Semiotic Research On Cultural Features Of Taiwan Advertising Since 1980s

With the development of commodity economy, the goods variety is from soup to nuts. Products of a same kind almost have same functions; the only difference is the symbols between different brands. Various symbols are endowed with different meanings in advertising. The product has deviated from itself to become a symbolic meaning, a symbol loaded with social affection and collective consciousness.Taiwan and its motherland's Mainland are only geographically separated by a narrow strip of water; they share the same cultural origin. Advertising in Taiwan has developed earlier than that in the mainland, and its advertising mode, in terms of of advertising appeals and westernation, has developed into one that is quite different from advertising in the mainland. Therefore, studying cultural features of Taiwan advertising will help us to draw"Taiwan experience"and lessons for references of the Mainland advertising.This paper mainly uses two basic study methods, the content analysis and the semiotic analysis. First, applying semiotic method to explanation and analysis of the contents of ads in 20 years; second, applying content analysis to comparison of those ads'content by different times and by different product types, thus revealing cultural values of Taiwan advertising. Meanwhile, based on analyzing samples, this paper makes comparison of the results from different times'samples in relation to features of different times and generation groups.The study has found that there is a high consistency between the figure symbol features and those of the corresponding readers, and the generation features have also strongly been embodied in advertising appeals, which implies the features of target audience communication. Also found in the study is that the westernization of Taiwan advertising is conspicuous, while its Chinese characteristics have been relatively weak. In respect of advertising appeals, Taiwan advertising is moving toward more use of emotional appeals with a trend of less appealing to function and effect of products. Finally, this paper, in light of the study results, sums up some experiences practices of Taiwan advertising for reference of the Mainland, and put forth some suggestions on symbolic marketing of the Mainland's advertising.