Cultural Sensitivity and Visual Strategies in Global Advertising Campaigns: The Case of The Laughing Cow in Morocco

This study explores the interplay between cultural sensitivity and visual strategies in global advertising campaigns, focusing on The Laughing Cow cheese brand in Morocco as a case study in numerous cultural settings based on Cortazzi and Jin's (1999) framework of cultural categories, specifically source, international and target culture. Drawing on Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (2021) social semiotics theory of visual communication, this investigation also employs representational, interactive, and compositional metafunctions to analyze how visual elements communicate meaning across diverse cultural contexts. Additionally, it incorporates feminist media theory to explore the cultural intersections of gender, race, and class within global advertising campaigns. A qualitative method research approach is employed. Since the product is advertised locally with cultural specificities, the findings reveal that source culture is the most dominant, followed by target culture, with international culture being the least represented. The findings also indicate a clear gender bias, with female dominance evident in the advertising campaign. The current advertising campaign of The Laughing Cow cheese brand is mainly associated with femininity, which is crystal clear in The Laughing Cow cheese brand product itself, showing a smiling cow personified with feminine traits. At the level of social semiotic of visual communication, representational metafunctions indicate how cultural identities and practices are depicted in the advertising campaign. In contrast, interactive metafunctions reveal the engagement of viewers through gaze, perspective, and modality. Compositional metafunctions demonstrate the organization of elements to balance a local culture with a global one. The study's findings hold significant value for advertising agencies, global brands and marketers, and consumers who are deemed to be the main partners in this process. To develop a more comprehensive research study in the future, a subsequent study with a broader scope, incorporating other global advertising campaigns, should build upon the findings of the present study.