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Argumentatiue strategies and cultural

differences in automotiue industry
aduertising: North America, French
Canada and France
a
Geneviève Quillard
a
Department of French Studies , Royal Military College of Canada ,
E-mail:
Published online: 31 May 2008.

To cite this article: Geneviève Quillard (2004) Argumentatiue strategies and cultural differences
in automotiue industry aduertising: North America, French Canada and France, Language Matters:
Studies in the Languages of Africa, 35:1, 313-331, DOI: 10.1080/10228190408566219

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 313

Argumentatiue strategies and cultural

differences in automotiue industry
aduertising: North America, French Canada
and France1
Genevieve Quillard
Department of French Studies
Royal Military College of Canada
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quillard-g@rmc.ca

Abstract

This article examines, from a contrastive text linguistic point of view, the
argumentative strategies used by North American and French publicists and the
alterations which are made in the translations to achieve an equivalent perlocutionary
effect. The analysis is based on the assumption that argumentation is culture-bound
and that the French and North American English publicists, as well as the translators,
will not necessarily rely on the same theme to convince their target audiences. It
draws on work done in cultural studies and in pragmatics.

Introduction
Hofstede's research (1980, 222) conducted in 77 countries shows that, on the
Individualism Index Values, the United States ranks highest with a score of 91
per cent. Canada comes fourth with a score of 80 per cent, while France is in
eleventh position with a score of 71 per cent. Although, as far as we know, no
study has been undertaken in French Canada, it can be hypothesized that French
speaking Canadians are less individualistic than their compatriots: Lipset's
(1990) research on attitudes and beliefs in Canada and the United States and the
numerous studies, surveys and polls which he refers to, frequently suggests that
social order and collective harmony are more valued in French Canada than in
English Canada. Moreover, according to Hofstede (1980) and Trompenaars
(1994, 54), there seems to be a strong correlation between individualism/
collectivism and religion: protestant countries or communities are found to be
more individualistic than catholic ones. Since individualistic cultures are
primarily orientated toward the self, they highly value personal achievement
and success: 'What does the individual do? What can he or will he accomplish?
Copyright: Unisa Press Language Matters volume 35 (1) 2004 pp. 313-331
 314 Genevieve Quillard

These are almost always the primary questions in the American scale of appraisal
of persons' (Kluckhohn 1973, 17). Consequently, these cultures are more
competitive than more collectivist cultures which are primarily orientated to
social relationships and common objectives (Trompenaars 1994, 51).

On the Masculinity/Femininity Index Values, the United States ranks 13th

(62%), Canada 21st (52%) and France 29th (43%) (Hofstede 1980, 279).
Members from more masculine cultures 'aspire to recognition (admiration for the
strong)' and have a 'stronger achievement motivation' (Hofstede 1980, 289). So
it seems that, as in the case of individualism, there is a correlation between
masculinity and competition. Given these dissimilarities between the three
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cultures, it can be assumed that French and North American automotive industry
advertisements will use different strategies to produce the desired perlocutionary
effect, that the translations will be heavily mediated and thus will present some
important deviations from the source texts.

This study is based on two corpora of automotive advertisements: a bilingual

corpus of 131 advertisements published in North American magazines (English
and French translations) and a unilingual corpus of 190 advertisements published
in French magazines (71 advertisements from the three French manufacturers
Citroen, Peugeot and Renault). It will focus on exaggeration/moderation,
uniqueness, use of 'referees' and main arguments.

Methodology
From the list of words produced by WordSmith Tools were selected all the
meliorative or intensive lexemes, comparatives, superlatives and expressions
such as only, no 1, first, unlike (any other). Tagging the corpus allowed me to
discard a number of irrelevant items such as most people, most of the time, when
time matters most, if only, not only, first we asked or such sentences as Winstar
puts safety first or Engine performance [...] is best described as [...]. Using the
concordancer (and my own judgment), I analysed the context of the remaining
items in order to identify whether they were pertinent for this research. All the
elements which were not in some way related to the vehicles or to the company
were rejected. For example, the strapline of one of Honda's advertisements reads:
We wanted to display our vehicles in some of the most remote places on earth.2
Although, as will be shown later, this type of utterance is typical of North
American3 advertising, the superlative was not included in the final count,
because it does not refer to the car or company characteristics. In contrast, the
superlative in its also the most comfortable way to get there (Toyota) was
included, because it is associated with some of the vehicle's features (CD player,
sunroof, seats).

Since superlatives were often used to translate words such as unparalleled,

 Argumentative strategies and cultural differences in automotive industry . . . 315
unmatched, unrivaled, unprecedented, optimum, maximum, they were consid-
ered as superlatives. In the same way, expressions like sans égale or sans
pareille, which frequently translated best, were classified as superlatives.

