What is it about?
The article explores the role of foreign borrowings in American Super Bowl commercials (2019–2023). Analyzing 358 ads (23,869 words), the authors identified 69 borrowings from 17 languages, with French, Italian, and Spanish being the most frequent sources. Food-related terms dominated, followed by business/service and socio-cultural borrowings. Borrowings were classified as catachrestic (filling lexical gaps) or non-catachrestic (used despite native equivalents), and as intentional (audience- or product-oriented) or unintentional. Findings show that borrowings serve attention-getting, cultural, and symbolic functions (e.g., jalapeño evoking Hispanic cuisine, expertise connoting sophistication). Despite their potential, borrowings accounted for only ~0.29% of tokens, suggesting limited use compared to other multimodal strategies (e.g., visuals, music, full sentences in foreign languages). The study highlights borrowings’ role in shaping inclusivity, identity, and the country-of-origin effect, while stressing their context-dependence. It calls for further multimodal and perceptual research on how audiences interpret linguistic diversity in advertising.
Why is it important?
The study is important because it sheds light on how advertising strategically uses foreign words to influence perception, identity, and inclusivity. By analyzing Super Bowl commercials, which are the most-watched and most expensive advertising slots in the U.S., the authors show how borrowings can function as attention-getters, evoke cultural associations (e.g., French with elegance, Italian with cuisine), and contribute to the country-of-origin (COO) effect.