Code-Mixing with English
3.23 Popvote
The slogan "選特首, 七百萬人要有Say" means "the 7 million citizens should have a say in electing the Chief Executive". The code-mixing element is just a single English word "Say"-- meaning the right or opportunity to speak, decide, or exercise influence. "有(meaning have) Say" is always used to express "have a say". The English word serves as a attetion getting device here. Together with the large font size, it highlights the key messgae--advocating democracy.
Concert - A Man and A Pen
The concert named 芝華士903友情夾gig音樂會. The code-mixing element is also only a single English word "gig"--meaning musical performance. "夾Gig" is used to represent "夾撃" (meaning playing music together in this context) as "Gig" has the same pronounciation as "擊". Coincidently, although "gig" is not translated as "撃" in dictionaries, it has the similar meaning and same pronouncation with "撃" in this context.
Musical <Pirates 77>
There is an intersting slogan in the ad--"大癲大肺兒童劇, High過High School Musical". There are two code-mixing elements--the adjective "high" and the proper noun "High School Musical". Here, "high" is not interpreted as the conventional meaning in English, i.e. it does not mean "a specific extent upward" here. Rather, Hong Kong people love to use "high" to refer to "hyper". Hence, the slogan means the musical is "more hyper than High School Musical". It is using the humor as "High" is the same word from "High" in "High School musical" while "High" and "High School" are actually not comparable.
Bottle Water - Cool
The company named Cool. In the heading "艾粒玩鬼cooloween派對", "cooloween" is inserted to Chinese and its a word combining "Cool" and "halloween", created by the advertiser. Next, there is a English word in the sub-heading "今個萬聖節cool住艾粒玩派對" where "cool" is representing "箍" (meaning to hoop) as they have the same pronounciation. Both code-mixing elements are used to highlight its company name to create greater promotional effect.
Code-Mixing with Japanese
Instant Noodles
The ad is promoting the new "Black Garlic Oil Tonkotsu Flavour" cup-noodles. The slogan "黑蒜油の味力" is a Chinese phrase with a Japanese word "の" (meaning 的 in Chinese and 's in English) inserted in it. "の" has gained popular use in Hong Kong since a long time ago. It is widely-understood by many Hong Kong audience so there will be minimal translation mishaps. Here, the Japanese Kanji is used to catch attention and highlight the country-of-origin of this brand.
Code-Mixing with Vernacular Chinese
Magazine - Black Paper
Black Paper is a local self-called literature magazine. It mainly targets the local audience only because the content in the two-page print is mainly focus on local issues and local celebrities' thoughts that are not written only in Standard Chinese. .In this ad, there are some colloquial words which cannot be understood by non-local readers like "爛口" (meaning people who always speak foul language; rather than broken mouth), "硬頸" (meaning stubborn; rather than hard neck), "是但" (meaning easy-going, rather than yes but).
Twins Concert
The concert named "零4好玩演唱會". "零4" means year 2004. "零4" sounds similar to the phonology of "零舍" (meaning especially). Thus, "零4好玩" not only mean "2004" and "fun", it also represents "especially fun" here. Audience with no understanding of Cantonese would not be able to get the pun.
Contact lens - Acuvue
This is an example of lexical code-mixing. The word 戴con (meaning to wear contact lens) is a verb in Chinese conjoins with a English word. Also, con is an abbreviation of contact lens in Hong Kong.