cross-cultural aspects of advertisements

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TEIM03 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Cross-cultural aspects of advertisementsBenjamin Gaussorgues (benga944)

Nicolas Haupt (nicha616)Zsolt Tancsa (zsota922)

Mark Kereszty (marke250)Norbert Mezosi (norme365)

Linköping University

Year: 2009

Contents

1 Introduction 3

2 Background 4

3 Purpose 5

4 Literature review 6

5 Methods 8

6 Empirical study 116.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116.2 Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

6.2.1 French advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126.2.2 Japanese advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126.2.3 American advertisement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136.2.4 Comparison and results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

6.3 Slogan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146.3.1 French advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146.3.2 Japanese advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156.3.3 American advertisement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156.3.4 Comparison and results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

6.4 Colours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156.4.1 French advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166.4.2 Japanese advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176.4.3 American advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176.4.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

6.5 Sex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176.5.1 American advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186.5.2 Japanese advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186.5.3 French advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

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Intercultural Communication - PM3 - Group 3

6.5.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196.6 Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

6.6.1 France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196.6.2 Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206.6.3 United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206.6.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

7 Discution 22

8 Conclusion 23

A Advertisements from United States 27

B Advertisements from France 32

C Advertisements from Japan 38

D Hofstede’s graphics 43

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Chapter 1

Introduction

In 1983, Levitt affirmed that advertising and marketing can be standardisedacross cultures. He explained that due to the globalization, the world is beingtransformed into a “unicultural” market place. This means that wherevercome the customers, whatever is their culture, they will all be attracted bythe same advertising codes.

Today advertisements are more and more used by organizations to pro-mote their products and services. There are the main support for commu-nication in business and the main link between the companies and theircustomers. Moreover, the essence of advertising is convincing people thata product is meant for them. So according to Levitt’s theory, it would bereally easy for the companies to persuade the customers all around the worldto buy their products.

Since then a lot of people agree to say that culture affects everything wedo (Neil Payne, 2004). This applies to all areas of human life from personalrelationships to negotiate contract abroad and each country, each region hashis own culture. So it means that we all have different perceptions of theworld and that we will not react the same way to the same things.

To see if there are real differences between the advertisement from differ-ent countries, we have to compare some countries which have a real differentculture. Thus, we decided to choose the Unites States, which is a low-contextculture, the Japan, which is a high-context culture and the France, which isbetween the two.

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Chapter 2

Background

Our group is composed of five students: two from France and three fromHungary. We don’t have the same specialities since we are studying Com-puter Science, Mechanical engineering or Biomedical Engineering. Becauseof these differents background, we have a lot of things to learn from eachothers.

We chose this subject because, even if we are scientists, we are also inter-ested in communication between different cultures from all over the world.Moreover, since we are born in a world where advertisements have a greatimportance, we are now used to living with it. We also notice than adver-tisements are different from one country to another. Actually, we think that,since advertisements are made for a specific culture, there should reflect thisculture. That is why we want to analyze and compare, thanks to our dif-ferent cultures, those different ways of advertising. It will allow us to betterunderstand those cultures.

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Chapter 3

Purpose

To understand what are the main differences in advertisements through threecultures (French, American and Japanese), we think about the followingquestions:

1. What are the characteristics of those three cultures?

2. What are the differences between similar advertisement from differentcultures?

3. How to adapt an advertisement to a specific culture?

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Chapter 4

Literature review

Since a few years a lot of people made research about cross-cultural aspectsfor advertisements.

Thus, as we saw in the introduction, Levitt was one of the first to claimthat there was a standardisation across cultures. During the eighties, hispoint of view was very popular.

However during the same time, Hosfstede (quoted by Dadfar, 2001) madea study based on survey about employees’ attitude of IBM which shows thatthe values in workplace are influenced by culture. With this study, he wasone of the first to point out and describe the cultural differences in the world.

