Seif AbdelMeguid

900221201

Section 6

Fall 2023

Paper Introduction

Research Question:

What are reasons behind the use of code-switching by various industries and

companies in Egypt in their social media advertisements, and why are there differences

in its usage by different industries?

Aim:

This study aims to pinpoint the reasons behind the use of English by certain

companies in their social media advertisements, as few studies have been conducted on

code-switching in social media advertisements. Moreover, the study will attempt to build a

framework for understanding why some companies or industries in the Egyptian market

utilize code-switching their advertisements, while some refrain from doing so.

Statement of the Problem:

Code-switching is a linguistic phenomenon, where an individual draws on various words

from different languages in a single sentence. Recently, this phenomenon has escaped the realm
of spoken language and has dramatically spread into the world of advertising, as copywriters

have been increasingly utilizing code-switching in their marketing adverts. Even though social

media marketing expenditure makes up 13% of the total marketing spending of the globe, very

few studies have been conducted on code-mixing in this advertising channel (Youssef et al.,

2021). With a similar trend being witnessed in the Egyptian market recently, it has become a

significant topic for academics to research since its long-term implications on the societal,

cultural, and economical levels are still largely unknown.

Definition of Terms:

- Code-Switching: It is “the mixing of words from different languages at a grammatically

clausal level or beyond” (Abuhakema, 2013).

- Linguistic Landscape: It is “identifying strategies and tactics that public signage employs

in different parts of the world to attract viewers, usually potential customers” (Salah El-

Din, 2022)

Background:

Marketing is one of the four pillars of a successful business, as it has been increasingly

relied on by executive boards to ensure the continuing success of their product lines. Over the

years the field has seen a multitude of innovative solutions to attract consumers and grow the

customer base of a company, as the success of an advertising campaign used to depend heavily

on the degree of creativity displayed by the marketers. As the world shifted more towards

globalization, a noticeable trend developed in the world of marketing, where advertisers in

This has come to be known as the Code-Switching phenomenon. As the implementation of

code-switching increased, scholars have started researching the reasons behind such trend.

English has become a very prominent language over the last decades, owing to the

growing influence and the economic success of the English-speaking countries, the United

States of America. Furthermore, this popularity has also led to the adoption of large parts of

American culture by non-English speaking nations, in a process that is known as Westernization.

While this societal change towards expanding the use of English has a high degree of complexity

that advertisers could not comprehend, it did however provide them with means to advertise to

larger audience. As Zhiganova (2016) states that English has become the most popular language

for marketing, thus advertisers were able to address an international audience, by integrating

some English words in their adverts, advertisers were able to market to a much bigger at once.

The continued adoption of American culture has also affected marketing, as marketers

sometimes fail to find an appropriate translation for some products’ names leaving with no

choice but to advertise them in English. This is extremely common in the case of franchises,

where a franchisee will advertise the licensed product without translating its name out of fear

of losing his competitive advantage of the brand or breaching the franchising agreement. As

Abuhakema (2013) states that “translating even words such as ‘big’ and ‘tasty’ defeats the

appeal of the ads and consequently the marketability of the product” (p.177).

The entrepreneurial culture of the United States has also affected advertisers’ behavior.

Since its economy is home to the biggest multinational corporations in the world that provide
the most innovative products on the market. This has led to the association of English with

technological sophistication and innovation (Zhiganova, 2016). For example, the high-tech

industry is fully occupied by American corporations, such as Alphabet and [Link].

Therefore, advertisers make use of this association to attempt to build a particular brand image

for their products and their company, an image that portrays the company as forward-looking

and technologically advanced.

Significance of the Study:

Firstly, this study will help to uncover the reasons behind why Egyptian marketers use

code-switching in their social media ad campaigns, and to discover any differing reasons for the

use of code-mixing between Egypt and other countries. With the results of this study to build

upon, future studies will be able to research the future impacts of this trend more effectively.

Secondly, the paper will attempt to find any differences in the integration of English in adverts

between different industries in the Egyptian economy, thus aiding future advertisers in selecting

a code-choice when marketing for a particular industry.

Scope of the Study:

This study’s methodology will be content analysis, where thirty ads posted by companies

from various industries will be selected. The study will use advertisements from some of the
most visited social-networking sites, of which are Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter).

Furthermore, a linguistic-level analysis will be carried out on the sample of ads searching for

patterns (if any) in the use of code-switching by a particular company or industry. This analysis

will consist of finding out whether the ad used any of the elements of code-switching, and the

product that the company is advertising. With this data, this paper will attempt to find and

uncover any specific reason for the implementation of code-switching in Egyptian social media

adverts.
 References

Abuhakema. G. (2016). Code switching and code mixing in Arabic written advertisements: Patterns,

aspects, and the question of prestige and standardization. The Internet Journal Language,

Culture and Society. Retrieved September 15, 2023, from

[Link]/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/38-20.-Ghazi-M.-Abuhakema

El-Din, Y. S. (2022). Code mixing in Egyptian real estate billboards: A multimodal analysis.

International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, 8(4), 223–233.

Yousef, M., Dietrich, T., & Rundle-Thiele, S. (2021). Social advertising effectiveness in driving

action: A study of positive, negative and coactive appeals on social media. International

Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(11), 5954.

[Link]

Zhiganova, A. V. (2016). The study of the perception of code-switching to English in German

advertising. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 236, 225–229.