P&G's experience in Japan illustrates that advertising is to a large extent a cultural phenomenon. When advertising appeals are not aligned with the local culture, the ad campaign will falter. So the barriers which stand in the way of transferring advertisements from one country to another need to be carefully understood.

Developing advertising campaigns is a major challenge for global corporations. Take the example of P&G which made a big advertising blunder when it introduced its disposable diapers "Pampers" in Japan. The P&G commercial showed an animated stork delivering Pampers diapers at home. Japanese consumers were not clear about why a bird should be delivering disposable diapers. The concept of storks delivering babies was new to Japan. Instead, babies were expected to arrive in giant peaches that floated on the river to deserving parents. Later, P & G began to use a more relevant campaign to promote Pampers using the testimonial of a nurse who also happened to be an expert mom.

P&G's experience illustrates that advertising is to a large extent a cultural phenomenon. When advertising appeals are not aligned with the local culture, the ad campaign will falter. So the barriers which stand in the way of transferring advertisements from one country to another need to be carefully understood.

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