Then a lot of people start to interest to the relation between the differentcharacteristics of a culture and the way how the people will react to an adver-tisement. Some do not even hesitate to affirm that there is some relationshipbetween culture and appeals used in advertising. In our case, we will not beinterested by the global market, so we will focus on those studies who showthat the culture influences the advertisements.

In most of the studies we found, it appears that the countries have beenchosen because of the fundamental difference between their culture. We alsonotice that the analysis concerned almost only industrialised countries andthat the Unites States were often chosen. However, all the studies are notabout the same type of advertisements. Some of them are about advertise-ment on tv and some of them are about print advertisements.

Mueller (1986) conducted a reflection about the Japanese and Americanadvertising appeals. The study found that even if there were some similaritiesin the appeals used, a lot of differences were founded.

Biswas, Olen and Carlet (1992) made a comparative analysis of Frenchand American print advertisements based on the humour, information con-tent, sex and emotional appeals. In their study they show that French ad-vertisements use more emotional appeals and that American advertisements

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contains more information.Ahmed (2000) wrote a cross-cultural content analysis of advertisements

from United States and India. In his study, he showed that “there are sig-nificant differences in many aspects of advertising strategies and expressionsbetween India and the United States”.

Dahl (2004) conducted a research about the cross-cultural advertisingin order to determine what we know about the links between culture andadvertisements. He concluded that the standardisation of advertising acrossculture is not valid today.

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Chapter 5

Methods

To show and prove the differences in the context of advertisements betweenthe chosen cultures (USA: low-context, Japan: high-context, France: some-where between the preceding two), we have studied many lectures in con-nection with analysing advertisements. We have been surveying literaturefrom the library — like “Consumer behaviour and culture: consequences offor global marketing and advertising” by Marieke K. de Mooij, or “Cross-Cultural Content Analysis of Advertising from the United States and India"by Niaz Ahmed — and many studies on the web.

At first, our main starting-point was analysing advertisements from aspecific country and comparing its characteristics with what we know aboutthe culture from the same country. Then comparing this analysis with theanalysis of an other advertisement of the same product but from a differentcountry. But later we realised that it would be better to choose and examineonly local brands, because international brands often use general culture,and it is hard to comprehend the differences between them.

As there are many different ways of advertising, there are many differentmethods for their approach and analysing as well. It is obvious to start theanalysing with the hooks of getting attention. For instance, there are hooksfor emotional transfer, which is the process for bringing forth emotions inorder to pass on them to a product. (E.g. a Coke advertisement showssmiling, good-looking people but tells us nothing about the drink). Thereason is making the spectator well who transfers the feeling to the product.Messaging fear is also a beloved tool of ad-makers, such as “no one willlike you if you have fungus disease”, or “hairy people are looser”. It is aquite common technique in advertisements with low-context, however weneed pretty much attention to resist these messages.

Symbols are also popular elements for generating powerful emotions,whether it is an ad with higher or lower context. “Fitting in” is a common

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technique for influencing us by stating that if everybody else is buying thegoods, so should you. We can see this often in beer commercials, which pro-mote that all of us drink (alcoholists are the primary consumers of alcohol).Showing exotic places and sceneries is the appeal of the “other”; it could bea beach location, tribal person, something strange or unknown. This is oftenmeant to hook you through presenting something that is out of the ordinaryor beyond our everyday experience. Of course there are many other elementsand techniques as well — such as using vague promises, testimonials, socialoutcasts, flattery, macho, repetition, famous people, etc. — for influencingthe potential customers.

The latter things are the parts of content analysing, but we can also ap-proach the advertisements and commercials from their semiotic properties(Chandler, 1996). Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is thestudy of sign processes (semiosis), or signification and communication, signsand symbols, and is usually divided to three divisions, as pragmatics, se-mantics and syntactics, which mean different relations between signs, formalstructures and the effects on people.