Exaggeration/moderation
'In some cultures, exaggeration is appropriate: "terrific, largest in the world". In
others moderation is the rule' (Triandis 1994, 188). Although the author does not
specify in which cultures it is appropriate to be hyperbolic and in which cultures
it is not, it seems legitimate to assume that exaggeration is more acceptable in
communities which have a greater achievement drive and place a higher value on
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individual success. And indeed, as Hall and Reed Hall (1990, 183) observe, i t is
not unusual for Americans to exaggerate in oral or written communication. This
is even the norm in advertising'.4 When the primary orientation is towards the
individual, the main concern is to stand out, to be seen in as flattering a light as
possible, to show - or even to pretend (Hall & Reed Hall 1990, 132-134) - that
they have gained recognition and power. Consequently, it can be expected that
North American advertisements will use more hyperboles than their translations
or French advertisements.
TABLE 1: Exaggeration/moderation

Source text Target text France

# ads/# words 131/21 900 131/24 851 190/21 890
meliorative/intensive 851/3,8% 630/2,5% 579/2,6%
comparatives 164 129 90
superlatives 123 100 49
only one/nobody else 36 23 6
in the world 17 17 3

Intensive/meliorative lexemes
As shown in Table 1, the number of intensive or meliorative lexemes is
considerably lower in the translations and the French advertisements. If we take
into consideration the number of advertisements in the two corpora, this means
that a North American advertisement includes on average 6.7 intensive/
meliorative expressions, whereas its translation has only 5.0 and a French
advertisement only 3.

This means that, as far as the translations are concerned, the translators regularly
make deletions or changes to avoid making the addressees feel that they are
exaggerating and overdoing it, an attitude which is frowned upon by French
Canadians, who see it as bragging (Bouchard 1978, 252). Thus the slogans used
by BMW, Toyota (Lexus) and Nissan: The Ultimate5 Driving Experience, The
 316 Geneviève Quillard

relentless pursuit of perfection and Built for the human race, are not as
sweeping and universalist in the target texts as they are in the source texts: Le
plaisir de conduire, À la conquête de la perfection, and Le moteur d'une
generation.
Sometimes the target texts amalgamate several lexemes:
(1) Concorde LXI offers a superlative blend of expressive styling and
thoughtful refinement/la Concorde LXI vous offre une combinaison de
style et de raffinement qui sort de l=ordinaire (Chrysler)
(2) response that is delicate, surprisingly civilized at idle and low revs,
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soothingly tractable in traffic/une acceleration régulière qui se fait en

douceur à bas régime et dans la circulation urbaine (BMW)

Sometimes the intensive/meliorative lexemes are eliminated:

(3) The Legend Coupe is engineered by people who have a passionate desire
to earn the ultimate respect of those who love to drive/Le coupe Legend a
été pensé par des gens qui désirent gagner le respect de ceux qui aiment
conduire (Acura)
(4) BMW's exceedingly elegant coupe/1'élégant coupé BMW
(5) a thrilling 8-speaker CD stereo/une chaîne audiophonique avec lecteur CD
à 8 haut-parleurs (Volvo)
(6) Come experience this exhilarating driving machine/Venez donc l'expér-
imenter (Acura)
(7) the supercharger's singular efficiency/l'action de son supercompresseur
(Volkswagen)
(8) Available in two exciting and convenient 3-door models/la Cougar 1999 se
présente en deux pratiques versions [sic] avec hayon (Chrysler)

Sometimes, it is even a whole phrase or sentence which is deleted:

(9) a car already legendary for its comfort and safety/ ... (BMW)
(10) its [...] extra cargo space offers tons of extra room/ ... (Toyota)
(11) your desire to drive this car will likely be insatiable/ ... (BMW)
(12) a truly superior automobile/ ... (Toyota)
(13) the Liberty proved itself to be as tough/ ... (Jeep)

To tone down the message in order not to give the impression that the addresser
is bragging, the translations also frequently choose a more moderate wording,
whether on the qualitative level:

(14) Unprecedented attention/Une attention toute particulière (Toyota)

 Argumentative strategies and cultural differences in automotive industry. . . 317
(15) the class-leading luxury and safety that Mercedes-Benz is renowned for
the world-over/le luxe et le degré de sécurité élevé que Ton attend d'une
Mercedes.
(16) you're granted access to the most exclusive mountaintops anywhere/vous
êtes d'attaque pour escalader les plus hauts sommets (Jeep)
(17) It was the perfect plan/Le plan était bien pensé (Mercedes)
(18) Engine components are staggered in a remarkable pattern/Les éléments du
moteur sont astucieusement étagés (Mercedes)

or even the quantitative level:

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(19) Little wonder that all Mercedes-Benz cars registered over the last 15 years
are still in operation/Il n'est done pas étonnant que 97% des Mercedes
enregistreés au cours des 15 dernières années soient toujours en service
(20) the kind of engineering traditionally associated with cars commanding six
figure pricetags/une finition habituellement associée à des voitures qui
coûtent les yeux de la tête (Chrysler)
(21) It can [...] bring the entire automotive industry to a complete standstill/
Des voitures capables de [...] laisser la concurrence loin derrière
(Mercedes)
(22) Something that will help us stay miles ahead of the competition/Un point
fort qui se transformera en longueurs d'avance dans la competition
(Chrysler)

