Adeology: Advertising as a battlefield of rival ideologies in transitional China

Most research on Chinese advertising focuses on cultural values reflected in advertisements and compares them with those of other countries. This dissertation seeks to explore advertising's role in China's ideological transition from a communist country to a consumer society. In today's China, communism has lost its motivating power and has become ideologically dead. Consumerism is replacing communism as the dominant ideology. As an embodiment and the major propaganda of consumerism, advertising is key to China's ideological transition to consumerism. This study attempts to address two issues: (1) how the ideology of consumerism is represented and legitimized through advertising in China; and (2) How current Chinese advertising practices negotiate the apparent ideological inconsistencies between communism, consumerism, and market socialism. Whether or not the consumer culture desired by many Chinese can improve the well-being of society is also discussed.