Maurice Ward

Kanto Gakuin University, Japan

From Foreign Technocrat to Family Member: Integrating Toyota into New Zealand Culture

Cut adrift from a century and a half of economic dependency on England in the 1970s, New Zealand capitalism moved to form new relationships in the Pacific and East Asia. Using the multimodal analysis of Kress and van Leeuwen, this paper will look at how Toyota Corporation changed its image in its television advertisements from the 1970’s to 1990’s with a view to integrating itself into New Zealand culture. The paper will also look briefly at teaching aids to help learners of English as a Foreign Language analyse and understand how the images construct Toyota’s identity.