Modals also are 'softened' or deleted:

(23) The M5 is, unequivocally, the fastest sedan/la M5 est sans doute la berline
la plus rapide (BMW)
(24) more impressively/ ... (Jeep)

In the following example, the rewording, which eliminates both the meliorative
lexemes and the presupposition that the pleasure of driving can only be felt in a
Concorde, changes considerably the meaning and the impact of the utterance:

(25) A finely tuned machine designed to restore the pleasure of driving/

Decouvrez une voiture conçue pour le simple plaisir de conduire
(Chrysler)

Comparisons
According to Hall and Reed Hall (1990, 183), 'comparative advertising is
common [in North America]. Advertisements do not hesitate to present the
product or the service as "the best", "unique", "exceptional", "the newest"'.
 318 Geneviève Quillard

Since North American law allows publicists to compare their product with a
competitor's (which French publicists cannot do, at least explicitly), they
sometimes take advantage of it. However, in this corpus, this happens only three
times (in one Hyundai, one Mazda and one Volvo advertisement). Thus
comparisons with other vehicles or companies cannot account for the difference
between North American advertisements and French ones (1,3 comparison per
advertisement in English and 0,4 in French) and the translations (one comparison
per advertisement). The fewer use of comparatives in the target texts and the
French advertisements could be explained by the different attitudes towards new
objects: North Americans are not only excited by new things (Hall & Reed Hall
1990, 135), but they 'tend to equate "the new" with "the best"' (Zanden quoted
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by Gudykunst & Kim 1997, 58).

However, a 1973 Gallup poll suggests that Canadians are less attracted by new
things or ideas than their southern neighbours: 'Almost half the Americans
(49%) said they were "attracted" to newness; only 13 percent replied "more
cautious".' Among the Canadians, however, 'more than one-third (35% ) were
cautious, while 30 per cent were attracted to new things and ideas' (Lipset
1990, 121). People's reactions to novelty differ according to the type of culture
they belong to, whether it is monochrome or polychronic (Hall 1977, 17; Hall &
Reed Hall 1990, 138-141). Some authors use the word synchronic.) Mono-
chronic cultures focus on the present and the immediate future, whereas in
synchronic cultures past and present form a continuum and past events are seen
as informing current ones. Judging from Quebec's motto (I remember) and the
numerous allusions to historical events in public speeches and journalistic
writing, French Canadian culture is probably more polychronic than English
Canadian culture. Bouchard (1978, 182, 183) writes that French Canadian
consumers are conservative and keep on buying the same brand of products,
while another publicist notes that 45 per cent will not change their behaviour or
attitudes and only 10 per cent are open to novel ideas and values (Cossette
1988, 201). Therefore, it can be assumed that French Canadians look on novelty
with more suspicion than their fellow citizens. According to Trompenaars
(1994, 130), 'synchronic cultures carry their pasts through the present into the
future, and will refuse to consider changing unless convinced that their heritage
is safe'. As far as French culture is concerned, as is shown in Tom Cottle's figure
'Past, Present, and Future', reproduced in Trompenaars (1994, 125), it is
undeniably very polychronic (cf. also Hall & Reed Hall 1990, 193, 194, 206),
whereas American culture is monochrome.6

In the light of all this, it is not surprising that North American publicists should
make lavish use of comparatives in order to prove that new and better are
perfectly synonymous, that the newer or new model is indeed better than the
previous one, that it is more powerful, has a '20 per cent stiffer body' (Nissan),
 Argumentative strategies and cultural differences in automotive industry . . . 319
'offers a dramatic increase in interior volume and produces a wider track that
puts surer control in the drivers' hands' (Chrysler), 'brings even greater
smoothness' (BMW),7 and so on. This insistence on improvements, however,
may not have a positive effect on, and thus may not be a high motivator for
French speaking addressees who do not systematically equate new and better. In
fact, it could have an adverse effect to the anticipated one and give the
impression that the publicists are hiding something, that what they are saying is
too good to be true.

As with the intensive or meliorative expressions, the target texts either

amalgamate several comparatives:
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(26) smoother, rounder [...] lines/des lignes plus souples (Volvo)

(27) you get snappier response and nimbler, more precise handling/la Tercel
est devenue plus nerveuse et sa conduite plus précise (Toyota)

or do not translate them as comparatives, thus sending a slightly less emphatic

message:
(28) Longer lasting protection/Des voitures garanties pour longtemps (Hyun-
dai)
(29) spark plugs designed to work harder/des bougies a rendement élevé
(Mercedes)
(30) make Sienna noticeably smoother and quieter/rendent la Sienna
particulièrement silencieuse (Toyota)

or they eliminate parts of the sentence altogether. This is often done when the
source text has already made this type of statement, or when it can be inferred
from the context:
(31) Today's all new Corolla adds even more value/... (Toyota)
(32) provides better stability/... (Subaru)

Let us look at uniqueness, and more specifically, superlatives, in the next section.