It is also interesting to examine the cultures in point of their power dis-tance. Power distance denotes to the measure to which powerful memberscalculate on and assume unequal power repartition within a culture. (Hof-stede claims that high power distance countries tend to have centralisedpolitical power and exhibit tall hierarchies in organisations with large differ-ences in salary and status, while low power distance countries tend to viewsubordinates and supervisors as closer together and more interchangeable,with flatter hierarchies in organisations and less difference in salaries andstatus.) In cultures of high power distance and high uncertainty avoidance,people read fewer newspapers then in culture of low power distance and lowdodging. The last mentioned are the countries which have less belief in thepress.

As the variation in public press in European countries have existed near bya century, it is not likely that they will disappear. Differences with esteemto the other printed media, books and magazines, are than in advancedeconomies.

Our basement, that an advertisement produced in one culture often isnot understood in another one. According to a report, titled “Attitudes tothe Press and Advertising, Cultural Relationships" in “Consumer behaviourand culture: consequences of for global marketing and advertising” (Mooij,1998), we are able to notice how responses to specific advertisements acrosscultures vary in several campaigns.

For instance in cultures where advertising has a longer history, the speci-fication of products are appeals firmly fixed. The advertisements are framed

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keeping in mind the specific country in which the company is. These ad-vertisements can be seen by an individual from another country also. Theculture framework in which this individual has been discussed makes it dis-tinguish this advertisement in a different way .Thus it becomes a necessityfor the advertisers to keep in mind the issues involved in such differenceswhile drawing up advertisements.

In the end we expect proving that for example the way an Asian com-prehends and evaluates the shown facts differs significantly from the wayan American or a European views and perceives. In specific, differences inhigh- and low context communication will influence responses to advertising.Responses of components of high-context cultures to low-context communi-cation are probably be different from what is designated by the creator oflow-context communication advertisement.

As verbatim verbal address, using simple pictures is seemingly to beviewed as offencive by consumers who have learnt to handle more compleximages. A high-context spectator will over-read the meaning of a too simplevisual image and improve a negative emotive estimation due to the message’sobvious lack of metaphorical intricacy.

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Chapter 6

Empirical study

6.1 IntroductionTo better compare the advertisements from the American, French and Japaneseculture, we decided to base our analysis on the most important aspects of anadvertisement:

• message (see section 6.2 p. 12)

• slogan (see section 6.3 p. 14)

• colours (see section 6.4 p. 15)

• sex (see section 6.5 p. 17)

• shapes (see section 6.6 p. 19)

Then, before analysing them in the following parts, we will make a globalintroduction about the examples we will use. So we will try to use a lot ofadvertisements in order to see as much as possible differences. We will useonly print advertisements, which most of them can be seen in the street andthe other can be seen in magazines.

The origin of those advertisements are, like we said before, the UnitedStates, the France or the Japan.

The product presented are various but we also choose to select severaladvertisements for beer so that we can compare the message and the sloganmore easily.

The brand of our examples are in most of the cases local, like Pelforth,Miller and Kirin for the advertisements about beer, but some of them areinternational brand, which made specific advertisements for each culture.

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All our advertisements are recent except two of them, which are older.However, we thought that it was not a real problem because there wererelevant for our study and the culture did not change a lot during the pastfew years.

The public of the advertisements we chose are various. For example, theadvertisements for beer target more the men than the women.

6.2 MessageEach advertisement aimed to bring a specific message to every potentialcustomer. So, each advertisement has to be understanded by targeted public.As we see above, a message for one culture can be misinterpreted or notunderstood in another culture.

Firstly, we will compare tree advertisements from France, tree advertise-ments from Japan and one advertisement from United-States. All of theseadvertisement are for beers. Thus, their messages can be compared.

6.2.1 French advertisementsFigures B.1 p. 32, B.2 p. 33 and B.3 p. 33 show french advertisements. Inthese advertisements the message is similar since these belong to the sameadvertising campaign for a same brand.

