Good for me or for us? A comparative content analysis of individualist and collectivist values and orientations in global and local television advertising in China

This study investigated the cultural content of global television advertising in China, using local Chinese advertising as a comparative benchmark. Global advertising was defined as advertising for products and services of Western multinational corporations. Local advertising was defined as those for products and services of Chinese businesses. The study compared the extent to which Western individualist and Eastern collectivist values and orientations are used and manifested in global and local Chinese advertising themes and tactics. The main objective was to provide a better understanding of the cultural content of global media so as to establish a starting point for the study of global media effects.; 523 commercials were randomly selected from primetime broadcasts on five Chinese TV channels in 2003. 71% of the ads were local Chinese ads, 22% were global ads, and 7% were non-Chinese Asian ads. Drawing on the cross-cultural theory of Individualism-Collectivism and empirical evidence from prior research, a multidimensional measurement of individualism and collectivism in advertising was developed and applied to the comparative content analysis. The study first explored and confirmed the dimensionality of individualism and collectivism in advertising. A series of ANOVA tested the hypotheses that global advertising promotes Western individualism whereas local Chinese advertising promotes Eastern collectivism and product type moderates the effects of advertised product origin.; Results supported the main hypothesis, indicating that global advertising in China does transmit Western individualist values. However, the finding that local Chinese advertising reflected more collectivist values and orientations suggests that despite the increasing presence of Western media and cultural products, traditional Chinese culture has maintained a stronghold at least in commercial communication. Additionally, an interaction effect was found between product origin and product type, that is, global advertising used more individualist tactics than local Chinese advertising when promoting personal use products.; This is the first study that investigated the cultural content of global advertising using the multidimensional constructs of individualism and collectivism in advertising. It provided empirical evidence to existing speculative concerns about the cultural implications of global advertising and laid the groundwork for future research testing its cultural and persuasive effects on local consumers.