Cross cultural communication is an important concept in communications there are parameters that need to be met in order for communication to be successful. One of the issues in this advert is that of message transmission. The developers of the advert did not understand the message that would be passed to other people. The issue of different cultures, and more so, the issue of racism was not given enough thought in the process of designing the advert. The message that was to be transmitted was not considered with all the parameters. The human rights activists did not understand the main attribution of the message. They had different interpretations of the advert. The issue of cultural sensitivity of Dunkin Company was no factored. The sensitivity to culture was not considered in the whole process. It is important to understand the need to develop cultural sensitivity when handling different cultures in messages that come from these communications. The advert should have been designed in order for people to identify with the culture that is practiced by the developers of the advert. This is a sure way in which the advert and the target audience could have got from the advert (Ochieng, & Price, 2010).
The Dunkin disorderly advert did not have any issue concerning the different cultures. This is because it was not wrong to use a black model to make an advertisement concerning a black snack. The human rights activists jumped into conclusions without consulting the required understanding concerning the advert. There is no wrong in using a black model in making advertisement in a different country than the US. The issue of racism should not have come up because it is only a coincidence that there is a black doughnut that is advertised by a black model. The painting of the model to black should not have been an issue of concern because the model could also been painted to white and it could not have raised any issue of concern. There should be not concern and problem with using color to promote products. I also do not think there was an issue with the advert is because it was used in a country that was not practicing racism. There was no need to worry about the advert that should have been an issue of concern.
If I was the one advertising the ad, one of the things I would do is to have a middle color that would have been neutral to both sides of the parties. The advert would have been considered to belong to either racial class or would not been an issue with the human rights activists. This is an issue of concern that should be considered when designing adverts. It is important to understand these requirements and should be integrated with the process of developing the advert. Another issue that will be looked into in order to eliminate the controversies is to have a Thai model in the advert. This could not have raised any concern for the human rights activists. This is an important step that could have been taken in the design of the advert. Another approach was to design the advert so that the model would have held one favorite complement of the black doughnut that is commonly used in Thailand. With this, the people would have identified with the advert because it could have focused more on what they are doing (Hwang, & Matsumoto, 2013).
References
Ochieng, E. G., & Price, A. D. F. (2010). Managing cross-cultural communication in multicultural construction project teams: The case of Kenya and UK. International Journal of Project Management, 28(5), 449-460.
Hwang, H. C., & Matsumoto, D. (2013). Nonverbal behaviors and cross-cultural communication in the new era. Language and Intercultural Communication in the New Era, 116.