Each picture is taken in a bar and the composition is similar. In adver-tisements represented in figures B.1 and B.2, the slate is held by someoneand in the third advertisement (figure B.3), a hand held the glass of beer.This person is probably a bartender and we can suppose that the messagewritten on the slate is from him, it’s a friendly advice. This is the only oneperson we can see on the picture.

This composition creates an atmosphere of calm, tradition and convivi-ality. Since, due to the background, there is a lot a visual noise in thiscomposition, we can suppose that this set of advertisements target a poly-chronic culture.

Then, the message carried by these advertisements seem to be a friendlyadvice: “This beer is made in a traditional way, come and discover it”.

6.2.2 Japanese advertisementsThe Japanese advertisements for beer are much more simples (see figures C.1p. 38 and C.2 p. 39). By this simplicity — few visual noise and only one

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point of interest —, these pictures are adapted for a culture which tend tobe a monochronic culture.

Here, the atmosphere is quite different. In both advertisement, we see agirl in bikini with a big glass of Kirin beer. These pictures create a paradisiacambience since the sun shine, the sky is blue, the sea is also blue, there is abeautiful girl and — of course — there is a big glass of Kirin beer. Moreover,in advertisement represented in figure C.2, there is white sand and distantislands.

In these advertisements, the message is implicit and aims a high-contextculture. It seems to be something like “Nice girls love this beer (so if youdrink it they will love you)” or “All is perfect when drinking this beer”. Asadvertisements use emotions and feelings, these are also made for a morefeminine culture.

6.2.3 American advertisementThe American advertisement is more advanced in terms of design (see figureA.1 p. 27). Firstly, the bottle of beer is disguised as a vampire and also lookslike an superhero. The explosion of light behind the “head” of the bottle alsoreinforce the supernatural aspect of the bottle. Then, the clouds add a senseof magic and the giant moon in background shows it’s the right night for avampire. Lastly, the bottle seems to flight above the city. All these elementscreate an atmosphere of wizardry and superiority of this beer.

In this advertisement, the message is clearly written as a slogan “Sinkyour fangs into a great taste”. It is also supported by the picture describedbefore. The slogan will be studied in section 6.3.1 p. 14. With this explicitmessage, this advertisement target a low context culture.

6.2.4 Comparison and resultsAs we see above, these tree kinds of advertisement create tree different at-mospheres even all these advertisement are advertising beer. It gives to thebeers different “personalities”. We think that these “personalities” rely oncommon ideas or dreams in the culture. For example, the superhero is veryrooted in American culture and bars shows in Pelforth advertisements arecommon in France. They are a place of conviviality and meeting. Onceagain, the link is more difficult to make with Japanese advertisements. Thisis in agreement with the course since we see that United State is an low-context culture, Japan an high-context culture and France is between thesetwo cultures.

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There is a another difference between american advertisement and others.In this advertisement we can see the bottle of beer whereas, in the others,we see the specific glass of the beer which is full of beer. We supposed thatthe picture of the bottle is better to be recognize in store later and we thinkit better fit to a low-context culture like United States.

6.3 SloganAn advertisement can also contains a slogan to help the final customer tounderstand it, to reinforce the message or to help the customer to memorizethe product. As for message in section 6.2 p. 12 advertisements for beer willbe taken as example. Indeed, we need to have similar products to comparetheir slogan.

6.3.1 French advertisementsIn french advertisements, the slogan is written on a slate as we can often see— at least — in French restaurants. As said before, the slogan seems to bean advice given by the person who held the slate, probably the bartender.This is confirmed by the text on the top of the slate “Suggestion du jour”(Suggestion of the day).

