Advertising Language as Negotiation of Global Brand Identity and Local Values: A Speech Act Analysis on Mcdonald’s Arabia’s Youtube Channel
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37108/ukazh.v1i2.2626Keywords:
Advertising language, Global brand identity, Local values, Speech act, Mcdonald’s ArabiaAbstract
Global advertising in the Middle East faces challenges in negotiating brand identity with the cultural and religious values of local communities. Although many studies have been conducted on McDonald’s marketing on social media, analysis of advertising language practices from a speech act perspective in the Arab context is still limited. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the use of speech acts in advertisements on McDonald’s Arabia’s YouTube channel as a persuasive strategy oriented towards Arab audiences. This study uses a qualitative descriptive approach with documentation techniques on selected advertisements from McDonald’s Arabia’s official YouTube channel. The data were analyzed using a speech act theory framework that includes the locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary levels. The results show that McDonald’s Arabia advertisements utilize locutionary speech acts to convey product information and social context, illocutionary speech acts, especially implicit assertive and directive ones, to emphasize halal identity and alignment with Arab culture, and perlocutionary speech acts to build emotional effects such as religious security, cultural closeness, and brand attachment. These findings confirm that advertising language functions as a medium for negotiating identity between global brands and local values, while also contributing to the development of pragmatic studies and discourse analysis of digital advertising in the Arab socio-cultural context.
References
Andrlic, B., Uludag, O., & Saydam, M. (2024). Analyzing The Role Of Brand Identity Elements In Shaping Consumer Perception: A Review Study Of Cultural Heritage Branding In Tourism Destination. Annals of DAAAM and Proceedings of the International DAAAM Symposium, 35(1), 4–9. https://doi.org/10.2507/35th.daaam.proceedings.001
Arabia, M. D. (2020). McDonaldsArabia. Arab Saudi. https://www.youtube.com/@mcdonaldsarabia1993
Austin, J. (1962). How to do Things with Words. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. Retrieved from https://shorturl.at/ZPedS
Azman, A. B., Majid, M. A. A., Zainozaman, M. S., Zulkifly, M. I., & Mahusain, M. A. (2025). Scroll, Click, Buy: The Impact of Social Media Attributes on Purchase Intentions among Young Adults. Journal of Information Technology Management, 17(1), 99– 118. https://doi.org/10.22059/jitm.2025.99926
Balalrishnan, S. M., Moharkonda, P. S., & Paul, R. (2025). The Impact of Marketing Strategies in the Fast–Food Industry. In Innovative Trends Shaping Food Marketing and Consumption. Hershey, PA: IGI Global Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-8542-5.ch002
Benmamoun, M. (2023). McDonald’s in the Middle East: Navigating Political and Ethical Minefields. Journal of Business Ethics Education, 20, 241–252. https://doi.org/10.5840/jbee20232015
Cassidy, O., Shin, H. W., Song, E., Jiang, E., Harri, R., Cano, C., Vedanthan, R., Ogedegbe, G., & Bragg, M. (2021). Comparing McDonald’s food marketing practices on official Instagram accounts across 15 countries. BMJ Nutrition, Prevention and Health, 4(2), 511–518. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjnph-2021-000229
Disantis, K. I., Kumanyika, S., Carter-Edwards, L., Young, D. R., Grier, S. A., & Lassiter, V. (2017). Sensitizing black adult and youth consumers to targeted food marketing tactics in their environments. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14111316
Emond, J. A., Longacre, M. R., Drake, K. M., Titus, L. J., Hendricks, K., MacKenzie, T., Harris, J. L., Carroll, J. E., Cleveland, L. P., Gaynor, K., & Dalton, M. A. (2019). Influence of child-targeted fast food TV advertising exposure on fast food intake: A longitudinal study of preschool-age children. Appetite, 140, 134–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2019.05.012
Emond, J. A., Utter, H., Eschholz, A., Chang, V., Gottlieb, M. A., & Sargent, J. D. (2021). Promotion of meal premiums in child-directed TV advertising for children’s fast-food meals. Pediatrics, 147(6). https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-042994