Superlatives
There are two-and-a-half times more superlatives in North American advertise-
ments than in French ones (see Table 1). The strategy is to look for a feature
which sets the company or the vehicle apart from its competitors. To this end,
one may have to make very fine distinctions between the various categories, such
as new import (see example 40), import pick up (example 41), new sports coupe
of the year (example 43), and thus makes it 'the most X'. Sometimes the features
 320 Genevieve Quillard
which are put in the limelight are quantifiable and could, theoretically at least, be
verified:
(33) The passenger cabin is roomiest in its class/L'habitacle de la Concorde, le
plus spacieux de sa catégorie (Chrysler)
(34) the most interior room of any front wheel drive minivan/plus d'espace que
toute autre minifourgonnette à traction avant (Honda)
(35) the lowest entry height in its class/le seuil le plus bas de sa catégorie
(Honda)
(36) best-in-class towing capacity/la meilleure capacité de remorquage de sa
catégorie (Dodge)
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(37) The most powerful engine in its class/Le moteur de l'Altima est le plus
puissant de sa catégorie (Nissan)
(38) Canada's number one selling vehicle/Le véhicule le plus vendu au pays
(Dodge)
(39) it's Canada's number one selling import van/la fourgonnette importée la
plus vendue au Canada (Mazda)
(40) Excel is the best-selling new import in North America/la nouvelle voiture
importée la plus vendue en Amérique du Nord! (Hyundai)
(41) For the last six years, Mazda trucks have reigned as the best selling import
pick up in Canada/depuis six ans, les camionnettes Mazda trônent en tant
qu'importées les plus vendues

but, more often, such features are the result of value judgments:
(42) the most exquisite cars ever built/aux voitures les plus racées jamais
construites (Mercedes)
(43) The most exciting new sports coupe of the year/Le coupé sport le plus
remarquable de l'année (Hyundai)
(44) the most intelligent automobile we have ever made/la voiture la plus
intelligente que nous ayons jamais construite (Mercedes)
(45) the most ingenious [front-wheel drive minivan]/la plus ingénieuse
[minifourgonnette à traction avant] (Honda)

In the absence of a component which makes the vehicle 'the most X', the
advertisements can appeal to the addressee's own imagination:

(46) Think of it as a sports car with the world's biggest trunk/Considerez-la

comme une voiture sport dotée du plus grand coffre arrière du monde
(Volvo)

Once again, the translations tend to send less bombastic messages, either through
modifications which may appear slight on the surface, but which alter
 Argumentative strategies and cultural differences in automotive industry . . . 321
substantially the meaning of the utterance, as in example (47) which demotes the
vehicles from the most coveted to among the most coveted, or by switching from
a qualitative evaluation to a quantitative one:

(47) these magnificent machines are the most coveted of high-performance

vehicles/ces splendides voitures comptent parmi les véhicules hautes
performances les plus convokes (BMW)
(48) a simple trunk hinge that's the best you have ever seen/de[s] charnières de
coffre simplifiées permettant de multiplier l'espace de chargement
(Honda)
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or by eliminating a phrase or a sentence:

(49) Canada's lowest-priced, best-equipped front-wheel-drive/ ... (Hyundai)

(50) like all Volkswagens it's constructed with only the finest sturdiest
materials/ ...

The only/first (in the world)

Here again the figures speak for themselves. There are six times more
occurrences of utterances such as:
(51) nobody but Hyundai gives you so much value for your money/seule
Hyundai vous en donne autant pour votre argent

or:
(52) The Toyota T100 is the first... in fact it's the only import truck with a bed
that's big enough to carry 4'x8' sheets of plywood/La Toyota T100 est la
premiere ... en fait, la seule camionnette importée dont la caisse est assez
grande pour transporter des feuilles de contreplaqué de 4 pi x 8 pi.

in North American advertisements than in French ones, and almost two thirds
less in the target texts than in the source texts, which is not negligible.8 Also, in
French advertising, this type of statement almost never has a universal range: out
of the 6 'most X' in the world, half appear in advertisements from North
American companies, the other half in advertisements from European ones.
There are none in the three French manufacturers' advertisements.

