stages were chosen for the analysis:

1. A list of international slogans was created consulting the research of Gredel (2008), who listed and analysed international advertising slogans in German, English and French, and that of Polajnar (2011), who conducted a corpus-based analysis of 43 recontextualised advertising slogans in the German newspaper corpus of DeReKo. The criteria used to narrow down the list with targeted search on the WWW were: (a) slogans had to have foreign language equivalents and (b) show a tendency to be used outside advertising context.

2. Equivalents of international advertising slogans were systematically searched in all the analysed languages on the WWW (e.g. company websites, Wikipedia). For each international slogan and its equivalents the marketing strategy was determined.

3. Semantic analysis of the selected international advertising slogans in their original co(n)text of advertising.

4. To obtain real language data and validate the vitality of international advertising slogans and their equivalents a corpus-based approach (Tognini-Bonelli 2001: 10)was applied, i.e. individual slogans and their equivalents were searched in monolingual reference corpora (in German: DeReKo, in English: COCA, in Slovenian: Gigafida etc.). Where results from electronic corpora were scarce, the WWW was consulted.^[2] In general, a growing tendency to use large-scale electronic corpora or the WWW (Mair 2008; Steyer 2013) for the validation of phraseological units can be observed in the recent studies (overview in Ptashnyk et. al. 2010), as large-scale corpora give insight into their frequency in modern language use (marginal vs. frequent phenomena) and offer an abundance of examples from real texts (not invented).

5. A cross-linguistic and cross-cultural contrastive analysis of slogans and their equivalents in new cotexts was conducted, comparing their lexical and syntactic structure as well as their meaning and function and finally assigning them to the categories: zero, partial or total equivalency (See 4.1.).

6. A pragma-linguistic analysis of international slogans, their equivalents and their cotexts in terms of a three-tier framework was conducted to explore the shifts and/or changes in their meaning, lexical structure and textual or pragmatic function as well as embedding (markers, quotation marks) (See 3.3.). Finally, the obtained results in individual languages were compared cross-linguistically and cross-culturally.

3. Advertising slogans and related phraseological terminology

4. Contrastive aspects of international advertising slogans

5. Recontextualisation

In the 1980s German researchers of youth language (cf. Neuland 1987; Schlobinski 1989) used the notion of “recontextualisation” to describe the playful and creative use of existing language elements including slogans, which were decontextualised from different cultural backgrounds, but mostly from the mass media, and recontextualised in youth language, where they acquired new, often peer group specific meanings. This process was described as bricolage. The recontextualisation of advertising slogans has beside other language elements been analysed on small-scale specialised corpora of spoken German limited to peer conversations (Branner 2002; Schlobinski et. al. 1993) and on corpora of subcultural written texts, e.g. fanzines, record covers etc. (Androutsopoulos 1997), where slogans were regarded as intertextual elements (“mimetic and alienated citation”, Schlobinski et. al. 1993) in playful language interaction for entertainment or peer group identification/differentiation. Burger et. al. (1982) and Stockl (1998), however, pointed out that advertising slogans in modern German have been used beyond peer group conversation in everyday language. In new non-commercial contexts they behave in a similar way as familiar quotations (Burger et. al. 1982; Duden 11, 2008), “sentence equivalent phraseological units” (Lüger 1999) or as proverbs (Steyer 2013). In more recent German research the long term recontextualisation^[5] of advertising slogans can be viewed within the framework of the dynamics of language elements (“Dynamik sprachlicher Elemente”, Henn-Memmesheimer 2013). Language elements are taken up by different speakers (remain unnoted by the others) and recontextualised in new co(n)texts where their meaning shifts and they acquire new functions, become established or disappear as temporary fashions from the language. This can be related to one or more initial events (Henn-Memmesheimer 2013).

