Made in Germany - A proof of technical perfection. Stereotypes of Germans in British advertising

Seminar paper from the year 1998 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,0 (A), Humboldt-University of Berlin (Institute for Anglistics/ American Studies), course: Great Britain and Europe - Great Britain in Europe, language: English, abstract: The British attitude towards Germany seems to be ambiguous: there are still many World War II movies on television, there are serious newspaper articles and hostile tabloid cartoons, unfriendly governmental memos and - last but not least - advertising: The people dealing with this issue are of different political background. Therefore, they have contradictory intentions and express either friendly or hostile opinions: Nevertheless, certain stereotypes of Germans are recurrent, regardless of which attitude is represented. The two following lists of German attributes have only recently been compiled: The first one is the result of the Chequers-Conference in March 1990, when Margaret Thatcher discussed the aspects of German reunification with some confidants: The Conference's consensus on "eternal" German characteristics was : "insensitivity to the feeling of others, [...] aggressiveness; assertiveness, bullying, egotism [...]." The memo was not designed to be published, therefore one can assume that the participants spoke frankly. Several other "German" features can be found in a poll in which students were asked about national characteristics: According to the majority, Germans are: "orderly, (disciplined, organises, efficient, obedient to rules, inflexible, punctual); hard-working, (laborious and ambitious); arrogant (particularly in intellectual matters); complex (difficult to understand, Angst-ridden)". My paper will focus on the occurrence of several of these images in advertising, especially in four campaigns released between 1993 and 1997: Three of them deal with German products promoted for German consumers, one of them deals with a British product for the British