Preserving persuasion: Translation techniques for English TV commercials and advertising slogans into Albanian
Preserving persuasion: Translation techniques for English TV commercials and advertising slogans into Albanian

Summary/Abstract: This study looks into how English TV commercials and global advertising slogans are translated into Albanian with a particular focus on translation choices that preserve their persuasive effect in the target cultural and media contexts. For this purpose, a multimodal comparative analysis of seven internationally distributed commercials and five well‑known slogans is employed to identify translation techniques used to translate them from English into Albanian and evaluate their effects on idiomaticity, humour, rhetorical devices, brand identity and target audience’s comprehension. Findings show that literal translation often preserves propositional content but reduces rhythm, wordplay, and emotional appeal, while modulation and transcreation better restore persuasive intent. Translation decisions are informed by the target audience’s familiarity with the source culture references, media habits (dubbing vs. subtitling; read‑aloud taglines), and brand identity. In this study, I propose a skopos‑centred, decision‑oriented framework for translators and marketing professionals that prioritises comprehensibility and persuasive equivalence and recognises their role as intercultural mediators. Recommendations are also made for further research that centres on audience reception and engagement and carries out experimental work to quantify the impact of adaptation strategies on Albanian audiences.

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