In the first corpus-based study of 43 recontextualised advertising slogans their vitality and modification has been analysed in newspaper corpora of the German Reference Corpus DeReKo (Polajnar 2011,Polajnar 2012a). A qualitative manual analysis of key words in context (KWIC) and full texts explored shifts of meaning, constraints, and modifications etc. of recontextualised slogans over a period of 18 years (1990–2008). More than half of the analysed advertising slogans have shown high vitality outside advertising and preference for modification and formation of partially fixed syntagmatic patterns, e.g. Quadratisch, praktisch, X. to the Ritter Sport advertising slogan Quadratisch. Praktisch. Gut. ‘Squared. Practical. Good.’ (Polajnar 2013a). In other European languages the vitality of advertising slogans has only been studied on the basis of sparse examples. In Polish Lusińska (2007) explored the phraseology of advertising slogans, listing a number of slogans from different periods that became used as phraseological units in modern Polish and were included in dictionaries. In Slovenian Polajnar (2013b) has found examples in the Slovenian Reference Corpus Gigafida. That said, a systematic, cross-linguistic/cross-cultural analysis of slogans has not been taken up in more applied corpus studies.

The notion of recontextualisation has moreover been used in critical discourse analysis, where “recontextualisation of meanings” is defined as a “transformation of meanings, through de-contextualisation – taking meanings out of their contexts – and recontextualising – putting meanings in new contexts” (Fairclough 2003: 26). Fairclough uses the term in reference to genre (chains), i.e. text types which are linked together in a way that meanings are “moved along the chain, and recontextualised and transformed” (Fairclough 2003), creating a new “hybridity” (Chouliaraki et. al. 1999: 93). The recontextualisation of genres from one social practice onto another can be construed as “one practice colonizing and so dominating another, or as the latter appropriating and so dominating the former” (Chouliaraki et. al. 1999: 93).

The process of recontextualisation of international advertising slogans, explored in this article, is to be understood as follows: Advertising slogans are decontextualised from advertising, where they are primarily to indentify and promote a brand, a product or a company. In new co(n)texts advertising slogans are recontextualised in different ways, either as slogans or familiar quotations or sentence equivalent phrasemes, depending on how explicitly they are linked to the source (advertising), how they are marked or how their lexical structure changes. In the new cotext recontextualised slogans often acquire a more generalised meaning and a completely different function (grab readers’ attention, support arguments, entertain and evoke emotions). Through the process of recontextualisation, however, not only the meaning, structure and function of slogans shift and/or change in the new cotext. This way the new cotext is linked to commercials (marketisation of public discourse: Fairclough 1997: 140f.), forming a genre chain or new hybridity, which is typical of communication in the globalised world (Fairclough 2003).

6. Example-based analysis

Section 4.2 illustrated that there is interrelation between marketing strategies and categories of equivalency. In this section the focus is confined by the question whether only the advertising slogan, its equivalent(s), or both have been recontextualised outside advertising contexts in other European languages. Theoretically four groups can be distinguished.

1. The original advertising slogan and its equivalents have been recontextualised in some/many of the analysed European languages.

The recontextualised advertising slogans for L’Oréal products and its equivalents fall under this group. L’Oréal has advertised its cosmetic products since the 1970s with celebrities (since 2005 with Eva Longoria, Penelope Cruz etc.) who utter the slogan in a self-aware and persuasive manner. Apparently, this advertising slogan took up the central human value of self-esteem or selfconfidence, which can be recontextualised in different contexts across different languages and cultures (ex. 3, 10–14). Here another Slovenian example is given: The modified slogan equivalent has been recontextualised as a familiar quotation in the title of a food blog to attract readers’ attention. L’Oréal has been replaced by the clause Kupujem eko ‘I buy ecological’. This way self-confidence has been transferred to the field of nutrition and is defined by the type of food (ecological) bought and consumed.

1. Kupujem eko, ker se cenim!Ekološko je prihodnost.

2. ‘I buy ecological products, because I’m worth it! Ecological is the future.’

3. (, 16 April 2010; 24 August 2013.)

Interestingly, both slogans and their equivalents often take up existing language elements such as phraseological units. The English equivalent Because I’m worth it. has taken up the phraseme worth it, which has been used since the 19th century and before, but whose usage has rocketed since the 1970s (cf. Google Ngram Viewer^[7]). Comparing both fixed expressions on Google Ngram Viewer illustrates that because I’m worth is an innovative fixed expression which has popularised the use of worth it since the 1970s.

