Transcreation in the Translation of Food Advertisements Under the Functional Equivalence Theory

Food advertising translation plays a significant role in global market promotion. Accurate and creative translation is essential for breaking down cultural barriers and ensuring effective communication of advertising messages. The quality of translation directly affects the product’s appeal to consumers in the target language market, which in turn impacts the product’s sales profits. This study, based on the functional equivalence theory, explores how to achieve equivalent communication of advertisements between the source language and target language markets through this theory, thereby promoting the globalization of food marketing. The study employs the literature survey method to systematically review previous research findings in the field of functional equivalence theory and advertising translation, providing a solid theoretical foundation for this study. Meanwhile, the case analysis method is used to collect a wide range of domestic and international food brand advertising translation cases. The study deeply analyzes creative translation strategies based on the functional equivalence theory, such as lexical substitution, syntactic adjustment, and cultural imagery transformation, exploring the specific application of creative translation in advertising translation. The study finds that to improve the effectiveness of food advertising translation, two principles should be followed: content is prioritized over form; the translated text should produce similar effects and functions as the source text. The research indicates that creative translation strategies can effectively overcome cultural differences and enable target language consumers to have similar feelings to those of the source language consumers. This study is expected to provide valuable references for advertising translation practice, helping advertising practitioners improve translation quality and promoting the widespread dissemination and promotion of food in the international market.