Advertisers: Test of Hindi as a foreign langauge

Innocuously tucked away into yesterday's edition of The Times of India is a story that is headlined 'Hindi is a foreign language for Gujaratis, says Gujarat high court'. More details here.

"The high court made the observations in a case filed by farmers from Junagadh objecting to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) publishing a notification in Hindi....The judge upheld the petitioners' argument that Hindi is not understood by the residents of Junagadh. "The language used by the petitioners in this area is Gujarati and Hindi language used in the notification is a foreign language for them. The normal spoken language in the region is Gujarati and not Hindi," the article goes on to say.

We're used to the courts putting their foot down and passing judgments that are the final say on arguments over issues which, often seem so obvious. Here, too, it takes a court to say that, as far as Gujaratis are concerned, Hindi is a foreign language.

Hindi is a foreign language for Bengalis, Kashmiris, Assamese, Oriyas, Tamilians, Malayalees and so on.Only, often, we don't recognise or acknowledge the simple fact. Which is why, for example, a Tamilian in Chennai, is bombarded with advertising created in Hindi (if he's watching an English channel or a sports channel, a movie channel or a non-fiction channel.)

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So the communication has reached a consumer - and it's wasted, as he or she doesn't understand what is being said. That's careless.

The carelessness goes beyond the language. More dangerous than the language mismatch is when you lose the consumer because you have no idea of the culture. The communication is created with 'Hindi' cultural sensitivities and end up with zero resonance in Palaghat and Kolkata.

Brand managers and creative professionals have been, to be fair to them, under pressure to bring down costs and limit the number of languages in which communication is created. But in more and more cases, the message will not be understood - or an opportunity missed.

Take the ad below. The ad is for Parle Marie biscuits.

[caption id="attachment_171281" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="This ad, even if it worked brilliantly in Kolkata, would fail miserably in any other state."][/caption]

The headline says, 'Adda chalbe jatakhan thakur thakbe jatakhan', which translates (loosely) as, 'the party carries on till the God is here'. Which makes no sense to anyone who doesn't understand the concept of the 'adda' or the almosphere during the pujas.

This ad, even if it worked brilliantly in Kolkata, would fail miserably in any other state. Will it work in Gujarat? No.

Because, as the court reminds us, for Gujaratis, Bengali is a foreign language. It's also a foreign culture with foreign nuances and like and dislikes and norms.

It's time for advertising to brush up on foreign languages.