The theories which proposed by Eugene A. Nida have affected many Chinese and foreign translators for a long time, especially the theory of functional equivalence. Functional equivalence refers to the equivalence on the functions but not on the forms and structures.
In our daily life, we live with different advertisements, some of which are translated works. These advertisements are aimed at giving the potential customers a lasting impression and persuading them to buy their product. Therefore, in order to express the ideas of the original works and realize the goal for sale, the translators should take account of the cultural elements and social elements in order to achieve functional equivalence.
This paper consists of three parts. The first part deals with the concept of functional equivalence and its aims and principles. The main aim of functional equivalence is to represent the information of the original work in the target language and achieve the equivalence of functions of languages. In order to make this concept clear, the author gives a brief introduction of different functions. Although different languages have different characteristics, their functions are nearly the same. That is to name the reality and to communicate with the people. The second part deals with the target, principles, requirements and cultural elements of advertisement translation. The third part, the most important part, points out the three main aspects of functional equivalence, semantic equivalence, social-cultural equivalence and stylistic equivalence. At the meantime, the equivalence on different levels and how to achieve functional equivalence in advertisement translation are also systematically illustrated.