Fatorachian, H., Arboleda, E., & Linh, T. T. (2025). Digitalisation and customer engagement in fast-food SMEs: enhancing brand presence through social media. Cogent Business and Management, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2025.2508927
Hanaysha, J. R. (2021). Impact of Price Promotion, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Social Media Marketing on Word of Mouth. Business Perspectives and Research, 9(3), 446–461. https://doi.org/10.1177/2278533721989839
Ivanova, R. A., Rotanova, M. B., Ivanov, A. V, Prokhorova, M. V, & Philippova, S. Y. (2021). Manipulative IT and Verbal Strategies in Scientific and Technical Advertising. Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE International Conference “Quality Management, Transport and Information Security, Information Technologies”, T and QM and IS 2021, 644-647. https://doi.org/10.1109/ITQMIS53292.2021.9642743
Jurišová, V. (2020). Building brand identity on Instagram. Proceedings of the 7th European Conference on Social Media, ECSM 2020, 119–126. https://doi.org/10.34190/ESM.20.056
Kurniawati, M., Handriana, T., & Usman, I. (2020). Effect of price and non-price initiatives promotion towards healthy food selection. International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change, 11(11), 492–507. Retrieved from https://shorturl.at/xcJPh
Lang, M., Beemer, G., & Fernandez Gaviria, P. (2021). Impact of an Innovative Video Demonstration on Perceptions and Attitudes Toward McDonald’s Product Quality. Journal of Food Products Marketing, 27(5), 243–254. https://doi.org/10.1080/10454446.2021.1971589
Nchindila, B. M., & Torto, R. T. (2020). Persuasive effect of figures of speech in the english of advertisements in the ghanaian press. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 10(5), 492 – 509. https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1005.03
Pareek, P., & Singh, M. (2017). Code mixing as a socio - psychological advertising strategy in the era of glocalization. Indian Journal of Marketing, 47(1), 41–53. https://doi.org/10.17010/ijom/2017/v47/i1/108809
Pathak, A., Basawatia, J., & Islam, M. (2025). Exploring the Metaverse: Transforming Marketing Strategies in Virtual Environments. World Sustainability Series, Part F608. Cham: Springer, 263–282. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-89545-6_14
Punniyamoorthy, R., & Arulmoli, R. (2019). Brand connecting with people in the aspect of emotional advertising towards societal benefits and awareness. International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology, 8(6), 3830–3835. https://doi.org/10.35940/ijeat.F9399.088619
Raja, A., & Afzal, M. (2025). Investigating The Public Health Impact of Food Marketing on Children’s Dietary Choices. TPM - Testing, Psychometrics, Methodology in Applied Psychology, 32(S2), 1067–1072. Retrieved from https://www.tpmap.org/article-view/?id=336
Rodrigues, M. B., Matos, J. D. P., & Horta, P. M. (2021). The COVID-19 pandemic and its implications for the food information environment in Brazil. Public Health Nutrition, 24(2), 321–326. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980020004747
Sardjono, W., Cholidin, A., & Johan. (2023). Applying Digital Advertising in Food and Beverage Industry for McDonald’s with Marketing 5.0 Approach. E3S Web of Conferences, 426. https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202342602009
Searle, J. R. (1979). Expression and Meaning: Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts. New York: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from https://shorturl.at/Q08m5
Upadhye, N., Sharma, D., Yacin, W. M. I., & Mathur, V. (2025). Business Environment Analysis of McDonald’s Marketing Strategy. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, 95–112. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-7030-4_7
Woon, P. Y. (2024). The Impact of Fast-Food Video Advertisements Through The Eyes of Young Creative Industry Practitioners. Jurnal Komunikasi: Malaysian Journal of Communication, 40(2), 431–447. https://doi.org/10.17576/JKMJC-2024-4002-25
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Kenny Andika, Yasmadi, Delami
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
