The Comparative Research Of Advertisements Between Taiwan And Mainland China

The relationship between human beings and objects are changing. According to Baudrillard's essay, "In order to become object of consumption, the object must become sign (Baudrillard, 1988: 22)". Purchasing commodities are not only to satisfy basic life demands, but to be signs for showing the individuals' status and class. To see what signs (or codes) should follow, advertisements are important key to show the signs that reveal different social status.Following this idea, the objective of this study is to investigate what is different between the advertisements in Taiwan and China's magazines for the past 20 years. The samples of Commonwealth Magazine in Taiwan and China Entrepreneur Magazine in China were analyzed by using content analysis and semiology.The result shows that the advertisement development in Taiwan is more developed than that in China. Except the Chinese traditional item, these two areas will follow the same trend just like what the west world has already experienced. And, the main person code is the same as the reader of the magazines, who is white-collared male in the middle age (19-60 years).It will become the "consumer society" in China in the future. Rational abilities of goods are no more important, instead, sign value of the commodity will play an important role and all the social status and fashion will follow the sign system and become the codes in this system. Thus, in the future, marketing should focus on brand position, difference between the products and others, and consumer emotion.