In first advertisement (see figure B.1 p. 32), the slogan is “Oser la Blonde”(Dare lager beer), in second advertisement (see figure B.2 p. 33) the sloganis “Éclaircir le mystère de la Brune” (Light the mystery of the dark beer) andin third (see figure B.3 p. 33) the slogan is “Apprécier l’éclat d’une Rousse”(Admire the shine of a brown beer). These tree slogan are wordplays sincein French, “blonde”, “brune” and “rousse” can refer to a beer but also toa woman by her hair color. Thus, each beer is compare to a woman by ametaphor.

Like the message, the slogan of these advertisement is intended to a high-context culture since it needs to understand the metaphor. Moreover, thisslogan uses emotions and sensuality. So, it is also designed for a feminineculture.

That is also interesting to see that this slogan is very difficult to translate.For example, the wordplay don’t work in English and the slogan lost itsstrength.

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6.3.2 Japanese advertisementsOn Japanese advertisement for beer (see figures C.1 p. 38 and C.2 p. 39)there is no slogan at all. The only thing we can read is the name of thebrand (“Kirin”) on glass of beer.

The absence of a slogan is the proof of a very implicit advertisementintended to a high context culture. Since nothing is written, the customerhas not any help to understand the message of the advertisement.

6.3.3 American advertisementIn the american advertisement (see figure A.1 p. 27), the slogan is “Sink yourfangs into great taste”.

In one hand, “Sink your fangs” extends the visual metaphor of the bottlein vampire. It advises the customer to act as a vampire and maybe reveala kind of animal instinct. It is an implicit message. Moreover, we thinkthe vampire has been choosen beacause he has uncontrollable impulses. Thecustomer should think that beer is so good that he can not resist. In the otherhand, the slogan also announces that the beer has a “great taste”. This is anexplicit message to say that the beer is very good. It support the precedentdeductions.

Then, the vampire is more often a male and generally, superheros aremore appreciated by men than by women. So, this advertisement seems tobe made for a more masculine culture.

6.3.4 Comparison and resultsAs written above, Japanese and French advertisements are more feminineand American advertisement is more masculine. This is in agreement withgraphics concerning Hofstede parameters (see figures D.1 p. 43 (France), D.3p. 44 (United States) and D.2 p. 44 (Japan)).

Moreover, as we expected, some advertisements can’t be only translated.French advertisements for example will lost their meaning if translated.

6.4 ColoursThe selection of the suitable colours is important in the advertisements, be-cause all the colours have a different meaning. The effects of the colours onthe one hand are directly influenced for the organism, but on the other hand,the associations, causes colours based on the past intestine experiences. Thecolours affect our nervous system, and the consequence of the effects may

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change our blood pressure, cold or warm sensation, increased heart rate,change of the rhythm of breathing etc. So, we could perceive these physio-logical changes in such a way that we are worried, we have warmth etc.

The colours were divided into the differing group based on their effect,for example the general feeling and our attention:

• cool and warm colours:

– warm: red, orange, yellow, etc.– cold: blue, green, violet, etc.

• light and dark colours:

– light: yellow, orange, yellowish green, light-green, etc.– dark: blue, violet, dark green, black, etc.

• exciting and soothing colours:

– exciting: generally warm colours– soothing: usually cold colours

• attracting and neutral colours:

– attracting: warm and light colours– neutral: cold and dark colours

We wrote the effect of the colours, and those have a physical reaction andinfluence for the organism. That can be seen how important and what kindof colours are used on posters. The different colours have different meaningsdepending on the culture. The difference depends on the society, nationalityand history. These meanings may change depending on the culture. We anal-yse and compare the meaning of the colours used at the American, Japaneseand French posters.

6.4.1 French advertisementsThe French advertisements are more clear-out and more elegant than theAmerican and the Japanese advertisements. These two characteristics de-fine the colour management of the French advertisements. Bright colours aregenerally not used on these posters, opposite to American or Japanese adver-tisements. So the French advertisements prefer dark colours. They use fewercolours, so that effect is less chaotic than in the Japanese posters. They donot try to be attracting with flashy colours, but with the content. Therefore,colder colours are used; this is due to the elegant sensation.