Once again, the target texts either do not reproduce parts of the utterance:
(53) the BMW 7 Series [...] brings an added dimension to luxury driving only
BMW can claim/ ...
 322 Geneviève Quillard

(54) the new Odyssey takes you where no other vehicle in its class has been
before/... (Honda)
(55) You also get something you won't find anywhere else at any price/ ...
(Toyota)
(56) we're certain you'll agree that it's in a class by itself/ ... (Ford)
(57) An engine so advanced that it could only have come from the engineers at
BMW/ ...
(58) in a vehicle that rides and drives like no other/ ... (Honda)

or they send a completely different message which, although still depicting the
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vehicle in an alluring way, does not make it the eighth wonder of the world:
(59) it's like nothing else on the road/Elle fera tourner les têtes (Mazda)
(60) A luxury vehicle unlike any other luxury vehicle/Même les plus exigeants
apprecient son grand luxe (Chrysler)
(61) The only car in its class/Voiture ou mini-fourgonnette? (Ford)

Sometimes, the addition of elements such as in its class, as in the following

examples, considerably reduces the scope of the utterance:
(62) The only minivan to offer a power rear hatch/La seule mini-fourgonnette
de sa catégorie à vous offrir un hayon à commande électrique (Dodge)
(63) Only Odyssey has a fully independent 4-wheel double wishbone
suspension/Dans sa catégorie, seule l'Odyssey possède une suspension
indépendante à deux leviers triangulés aux quatre roues (Honda)

A deletion which may at first glance appear innocuous or a slight change also
helps to present the vehicle or the manufacturer in a less hyperbolic and less
unique way:

(64) Once again, Saab stands alone on the leading edge of turbo technology/
Une fois encore, Saab est a la fine pointe de la technique turbo
(65) a vehicle that rides and drives like no other/la nouvelle Odyssey est des
plus agréables à conduire (Honda)
(66) it's unlike any other SUV/elle a très peu en commun avec les autres
utilitaires sport (Mercedes)

Claiming that one's vehicles are the best and that they are unique may be a strong
argument, but it remains subjective in many ways. Relying on the objective
judgment of experts can only make one's claims more convincing, as we shall
see in the next section.
 Argumentative strategies and cultural differences in automotive industry . . . 323
External 'referees'
According to Triandis (1994, 191), 'individualists place great value on facts'.
Ideas are always debatable. 'What convinces are facts. [...] a fact is not
debatable', '[T]he stress on measurement' is typical of Americans, say Stewart
and Bennett (1995, 70). Facts and measurements are tangible, concrete; they
prove that what is asserted is true.9 And is there a better way to impress the
addressees (the frequency of to impress, impressive is 16 times higher in the
North American corpus than in the French one), and to convince them of the
vehicle's excellence or superiority than to rely upon tangible elements such as
prizes, awards, comments written in specialised magazines, etc.? Probably less
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competitive societies give away less prizes, awards and do not have as many best
lists or honor rolls. In Ontario at least, every store and every company seem to
run regular elections to designate 'the employee of the month', whose
photograph is conspicuously displayed. An explanation for this need to be
recognised or to recognise others, could be the following: 'The importance of
motivation in American society may be associated with the fact that the
American image of the individual tends to be general and vague. Motivation
helps fill this void since it is a dynamic concept that associates the individual
with action and leads to the belief that one is what one does. [...] Hence
accomplishments must be personal, visible, and measurable since the culture
does not provide a means of evaluating and knowing the person except through
externals of performance and attainment' (Stewart & Bennett 1995, 76).
Whatever the case may be, North American advertisements make the most of
these external references which guarantee the vehicle's quality. Actually every
car company uses some certificate of merit or other as an argument to prove its
worthiness as follows:

Awards
(67) It also won Strategic Vision's 1998 Total Quality Award for 'Best
Ownership Experience' in minivans/La Chrysler Town & Country a aussi
remporté le prix de la « qualité totale 1998 de Strategic Vision pour la »
meilleure expérience du propriétaire + dans les mini-fourgonnettes
(68) And seventeen awards including Best Car in the World in its class/Elle s'est
aussi vu décerner dix-sept prix, dont celui de la « Meilleure voiture au
monde » dans sa catégorie (Mercedes)
(69) It also won the J. D. Power and Associates Award for Best Midsize Sport
Utility Vehicle in Initial Quality/De plus, il a reçu le prix J. D. Power et
associés décerné au meilleur utilitaire sport intermédiate sur la qualité
initiale (Nissan)
 324 Geneviève Quillard

Best lists
(70) Add to this its 'Best Pick' designation for crashworthiness from the
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)/Ajoutez-y son titre IIHS de
« Meilleurs choix » pour sa capacité de résistance à l'impact (Acura)
(71) Sienna is the only 4 door minivan to receive the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration's 5 star rating/La Sienna est la seule mini-
fourgonnette 4 portes à obtenir une cote de 5 étoiles de la National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration (Toyota)
(72) Autoweek called them 'the world's most innovative seats '/Autoweek les a
baptises "les sièges les plus novateurs du monde!" (Mercedes)
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(73) The Honda Odyssey was named 1999 'Best New Van' and 1999 'Canadian
Truck of the Year' by the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada/
La toute nouvelle Odyssey [...] a [...] été désignee « Meilleure
fourgonnette » 1999 et « Véhicule utilitaire canadien de l'année » 1999
par l'Association des Journalistes Automobile du Canada

