The globalisation of economies and trade growth have made it necessary for international companies to communicate with consumers of different languages and cultures, since a major objective is to sell a standardised product to consumers with linguistic and cultural backgrounds which are different from those to which the manufacturers are accustomed. Once brought to a foreign country, the sales of a product must be promoted by way of advertising. To begin with, the method of advertising depends on the kind of product to be marketed. In addition, persuasive texts, which are characteristic of the language of advertising, not only employ particular pragmatic strategies, but are based on the values and cultural traditions of the relevant society. In different cultures different signs, symbols, names and customs will be used in different situations. In the case of the translation or localisation of advertisements, a translator must be very sensitive to the loss and gain of cultural elements. These could include objects, historical references, customs and habits that are unique to the source culture and not present in the target culture. The main focus of the research is on the culture-specific elements in advertising texts and their depiction in translation. This treatise investigates certain aspects of translation theory (such as theories of equivalence, Skopos theory and other similar theories) to form a basis for conducting this study and then adapts them to the process of translation. In addition, two main opposite techniques known as standardisation or localisation of the advertising message are discussed. The number of source texts (original) and target texts (localised) are examined closely to reveal any misrepresentations and to identify the method of translation applicable in each case.

The study determined how Thai and U.S. advertisements reflected women's attractiveness. Advertisements from the Thai and U.S. editions of Elle and Cosmopolitan magazines from January 2005 to January 2006 were analyzed using the content analysis method. The author created a code book with definitions of all categories to be used as guidelines for the analysis, an itemized code sheet, and training criteria. Two coders who were proficient in both Thai and English collected the data for the study. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was utilized as a tool to analyze the data gathered. Results indicated that there were both similarities and differences in the specifics, but what remained constant is the use of beautiful women to sell clothing and beauty products. The findings suggest that Thai and U.S. advertisers should apply the similiarities found in the study in their cross-cultural advertising campaigns. In addition, advertisers should be aware of differences and create advertisements that reflect attractiveness values of each culture.

The purpose of this study was to extend the research in cross-cultural advertising by investigating the differences in cosmetics and fragrance advertising in Hong Kong and the United States.