Cultural Values Reflected In Television Commercials Of U.S. Multinationals In China

As China becomes more and more open to the outside world in recent years, manyforeign companies have entered into China, and therefore, communication betweenthese foreign nations and Chinese get more frequent. Advertising, as a form ofcommunication, is often employed by many multinationals to inform Chineseconsumers of their products or services, and television commercial is one of the mostimportant advertising media used. Among the foreign commercials displayed onChina's television, the TV commercials of U.S. multinationals take the lead in terms ofboth quantity and coverage of industries.Because the United States is an advanced economy representative of western culturewhile China is a developing country typical of eastern culture, a sharp contrast incultural values exists in these two nations. Although advertising reflects the culturalvalues of a nation, in the case of the U.S. multinationals operating in China, WhatChinese cultural values do their TV commercials reflect to attract local consumers?This study will, from a cross-cultural perspective, examine the contents of the samplecommercials, identify the typical Chinese cultural values emphasized in these TVcommercials, and explore the cultural explanations behind.I hope this thesis will help the advertising professionals, marketers as well asresearchers who are interested in Chinese market to get a better understanding of theadvertising culture in China and of the advertising strategy of U.S. multinationals thattarget Chinese consumers.