Another good example is the slogan for the popular non-alcoholic energy drink Red Bull verleiht Flügel, which takes up the phraseme jmdm. Flügel verleihen (geh.) (Duden 11, 2012), but leaves out the dative object (jmdm. ‘for/to whom’). This advertising slogan has been primarily recontextualised in a modified way, i.e. the name has been replaced, forming a unique variation pattern: X verleiht Flügel. According to Google Ngram Viewer the use of jmdm. Flügel verleihen has fluctuated since the mid 19th century and increased since the late 1980s; etw. verleiht Flügel, however, is an innovative phraseme, the use of which has increased greatly since the late 1980s. Similarly, the English equivalent has taken up the phraseme give wing(s), the use of which has been gradually decreasing since the 19th century according to Google Ngram Viewer. However, gives you wings has – presumably thanks to the advertising slogan – become more frequently used since the 1990s. Both examples indicate that recontextualised advertising slogans and their equivalents often take up and popularise existing or fading phraseological units.

In the following example (16) the advertising slogan, recontextualised as a familiar quotation, has been expanded, adding the name of the former Austrian Minister of the Interior and the EU MP who has been lobbying for Red Bull and received financial compensation. The title of the article activates a novel meaning of the phraseme jmdm. Flügel verleihen (geh.), i.e. fliegen (‘flying’ = ‘fired’) and humorously points to the consequences of Mr. Strasser’s actions. The commercial already plays with two meanings: in addition to the phraseological meaning jmdm. Flügel verleihen (geh.) (= ‘give wing(s) to’ = ‘to enable to fly or soar on or as if on wings’; ‘to inspire or motivate someone to ‘fly’ or to achieve great things’; Collins C. Dictionary), the literal meaning is activated in the story by means of winged flying cartoon characters.

1. Red Bull verleiht Ernst Strasser Flügel

   Ex-Innenminister war in Sachen Red Bull äußerst aktiv und wurde zugleich als Berater einer Tiroler Agentur bezahlt.

   Der frühere EU-Abgeordnete Ernst Strasser soll einem Bericht des Magazins NEWS zufolge auf europäischer Ebene Lobbying für den Getränkehersteller Red Bull betrieben haben und zugleich über eine Innsbrucker PR-Agentur von diesem bezahlt worden sein.

   (; 15 August 2012.)

This advertising slogan has not only been recontextualised and modified in German, but also in several other languages where Red Bull is sold. For example, the English modifications (17, 18) have both been applied unmarked in sports context, replacing Red Bull with the yellow jersey or a great result. Here the figurative meaning ‘to inspire to achieve great things’ has been activated. As Red Bull often sponsors sporting events, the recontextualisation of the modified Red Bull slogan in examples 17 and 18 is not surprising.

1. Barteau – The yellow jersey gives you wings

   To hold the yellow jersey on Bastille Day is always a special moment for a French rider. And Tony Gallopin is about to feel the thrills of a lifetime on a bike in the stage to La Planche des Belles Filles.

   (; 10 July 2014.)

1. Anand: A great result gives you wings

   Vishy Anand got a great boost from his first win against Levon Aronian in the Candidates Tournament. “A good result gives you wings”, says Anand in New In Chess magazine.

   (;12 July 2014.)

In Spanish the modified slogan equivalent for Red Bull (Red Bull has been replaced by leer), recontextualised as the sentence equivalent phraseme, El niño que hoy lee será un adulto que piense. Leer te dá alas. ‘The child who reads today will become an adult who thinks. Reading gives you wings.’ has been recontextualised on posters in a campaign popularising reading among youth. In the blog (ex. 19) a part of the recontextualised modified equivalent has been again reco(n)textualised in the title and complemented by a question .¿apren derá ortografia? ‘learns spelling’ to critically comment on the use of a grammatically incorrect slogan (incorrect conjugation of the verb dar) to promote reading. The deviation from grammatical norms has been observed in advertising before to grab readers’ attention. However the blog questions the recontextualisation of the language used in advertising and beyond, i.e. the grammatical quality of present day texts, especially when promoting reading.

1. Leer te “da” alas. El que hoy lee... .aprendera ortografia?

   Publicado el 13 noviembre 2012 por Desequilibros Completamente de acuerdo con la maxima. Por desgracia, se ve que el nino que leyo ayer no aprendio (o la ha olvidado) ortografia. Y si no, comprueben la correcta conjugacion del verbo dar.

   (; 12 February 2013.)