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6.4.2 Japanese advertisementsIn contrast, the Japanese advertisements are very crowded and this character-istic is true for the used colours. Full colour palette can be found in Japaneseposters many times. The best vision is on the street view (see figure C.7p. 41), where the colours’ cavalcade of the different advertisings is visibleand this is almost chaotic. In addition, it is preferred the warm colours, likefor the American advertisements. The most important sticks are the excit-ing and attracting colours. Interestingly, the yellow colour means courage inJapan, opposite this in America means risk, cowardice. The Japanese preferthe orange colour because this colour means happiness and love

6.4.3 American advertisementsThe red-blue-white colour combination is applied with predilection at theAmerican posters and what is more you also like to display the Americanflag on the posters: a good example is the Apple poster (see figure A.6p. 30) which one a picture contains only an American flag and an Americanflag looking Apple symbol. In any case it is preferred the exciting, attract-ing colours, those are warm colours, but in terms of the colours cleared-outadvertisings is preferred. They try to affect the general public with stimu-lating colours. Often used colour is the red colour, which means the success,triumph and excitement in America. Furthermore the green colour meansluck and money and yellow colour means joy and cowardliness.

6.4.4 ConclusionBy comparing the meaning of the colours in those three countries, we cannotice that there are huge difference in their interpretation. So the colouris an important element of an advertisement that we should adapt to theculture in order to avoid some mistakes.

6.5 SexThere is an important question for an advertisement, that who is the targetaudience and what are his characteristics. The target audience of an ad-vertisement may be men, women, children, or other combinations of those.Various tools are necessary to target the different groups. The age is alsoimportant because we have to know if the posters reach younger or olderpeople. Variant contrivances are needed for different genders and ages in thedifferent cultures.

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6.5.1 American advertisementsThe sensual content seems to be a taboo in American advertisements, there-fore advertisements with a sensual content are not numerous. For examplethe Pepsi advertisement with Britney Spears (see figure A.4 p. 29) is oneof the most sensual American poster. Usually the American posters speakto both gender, but the marine advertisement (see figure A.5 p. 29) is anexception, because this poster reaches principally men. The emphasis is onthe patriotism. In addition, other advertisements speak to both gender forexample in the advertisement about the ethanol (see figure A.7 p. 30). Theattention is called for it in this advertisement, that when we talk about envi-ronment protection, then we speak about the generation of the future. Theold Coca-Cola poster (see figure A.3 p. 28) reaches men, because by seeingthat the patriot soldiers drinks cola, they will want to do the same. More-over, the women love the patriotic soldiers; therefore, they will drink it too.Similarly in the Pepsi poster (see figure A.4 p. 29), where the women regardher as a star and men are addressed with woman’s decorative.

6.5.2 Japanese advertisementsIn Japanese advertisements the sensual content seems also to be a taboo, likein the American advertisements. They are completely different have an effecton the man at the Japanese advertising. For example in the advertisement ofthe Japanese’s technical products you can find the full technical descriptionbeside an illustration and the name. They persuade the men into it withactual data, description and a guide in order for him to buy that product.Good examples the Japanese car advertisement (see figure C.4 p. 40), andthis poster have complete description of the car. In addition, a lot of timesappear the Japanese models in the lime-light in Japanese advertisement, forexample the Pepsi poster (figure C.6 p. 41) and the advertisement of beer(figure C.1 p. 38). At this Japanese advertisement with a more sensualcontent uncharacteristic.

6.5.3 French advertisementsFrench advertisements totally differ from the other advertisements. Espe-cially because the sensual content is not so much taboo here, and here moresensual contents are applied in the advertisements. Advertisement againstAIDS is a good example called for this, which is have highly sensual content,simultaneously effectively for the men’s and the women’s attention onto thedander of the AIDS (see figure B.5 p. 35). Everything is announced more

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directly here , for example Peugeot (see figure B.7 p. 36) alluding to environ-mental pollution is more concise than American advertising of ethanol fuel.They affect the people with elegance and emotions and not overcrowded withdata provision or heightened colours. For example the beer advertisement(see figures B.2 p. 33, B.1 p. 32 and B.3 p. 33) is much more moderated andmore elegant compared to American and Japanese beer advertisement.

