Abstract

Advertisements become more and more significant in the growth of society for their special functions: informative function, expressive function, vocative function. And numerous cultural values can be found in advertising, nevertheless, different advertisements embody different cultural values. The thesis is based on the research of Greet Hofstede’s Model of Cultural Dimensions and Edward. T. Hall’s context culture theory. According to their theories, the author focuses on four dimensions: context culture, power distance, long-term versus short-term orientation to time, and individualism versus collectivism to compare differences between Chinese and American cultural values in advertising. Meanwhile, the author analyzes similarities between Chinese and American cultural values in advertising at two aspects: the pursuit of high quality and practical values. At last, this paper aims to reduce barriers existing in the process of cultural communication, strengthen the understanding of multi-culture, and facilitate the mixture of cultural exchange. And some implication and suggestions about advertisement design are provided .

key words: advertising; cultural values; comparative research; cultural communication

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review.2

2.1. Studies on Advertising.3

2.2 Studies on cultural values-3

2.3 Theoretical basis-6

3. Differences in Cultural Values Embodied in the Advertisement of China and America-6

3.1 Differences in context culture-6

3.2 Differences in power distance-7

3.3 Long-term versus short-term orientation to time.-9

3.4 Individualism versus collectivism-10

4. Similarities in Cultural Values Reflected in Chinese and American advertising-11

4.1 Similarity in the pursuit of quality-11

4.2 Similarity in pragamatic values-12

5. Conclusion and implication-13

Works Cited-.15