1. ‘Reading “gives” you wings. He who reads today ... learns spelling? Posted on November 13, 2012. I fully agree with the saying. Unfortunately, it appears that the child who read yesterday did not learn the orthography (or has forgotten it). And if not, check the correct conjugation of the verb dar.’

The modifications of both the advertising slogan and its equivalents tell us something about the degree of independence from the original advertising text and “thus about the degree of lexicalisation or conventionalisation” (Quassdorf 2009). Furthermore, they suggest that a variation pattern based on this slogan has become established cross-linguistically.

Another good example represents the advertising slogan for a soft drink from Slovenia, Cockta, which has been advertised on the Yugoslav market since 1953. Since 1975 Cockta has been advertised with the cult advertising slogan Cockta. Pijača vaše in naše mladosti. ‘The drink of your and our youth.’, which played a central role in the Slovenian marketing tradition. The advertising slogan and its equivalents have mostly been recontextualised in a modified form, building the variation pattern: X vaše in naše mladosti ‘X of your and our youth.ʼ. Often the contexts for the modified slogan and its equivalents are related to nostalgia, as in the example (20) about the delicious Eurokrem, a Yugoslav hazelnut chocolate spread that is a variant of Nutella. Interestingly, in the blog’s title Eurokrem is humorously paraphrased as Razvada naše in vaše mladosti. ‘Indulgence of our and your youth.’.

1. Razvada Naše in Vaše Mladosti

   Nič drugega kot EUROKREM.

   Tisti ta pravi – slastni Eurokrem. To pa je res razvada, ki se kar prilepi na tebe in te ne izpusti in ne izpusti. Že kake dve leti nazaj smo ga slučajno našli v trgovini – v Novalji na otoku Pagu.

   (; 17 February 2012.)

• ‘Indulgence of our and your youth

  Nothing but EUROKREM.

  The true – delicious Eurokrem. It is truely an indulgence which grabs you. We discovered it accidentally already two years ago – in Novalja on the island Pag.’

1. Though the original advertising slogan has equivalents, these have not been recontextualised in any of the analysed European languages.

The German international advertising slogan for Haribo products (e.g. fruitflavoured “Gummi Bears”) from the 1930s – Haribo macht Kinder froh., which was expanded in the 1960s to Haribo macht Kinder froh und Erwachsene ebenso., and has acquired its popularity through TV commercials with wellknown talk show host Thomas Gottschalk – is well remembered among the old and young in Germany and has been included in German dictionaries and glossaries (Duden 12, 2008, Hars 2002). Outside advertising contexts this jingle has been recontextualised to express happiness of both men and animals; it has been modified and created a variation pattern: X macht Kinder/Y froh und Erwachsene/ Z ebenso. e.g. Dieses Hundeklo macht Hunde froh., Klimmt macht Autofahrer froh.etc. As Haribo products are sold in more than 100 countries around the world and Haribo is the worldwide gummi candy market leader, the German advertising slogan has equivalents in numerous languages.^[8] Despite well-worded equivalents which retain both the rhyme and number of syllables for the advertising slogan to be sung according to the original melody, no examples of recontextualised equivalents have been found in the electronic corpora or the WWW.

About the reasons why some equivalents are not recontextualised outside advertising can only be speculated: Firstly, the reason may lie in inappropriate rhetorical adaptation. For example, the Czech equivalent of the advertising slogan for milk chocolate Milka, Nejjemnějši pokušeni od dob, kdy existuje čokolada. ‘The finest temptation since the times of chocolate.ʼ (German: Die zarteste Versuchung, seit es Schokolade gibt.), has not been recontextualised, given that the adaptation (with its lack of rhyme) is a poor one. However, the Slovenian equivalent, which applied rhyme, was not found in contexts outside advertising either. Secondly, there may be cultural reasons why equivalents are not recontextualised in other languages. For example, a German linguistically provocative advertising slogan by Saturn Geiz ist geil. has been recontextualised in German, but gave rise to controversial discussion due to its choice of words and promotion of stinginess. Not only has this advertising slogan posed a problem due to alliteration, in several countries its message has not been understood and can be considered German or culture specific (ex. 21).