6.5.4 ConclusionBy analysing the characters, who are present on an advertisement, we cannotice that all the culture do not use the same gender. It means that it isfundamental to take the sex into account to reach a special culture.

6.6 ShapesWhen we deal with the shapes we should search different shapes like square orcircle. Each of it has its own link with the culture. Usually, we can say that ifthere are almost just square shapes then it could represent a more masculineculture. However, if the circle shapes have more dominance then it couldbe a more feminine culture. All of them come from the Hofstede culturaldimensions which have chosen to analyse these advertisements. Sometimes,the shapes have more meaning or task then just simple schema.

6.6.1 FranceWhen we first see the Pelforth advertisements (see figure B.1 p. 32, figure B.2p. 33 and figure B.3 p. 33), we can immediately see that the French cultureis feminine because the shapes are more circular. In fact, even if on thatpicture there is a slate, so we would say there may be a square, we can noticethat the table was inclined so the lines don’t join into a right angle. It’s asimilar example if we examine the picture about the mountain on the Pepsiadvertisement (see figure B.6 p. 35) because it could be hard to recognizeany straight line. However, the lines of mountains present the shape of thePepsi’s logo. Nowadays, Jean Paul Gaultier has launched a new perfume ina really spectacular packaging which can we look on the advertisement (seefigure B.8 p. 36). The packaging refers to a male body shape and in thebackground we can watch a young man with tattoos. And this brand hasa same type of advertisement in female version. Those links refer for thegender which could be an evidence for the feminity.

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6.6.2 JapanIn case of Japan, it going to be easy to prove that is a masculine culture ifwe just consider for the light advertisements on the street. Which’s shapeare built just for straight lines. Usually, the Japanese advertisement empha-sis more the details, therefore they prefer more the functionality then thespectacular skin. Moreover, the advertisement with Arnold Schwarzeneggeris absolutely odd. But there we can recognize the typical Japanese symbol,two fingers which show a “V” form. That means that the peace is also asquare shape. When we observe the bulb advertisement there the puppethas bulb head. It’s so useful because if you just take a fast look for it thenthe advertised product could be obvious. If we observe more carrefully thenwe can recognise the puppet’s stripped trousers.

6.6.3 United StatesFor the case of the United States, when we want to speak about the shapeswe should start with the symbols. Why is it so important? Because, eachadvertisement is presented with some symbols which have their own meaning.In this case, these emblems are created to target the pride of the people. Ifwe observe the advertisements, we can find many times the national flag.It could be here to present the history of the United States because even ifeach people in the world are proud of their history, the Americans like toemphasize more than the others. This pride was shown occasionally by thearmy for what the old Coca-Cola advertisement represents (see figure A.3p. 28). The symbol like a soldier is a good trick to take the customer in theUS because when we think about a soldier, our first two feelings could be thepride and trust. For same reason they use sometimes their monuments likegolden state building or statue of liberty. To show a good overview about theshapes, we should deal with future. It’s also an important aspect becausewe can find a many shape. On the ethanol add we can see a children withhis mother nearby a car. On this picture we can find a brick column whichhas a really square shape and it could be refer to the masculinity of thenationality. The brick column can show the secure fundament and also forthe masculinity. In addition, that column was built by a worker who can referfor it. This reference come up on the Coca-Cola advertisement too where isthe golden state building. Although this picture, we can watch a typicalbottle of cola. Many out of us think that it is the shape of a woman. In ouropinion, it’s not a women’s more the male body. Because we can realize the“V” form as well. The Pepsi advertisement is providing another example forthe flag because the girl’s denim was made with a huge star.