Quotations
(74) the kind of performance that's established the Legend as "the powerhouse
of records." (Road and Track, February, 1992)/C'est pourquoi on dit
qu'elle est "une véritable centrale d'énergie". (Road and Track, février
1992) (Acura)
(75) a structural integrity that Car and Driver referred to as "vault strong", and
Motor Trend praised for solidity "from the seats and suspension to the rock
solid body"/l'intégrité structurelle décrite par Car & Driver comme digne
« d'une chambre forte », et louée par Motor Trend pour une solidité qui
s'étend « des sièges et de la suspension a l'imperturbable [sic]
carrosserie ». (Mercedes)
(76) When we launched this 5 Series, Motor Trend proclaimed it Adestined to
serve as a benchmark vehicle for our time - perhaps for all time - "
(February 1997) Lors du lancement de la Série 5, le magazine Motor Trend
a statué qu'elle était « destinée à servir de référence pour notre époque -
peut-être même pour toujours » (février 1997) (BMW)
(77) modifications have made it even better than when it was first called "the
best car in the world."10/ Et celle qu'on a déjà désignée «meilleure voiture
au monde» a fait l'objet de modifications qui l'ont encore améliorée
(Toyota)

If no awards or quotations from specialised magazines are available, surveys

come in handy (although there might be a conflict of interest here, since
presumably the surveys are Toyota's, not its competitors' or national ones):
 Argumentative strategies and cultural differences in automotive industry . . . 325
(78) in many Customer Service Satisfaction Surveys, Lexus dealers have been
rated so highly as to become the standard for the industry/de nombreux
sondages relatifs a la satisfaction du client ont montré que les
concessionnaires Lexus étaient appelés à devenir la norme au sein de
I'industrie (Toyota)

If there are no surveys, awards or quotations on hand, the publicists can run their
own elections. Putting the results in italics, as if it were a quotation, can only add
credibility to the message:

(79) One might well proclaim the M5 the supreme performance car - for
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business and family duty/Tout cela nous autorise à élire la M5 voiture

supreme de performance pour le travail et la famille (BMW)
In the North American corpus, there are 34 such references, or roughly one out
of four advertisements. In the French corpus, there are only three, one out of
sixty three advertisements. And one of these three references is by a North
American auto-maker:

(80) Qualité d'insonorisation récompensée par le premier prix du concours

« Décibel d'Or 2001 » (Renault)
(81) Jeep Grand Cherokee élu 4x4 de l'année 1994. Trophée 4x4 de l'année
1994 organisé par 4x4 Magazine
(82) la nouvelle MGTF a été élue « Cabriolet de l'annee 2002 » par un jury
international de 18 journalistes automobile de 11 pays.

Miscellaneous
North American advertisers often refer to other cars, companies or to any car-
related component which will enhance their self-image and can be used as proof
of the high quality of their products. Explicit or implicit links are made with
Japanese or European vehicles which, in the automotive world, are very
prestigious, or with higher class vehicles. Through these relationships, the
argumentative strategy is to present 'accomplishments that are measurable by
standards conceived to be external to the acting individual' (Kluckhohn 1973,
17)11 and thus to impress the prospective buyers. This type of comparison or
reference is never made in French advertising. Judging from some target texts
which either alter the message as in example (87), or omit parts of the utterances
as in (90) and (91), this kind of argument may not be as effective in French
Canada as in the rest of the country:

(83) Inspired by the machine that dominated last year's Canadian Rally
Championship/Inspiree par le véhicule qui a dominé le circuit du
Championnat canadien des rallyes l'an dernier (Subaru)
 326 Genevieve Quillard

(84) the racing-inspired high visibility gauges/les cadrans haute visibilité,

inspirés de ceux des bolides de course (Audi)
(85) Formula-1 race inspired double wishbone suspension/une suspension a
double bras triangulé inspirée des voitures de grand prix (Toyota)
(86) a driving experience so close to that of a fine European sedan, it's scary/
une expérience de conduite qui se rapproche tellement de celle d'une
berline européenne de luxe que e'en est terrifiant12 (Subaru)
(87) 'I always thought that spirited performance in a luxury Sedan could only be
found in an import.' That is until now/Heureusement, il y aura toujours des
gens insatisfaits (Cadillac)
(88) The steeply swept windshield and low-to-the-ground driving position make
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you feel like you're in a pocket-sized Ferrari/ Le pare-brise à grande courbe

aérodynamique et une position de conduite au sol vous donnent
l'impression d'être dans une petite Ferrari (Mazda)
(89) performance and handling characteristics usually found in high-end luxury
sedans/des performances et une tenue de route que l'on retrouve que [sic]
dans les berlines de luxe (Hyundai)
(90) And as befits a car that earned its wings on the autobahn / ... (Volkswagen)
(91) In fact, the only rivals for Tiburon's sheer visual impact are a handful of
European exotics whose prices live far, far north of here/ ... (Hyundai)

Having looked at the various strategies used by the car makers on the linguistic
and pragmatic levels, we will now turn to the main concepts they base their
arguments on.