1. Mit einem Satz wie “Stinginess is cool”, der Übersetzung von “Geiz ist geil”, kann man jenseits des Atlantiks nichts anfangen. Was soll das heißen, würden sich Amerikaner fragen. Denn wer den Geiz lobt, muss ja eine andere Form des Konsums kennen. So was wie “Qualität hat halt ihren Preis” oder: “Ich unterstütze die heimische Qualitätsindustrie und kaufe nicht Made in China.”

   (die tageszeitung, 11.09.2007, S. 14; DeReKo, 22 May 2014).

Another interesting example is evident in the German advertising slogans for RitterSport chocolate with juxtaposed adjectives Quadratisch. Praktisch. Gut. from 1970. In German the advertising slogan has often been recontextualised outside advertising in the meaning ‘not necessarily beautiful, but practical and compactʼ with reference to buildings, cars, appliances and even people. In example (22) it has been used unmarked to support the argumentation about the VW van’s practicality and compactness. It has also been included in German dictionaries and glossaries (Duden 12, 2008; Hars 2002; Liste geflugelter Worte).

1. Sie nannten ihn Bulli. Der Kosename galt einem Kasten auf vier Radern, der an Schlichtheit kaum zu uberbieten war. Als vor einem halben Jahrhundert der erste VW-Transporter vom Band lief, ausgestattet 110 J. Polajnar mit jeder Menge Stauraum und der nuchternen Typenbezeichnung T1, ahnte keiner, dass hier ein Kultobjekt in die Welt gesetzt wurde. Quadratisch, praktisch, gut– und sparsam im Benzinverbrauch.

   (Zeit (Online-Ausgabe), 09.03.2006, Nr. 10. – “Sachgebiet: Reise, Originalressort: Reisen”; DeReKo.)

The advertising slogan Quadratisch. Praktisch. Gut. for RitterSport chocolates has numerous equivalents ^[9] which, however, have only sporadically been recontextualised. An interesting example has been found in Russian newspapers, where the advertising slogan is often recontextualised in German and in the Latin script, but not marked for quotation. In the following example the slogan has been used to humorously refer to a robust body form.

1. Факт второй: Первый не нападаю никогда. Но если атаковали меня – ответ будет дан в полную силу. Факт третий: Я поперек себя шире – 140кг веса на 185 см роста, широкие плечи, мощные конечности и вообще quadratisch praktisch gut.

   (; 4 September 2013.)

2. ‘Fact three: I am very big – I weigh 140kg and am 185 cm tall, broad schoulders, powerful limbs and on the whole quadratisch praktisch gut.’

1. At least one of the equivalents, but not the original advertising slogan, has been recontextualised outside advertising.

Sometimes the adaptation of an advertising slogan in a target language is especially creative and successful. Consequently there are cases where one of the equivalents, but not the original advertising slogan, has been recontextualised. An interesting example is the advertising slogan for Snickers: Since 2010 Snickers has been advertised with a rather long advertising slogan Youʼre not you when youʼre hungry. in humorous commercials in which hungry (sports)men turn into celebrities like Joan Collins and Stephanie Beacham, activating the literal meaning of the sentence. Despite humorous and very popular commercials, the English advertising slogan has neither been found recontextualised in electronic corpora nor on the WWW. The same can be observed for the total equivalent in German. The Slovenian partial equivalent, however, has been shortened and applied the modal particle ful, associated with youth language, and has been recontextualised in both the original and the modified form.

In example (24) the Slovenian equivalent is recontextualised as a title of an article in the daily newspaper Dnevnik, to humorously attract readers’ attention. In the article a teacher complains about hungry children coming to school without breakfast and having no energy to learn in the morning. In this text the meaning of the equivalent has shifted ‘if you are hungry, you cannot think (like yourself)ʼ and is not the same as in the commercial where it relates to physical transformation.

1. Lačen si ful drugačen

   Tako se ne da več delati, je stokala učiteljica 3. razreda. Pri meni se otroci vlačijo zjutraj po razredu kot zombiji.

   (; 16 August 2013.)

2. ‘You’re not you, when you’re hungry

   I could no longer work like this, complained a teacher of the third grade. Children drag themselves around like zombies in my classroom.’

