The general umbrella of intercultural communications is another key part of a content strategist’s toolkit. Like every other part in it, there’s an understanding of it’s importance, but also a general disregard by many industries despite that.
From the examples in class such as the Audi, Dolce and Gabbana, or even the Gerber, the insensitivity and backlash stems from two places.
- Ethnocentric assumptions about the cultures where the product or service will be perceived in. It’s even stranger how this occurs as frequently as it does in an age where it’s easy to find resources to become less ignorant on certain subjects.
- It might be on purpose in order to manufacture a cycle of outrage-fuelled publicity. This tended to be more of a frequent occurrence with larger companies who could afford the loss like luxury designer brands though, so they have less to lose in circumstances like this. Any publicity would be enough to stay in the headlines until they send an apology and everyone forgets.
Neither of these are great scenarios, and I feel like both happen in tandem rather than separately so it makes the overall situation even worse. There should be more than half steps taken to prevent further incidents from happening., but the cynical part of me thinks it’s left alone to happen over and over again on purpose.
If companies truly cared about improving things, the status quo qould change to where decisions aren’t made by a bunch of people who don’t see the issue in “being edgy and ruffling a few feathers”.
At the very least though, easy access to educational materials to lower barriers of understanding is a great start in furthering the pressure on those who continue to play ignorant.