Saudi Arabia: Advertising differentiated culture
In the E- Marketing class, we’ve learnt that the web design across countries can be so different for a same brand or product. Among those countries, I am particularly interested in advertising in Saudi Arabia.
(The Ikea Saudi Arabia Ad controversy Meme)
In October 2012, a big news of Ikea. A Swedish newspaper compared the Swedish and Saudi versions of the manual, and found that in the latter women had been very skilfully airbrushed out. At the time, people criticized that the Ikea has subordinated women’s rights to business interests
Despite the discrimination discussion, I am curious of how major brand positioning themselves in such a region sensitive country.
I visited Saudi Arabia last summer, and I was shocked on what I saw and what I’ve heard. I saw little boy aged around 6-7 drive the car with their mom sit on the passenger seat because women are not allowed to drive. Also, women are only allowed to go to cinema with their husband. Women were barely appearing on ads since they only allowed showing their eyes to public. However, this brings opportunities to makeup producers. The eye shadow and mascara were popular in sell.
I personally think what Ikea did is showing respect to a certain culture. And not only Ikea, a lot of big name company did the same thing and also for other industries.
Here is some example:
- Starbucks design mermaid-free logo for its Saudi locations
- A Katy Perry album is scrawled over in pen to add modest new clothing to the singer’s arms and legs