In example (25) a modified Slovenian equivalent has been used in the title of a blog, referring to mass protests against systemic corruption in autumn 2012 in Slovenia. The blog, however, reports about the violent protests in Maribor, which started due to installation of road radars.^[10]

1. Razkačen si ful drugačen...

   Gotof si, Kangleru! Ja, v Mariboru vladajo izredne razmere. Grčija v Sloveniji. Drugo največje slovensko mesto vre. Človek bi mislil, da je povod takšnega silovitega upora ljudstva Janševo teptanje socialno demokratične države, ampak ne. Mariborčanov to ne moti. Motijo jih županovi radarji.

   (; 9 February 2013.)

2. ‘Angry you are totally different...

3. Kangler [Mayor of Maribor; J.P.], you’re a dead man! Yes, in Maribor there are extreme circumstances. Greece in Slovenia. The second biggest town in Slovenia is seething with discontent. You’d think that the violent protest was due to trampling of the sociodemocratic state by Janša [the then prime minister; J.P.]. Not at all. The population of Maribor is not troubled by that. They are troubled by the road radars approved by the mayor.’

In Slovenian Styria (in Maribor) a humorous regional modification of the equivalent has been created Trezen si ful brezvezen. ‘Sober you are totally boring’, building a variation pattern X si ful Y ‘X you’re totally Yʼ, where X and Y rhyme. Slovenian Styria is well known for its good wines which are sometimes consumed excessively, also suggested by example (26).

1. Lačen si ful drugačen. In štajerski prevod (baje): Trezen si ful brezvezen. via email :). Dobro jutro!

   (; 17 August 2012.)

2. ‘Hungry you are not you. And the Styrian translation (supposedly): Sober you are totally boring.’

1. The standardised monolingual advertising slogan in English has been recontextualised in some of the analysed European languages.

Though it is possible that standardised English advertising slogans be recontextualised in different languages, no relevant examples could be found within this example-based cross-linguistic/cross-cultural study.

7. Conclusion

The current study has illustrated that not only international advertising slogans but also their adaptations in different European languages may be recontextualised as familiar quotations and sentence equivalent phraseological units in noncommercial co(n)texts. Thus recontextualised foreign language adaptations are to be considered phraseological equivalents of international slogans, usually representing partial, rarely total or zero equivalency. Like the other familiar quotations, slogan equivalents cannot be attributed to loan translations, but to direct access via adapted advertising. Unlike familiar quotations, however, the type of slogan equivalents is conditioned by the marketing strategy applied.

In new co(n)texts equivalents of international slogans like the original slogans acquire a more general meaning (dropped brand or product name). As to their function, they may support arguments, but are primarily recontextualised to grab readers’ attention, to entertain and evoke emotions (humour or irony). Another important function not mentioned in the research on familiar quotations, is critical distancing, i.e. the author of the text deliberately quotes the slogan to either distance himself/herself from consumerism promoted by the slogan or its (incorrect) language use (3, 19).

Most of the analysed international slogans and their equivalents show a great potential for playful or humorous modification and the formation of variation patterns (e.g. X si ful drugačen. ‘X you are totally different.’, X gives you wings etc.). Therefore, it seems that international slogans and their equivalents establish cross-linguistic variation patterns (cf. Gredel 2008), popularising formulaic language from advertising across different languages and cultures. Also, in addition to film production (Piirainen 2010) advertising seems to represent a modern textual source promoting the diffusion of new international sentence equivalent phraseological units.

Furthermore, the current study explored the factors which play a role in recontextualisation of international slogans and their equivalents: Whereas rhetorical figures such as alliteration, rhyme, rhythm seem to be vital for the advertising context, a successful recontextualisation of equivalents depends on their creative rhetorical adaptation by advertisers. The current analysis has shown that both the rhyme and the length of equivalents seem to be counterproductive for their recontextualisation, as are culturally specific values verbalised in the advertising slogan (e.g. Geiz ist geil. ‘Stinginess is cool.’). Interestingly, successfully recontextualised slogans and slogan equivalents often take up and popularise phraseological units.

From the critical discourse perspective the recontextualisation of advertising slogans can be viewed in light of the marketisation of public discourse. Namely, through recontextualised slogans or their equivalents the new co(n)text is linked to commercials, forming a genre chain or new hybridity, typical of communication in the globalised world (Fairclough 2003).

Finally, further research should focus on a greater number of international advertising slogans and also analyse their equivalents in additional foreign languages.