Main arguments
Grouping together the words belonging to the same semantic field gives us an
insight into the types of concepts which are most frequently referred to in the two
corpora.
 Argumentative strategies and cultural differences in automotive industry . . . 327
TABLE 2: Occurrences of the most frequent concepts 13

Categories Source Text (ST) Target Text (TT) France

name 490/3,7 per ad 480/3,6 per ad 522/2,7 per ad
vehicle 395/3 per ad 357/2,7 per ad 321
power 265 270 265/1,4 per ad
safety 210 235 226
luxury 171 184 190
technology 164 156 160
new 163 138 112
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improved 123 92 75
fame/success 58 59 48
pleasure 39 41 22

As can be seen in Table 2, and as could be expected, the company names are the
most commonly used argumentative devices in the three cultures. However, their
occurrences per advertisement are lower in France than in North America.
Although, as far as figures are concerned, the difference may appear slight, it is
actually not negligible when one takes into consideration the fact that the
manufacturers' names are almost invariably used in the opening and closing
lines, and in the slogans as well. Since there are 59 more advertisements in the
French corpus, the figures could have been expected to be significantly higher
than in the North American corpus. Indeed, if one counts only the occurrences
within the text, the figures are significantly lower, both in the target texts and in
the unilingual corpus: ST: 697/3,1 per cent; TT: 633/2,5 per cent; France: 459/
2,0 per cent.

The occurrence of the word vehicle (1,8 % in the STs) also shows a decline in the
translations (1,4%) and a sharp drop in the French corpus (1,2 %). This could be
related to the fact that North American culture is a low context one, whereas
French culture is a high context one (Hall & Reed Hall 1990, 220). In a high
context or communication, most of the information lies in the physical context
and is internalised. The verbal message gives only a very small part of the
information. The speaker and addressee assume that they share a common
knowledge. Thus a lot of things need not be said. On the contrary, a low context
communication relies very little on implicit knowledge, so that the verbal
message gives much more information (Hall 1977, 92). There seems to be less
need on the part of the French and French Canadians to remind the addressee that
the texts are focusing on cars and not on something else. This could also explain
why the company's name appears slightly less frequently in the translations and
in the French advertisements. Actually, it can be hypothesised that high context
 328 Genevieve Quillard

cultures tend to use more repetitions and redundancies, but this hypothesis could
only be corroborated or rejected by a much wider scale study.
Looking at the category 'new', one might be surprised that it ranks 4th in the
unilingual corpus and 7th in the bilingual one. This may seem to contradict what
was said earlier about the different attitudes toward novelty and change in
monochronic and polychronic cultures. However, the figures are misleading for
two reasons: first, because, as in the case of the manufacturers' name, the word
new accompanied with the name of the latest model appears more or less
systematically in the headline and in the closing line; second, because French
advertisements frequently include a main or subsidiary picture in or under which
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is written something like: The new X, model presented: Y or Z..., whereas this is
rarely done in North American advertising. The section 'improved' shows that,
although (obviously) the vehicles presented in the advertisements are new or new
models, the 'improvement' argument does not play as important a part in French
advertising. The same applies to the manufacturer's reputation, which is referred
to two and a half times less in France. Again, this could be related to the fact that
French culture is a high context one: the assumption is that the addressees are
aware of the company's reputation.14 The importance given to pleasure, which is
mentioned almost three times as much in French advertisements,15 is also linked
to high context cultures, which tend to emphasise feelings more than low context
ones. It should be added that pleasure is not measurable and quantifiable and as
mentioned earlier, North Americans favor arguments backed up by tangible,
quantifiable data.16

In spite of the fact that the hierarchical order is very similar in the source and
target texts, figures show that priorities are not quite the same. Novelty and
improvements are not as strong arguments in the target texts. If we add the
number of comparatives which, semantically, can be classified as 'improve-
ments', the difference becomes more patent (287 in the TTs, 221 in the STs).
Pleasure, on the other hand, seems to be a higher motivator for French
Canadians, as is illustrated by Dodge's (Chryler) slogan: Grab life by the horns/
Mordez dans la vie,17 or by such changes as: Introducing the totally redesigned
Nissan Altima, our midsize sedan/Découvrez l'Altima de Nissan, entièrement
redessinée pour votre plus grand plaisir. It is also important to point out that
the same concept may not have the same meaning and the same value in different
cultures, in the same way as identical behavior may not be the result of the same
motivations (Kramsch 1993, 227). Luxury, for example, seems to be associated
primarily with status and prestige in North America, whereas French Canadians
tend to associate it with quality of life (Bouchard 1978, 56), as is illustrated in
the following example:
 Argumentative strategies and cultural differences in automotive industry . . . 329
(92) The things you associate yourself with are reflections of what you stand for.
Or who you are. And although you've enjoyed membership in a diverse
range of clubs, nothing can surpass the prestige and privileges you'll know
as a Lincoln owner. You see, being a Lincoln owner says a lot about you. It
reflects a passion for achievement and success./Le chemin parcouru jusqu'à
aujourd'hui n'a pas toujours été facile. Il n'y a pas de raison cependant
pour que la suite du trajet ne soit pas différente. Après tout, vous avez bien
mérité le luxe et le raffinement Lincoln. Pour assurer votre confort, nous ne
nous limitons pas seulement à vous proposer des voitures confortables!

