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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

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208274

Code alternation and entextualization in bilingual advertising

the construction of glocal identities in India's amul butter ads

Rani Rubdy

pp. 29-56

Abstract

This chapter examines the linguistic and semiotic resources and discourse practices deployed by one of India's most well-known advertising campaigns, the Amul Butter Ads. It looks at representative samples of multilingual billboard advertising with the aim of studying the dynamics of consumerist identity construction in relation to the English-knowing, middle-class Indian bilinguals they target. In particular, it explores the way such identities are constructed through processes of code-switching and the entextualization of mobile texts and semiotic cultural elements. It argues that by mobilizing Hindi-English code-mixing alongside devices such as puns and word play and other figurative language use, in conjunction with the entextualization of globally and locally available cultural material, these ads not only enhance product appeal and memorability through what Kachru (1985) calls the "bilinguals' creativity", they also help construct for their audience new subjective identities that are hybrid and dialogic, invoking Bakhtin's (The dialogic imagination: four essays, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1981) notion of heteroglossia or "double-voicedness".

Publication details

Published in:

(2018) Language and literature in a glocal world. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 29-56

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-10-8468-3_3

Full citation:

Rubdy Rani (2018) „Code alternation and entextualization in bilingual advertising: the construction of glocal identities in India's amul butter ads“, In: , Language and literature in a glocal world, Dordrecht, Springer, 29–56.