English and American Culture Appeal in Russian Advertising

Abstract

The article proposes that Russian advertising discourse offers prospective for examining the changes in Russian language and culture in the context of globalization. It focuses on the use of English in Russian advertising with an analysis of code-mixed samples drawn from recent print, Internet and TV advertisements. Strong evidence emerges that the main source of creativity in Russian advertisements is the mixing of English and Russian. English–Russian language mix is presented in abundance on the levels of words, sentences and phrases in the structural components of Russian advertisements. The proportion of English in advertisements is in alignment with gender and modernity. Nativization and assimilation of English also manifests itself in using Cyrillic script for language transfer. The English usage in the advertisements can be explained by utilitarian reasons, as the brand names and logo in English are promoted all over the world, and by social reasons, as English is a sign of high-quality products, novelty, prestige and even fun. By revealing age-specific English used in advertisements, the attempts are made to redefine a new ethnic identity. The phenomenon is interpreted according to possible ongoing changes of Russian ethnolinguistic identity.