Conclusion
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Henry (quoted by Albou 1977, 94) says: 'What the consumer wants, and what he
buys, is the whole personality of the product. [...] the image of the product fits
the image that the consumer creates, in his/her mind, of the qualities inherent to
the product, whether they be real or imagined' (the emphasis is the author's).
This mental construct, however, is heavily influenced by the strategies used by
the publicists to describe their product. But these strategies are deeply anchored
in the culture to which they belong.
In the North American automotive industry, as this research suggests, the main
persuasive strategies are to impress the addresses, to project a very self-confident
and aggressive self-image through the use of hyperboles, comparatives,
superlatives and to rely on external sources acting as guarantors of the vehicles'
power, safety, reliability, and so on. The need to impress is definitely not as high
a motivator in French Canada. The translated texts build a much more subdued
ethos, primarily through deletions and semantic alterations which help smooth
out some of the exaggeration and make the messages more congruent with a less
individualistic and competitive culture. The French advertisements also project a
more moderate self-image and they appeal more often to the addressees'
feelings.
Although the two corpora on which this study is based are very small, their
analysis can provide us with an insight on how advertising in the three cultures
attempts to seduce the consumer into buying the product. Research on a larger
scale could only help refine the results found here and identify what other types
of strategies are preferred in other types of advertisements.

Notes
1 A French (and slightly different) version of this paper will be published in Meta
(Quillard, in press).
2 Elm Street, Feb/March 01; L'Actualité, 1/01. The TT translates this sentence literally:
Nous voulions vous montrer nos vΘhicules dans un des coins les plus reculés, but
adds a wordplay in the following sentence: So we had them superimposed into this
 330 Geneviève Quillard
picture./Nereculant devant rien, nous avons truqué la photo. Could the play on words
be a means of "softening" the effect of the superlative? Only a study of the contexts in
which wordplay is added in the translations (which is not an uncommon phenomenon
in advertising: Quillard 2001) could provide an answer to this question.
3 In this article, North American stands for North American English.
4 The translation of quotation form books published in French are mine.
5 Bold characters are used in the examples to highlight the differences between the STs
and the TTs.
6 Trompenaars (1994, 127) mentions a correlation between synchronicity and
collectivism: 'Cultures which think synchronously about time are more we-ohented
(collectivist)'.
7 Reader's Digest, 10/97; L'Actualité, 1/10/97; Time, 11/1/93; L'Actualité, 2/93; Time,
02/11/92; L'Actualité, 15/11/92.
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8 According to Bouchard (1978, 252), this type of argument has a negative effect in
French Canada.
9 It is likely, however, that the importance given to facts varies considerably from one
culture to another.
10 The advertisement does not say, however, when, where or by whom this was written
or said.
11 According to the author, this is the 'most distinctive feature' of American culture.
12 'It's scary for European manufacturers, of course. Interestingly enough, the headline
of this advertisement: Be afraid, Gunter. Be very afraid is translated as Tremblement
de nerfs en Europe. The wordplay suggests a certain reluctance to be as aggressive
as in the ST.
13 Name = name of manufacturer or of model. Vehicle = car, minivan, wagon, sedan,
truck, cabriolet, SUV, etc. Power = engine, V6, V8, HP, power, performance, 0-100km/
hr in 6.6 seconds, etc. Safety = safety, protection, brakes, ABS (anti-lock braking
system), SRS (supplemental restraint system), traction control, seat-belts, impact
beam, strut, rollover bar, reinforced, etc. Luxury = luxury (in both meanings of the
word, i.e. state of the art and luxuriousness), comfort, air-conditioning, leather, suede,
wood, etc. Technology = technology, engineer, technician, engineering, cam, valve,
suspension, double whishbone, etc. New includes only this word. Improved =
improved, enhanced, redesigned, revamped, resculpted, etc. Fame/success = fame,
reputation, recognized, celebrated, renowned, legendary, heralded, popular, success,
achievement, etc. Pleasure = pleasure, enjoyment, thrill, excitement, joy, etc.
14 One third of the references to fame are from North American manufacturers.
15 Interestingly, one of Peugeot's slogans depicts technology as subservient to pleasure:
La technologie n'est la que pour le plaisir de I'homme.
16 '[0]nly here [in American culture] do we find such willingness to measure intangibles;
expression must be quantitative. There is a pretence of extreme objectivity, of
objective control of situations, which cannot be tangibly measured' (Sapir, quoted by
Katan 1999, 185).
17 The same cultural difference is illustrated in the semantically strikingly similar headline
of a fruit juice (Welch's): It's what you put into life/L'important, c'est dejouir de la vie.
The more important part played by pleasure in a number of translated advertisements
has been analysed in another paper (Quillard, in press).

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