Victoria, for a good example you may wish to look for a video that deals with Goya brand in the U.S.  Basically, how they label and refer to their U.S. food products intentionally avoid the use of a particular name/wording that is used in any locale from a Latin American country... This is because they want to avoid isolating consumers who might recognize something from a locale that is not their own, so they attempt to refer to the foods they sell in as generic a version of Spanish as they can.

Also, PLEASE avoid using the "Nova" example... there is a myth that gets re-told about how Chevy's "Nova" car was unsuccessful in Spanish speaking countries because it means "No Go" in Spanish, and when they changed the name sales went up.  This is one of those myths that have gotten repeated often enough that people believe it to have happened - but it didn't.  Good luck.

Thank you, Paul.

Is this the site you mean? With the "En Español" / "In English" toggle button? http://www.goya.com/english/video/ ; http://www.goya.com/espanol/video/

Is there any specific food example you could give me as a generic Spanish term that could have variances across countries?

Thanks again! Victoria

Hi Victoria.  I believe the video was from a textbook supplement that a colleague of mine was using a few years ago.  I looked for it online but didn't see it.  I've sent him an email to find out if he knows how to track it down, or which textbook it was associated with.  It was an academic videography as opposed to a marketing tool.  I will try to track it down.

Hi Victoria. Almost every multinational corporation could give you an exaple about the adaptation of marketing communication due to language or culturale issues: McDonalds and halal culture, Benetton and  the effect of 'shockvertising' worlwide, the different websites of the same company....Most adaptations that are now working are a cosequence of the failure of past global messages. In my slides (2012) you may find 'old' known examples about Coca Cola, Evian etc.  If you are in search of something more specific, I think that I could help you

Carolina Guerini, thank you for your examples.

Multilingual Advertising is an Necessity for some companies where as for other companies it's good to have it rather than need to have it. Say for example a Product such as Washing Powder has to be sold to every household and it's better to Advertise in the Language(Local) that consumers better connect to. Though you are communicating to Consumers in different languages that doesn't mean you have to change the content in your promotions all the Time. For Example in India where there are lot of "linguistically faithful" and "culturally sensitive" people, products(say like Vodafone and Surf Excel) is advertised in multiple languages with same concept and they are doing good. Take another case of selling an Status Symbolizing Car and in this case there is no point of advertising your product in the Local Language as the Customers mostly will be Highly Educated People and can understand and has no issues with communicating through the Global Language.

Thanks for this insight, Deepak Shah. What languages do you mostly see these ads and/or commercials in? Are they ever mixed (e.g., some text in Hindi and some in English)?