ABSTRACT
This trend towards formally duller and conceptually more traditional advertising can be traced back to Italy scoring higher than English-speaking countries on Hofstede and Hofstede's (2005) uncertainty avoidance scale. From the viewpoint of translation practice, this tells us that, when the source text sounds or looks too creative for the target culture, at least one of the multiple versions we are allowed to provide might be encoded in a less creative way, explaining the reasons for this choice. The reverse applies when the source text is judged too bland for the target culture: in this case, creative devices (perhaps inspired by the visual) may be introduced in one or more of the alternative versions. If alternative versions are not allowed, then translation choices may be negotiated with the client or, if this too is impossible, one might suggest in a separate comment a way in which the target text could be better adapted to the expectations of the target readers.