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6.6.4 ConclusionAfter this analysis of the shapes in the advertisements, we can see that thereare some differences depending on the culture. So it means that even alittle detail, like a shape, is important because the customers can interpretit differently.

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Chapter 7

Discution

This paper aimed to present the differences between advertisements fromUnited States, France and Japan, specifically how the culture of those threecountries influence the way of advertise. The results obtained from analysisof several advertisements from those country showed that there are manydifferences between French, American and Japanese advertising.

As expected our results are similar to the results of the studies, we sawin the literature review. For example, our analysis is in agreement with theconclusion of Dahl (2004), who says that there is an impact of the culture onadvertisements and therefore refutes the Levitt’s Theory (1983). Then, wealso noticed that the French advertisements is more implicit than the Ameri-can advertisements and we can say that this is in relation with the conclusionof Biswas, Olen and Carlet (1992), who showed that French advertisementsuse more emotional appeals.

However the results of our analysis has to be qualified because during ourresearches we found also some global advertisements but we decided to notstudy them. For example, Mac Donalds created a campaign of advertise-ments in the world, in which they only translate the slogan (see figure B.10p. 37 and figure A.8 p. 31).

Our study can be also limited by the facts that an interpretation of anadvertisement, especially for the message, is always subjective. So, the resultsmay vary slightly depending on who analyse the advertisement.

Finally, we must consider one last point. All our advertisements are printadvertisements and so our analysis cannot be generalize to the other media,like TV or radio.

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Chapter 8

Conclusion

In this study we learned about the American, French and Japanese cultureand examined how the cultural differences may influence the advertisements.Those analysis allow us to answer to our research questions.

What are the characteristics of those three cultures? The characteristicsof the American culture are for example masculinity, explicit, patriotic. Thisis a low-context culture. The characteristics of the French culture are forexample feminity and implicit. We also saw that it is a monochronic culture.The characteristics of the Japanese culture are for example masculinity, im-plicit and we noticed that this is a monochronic culture.

What are the differences between similar advertisements from differentcultures? The differences between similar advertisements from different cul-tures are based on many characteristics of a print advertisement, like colour,sex, shape, meaning of the message and use of the slogan.

How to adapt an advertisement to a specific culture? To adapt an ad-vertisement to a specific culture, the most important thing is to learn as asmuch as possible about the culture. Then, we have to use what we knowabout this culture to apply it to the different elements of the advertisement.We have to think like a customer from this culture to be sure to not makeany mistakes.

The answers at those three questions show that today it is not reallyrelevant to make a global campaign of advertisement. However we can wonderif in a near future, the impact of the culture on the advertisements will beless strong due to the globalization.

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Bibliography

Biswas, A., Olsen, J. E. & Carlet, V. (1992), A Comparison of Print Adver-tisements from the United States and France, Journal of Advertising.

Chandler, D. (1996), ‘Analysis of advertisements’.URL: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/MAinTV/analad.html

Dahl, S. (2004), Cross-Cultural Advertising Research: What Do We KnowAbout the Influence of Culture on Advertising?, SSRN.

Hofstede, G. H. q. b. H. D. (2001), Intercultural Communication : Theoryand Practice, Linköping University.

Levitt, T. (1983), ‘The globalisation of markets’, Harvard Business Review .

Mooij, M. K. d. (2004), Consumer Behavior and Culture : Consequences forGlobal Marketing and Advertising, SAGE.

Mueller, B. (1986), Reflections of culture : An analysis of Japanese andAmerican Advertising Appeals, Journal of Advertising Research.

Niaz, A. (2000), Cross-Cultural Content Analysis of Advertising from theUnited States and India, Universal-Publishers.

Payne, N. (2004), ‘How does culture impact advertising campaigns in foreigncountries?’.URL: http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/11-13-2004-61590.asp

Smith, K. (2009), ‘Color meaning, symbolism and psychology’.URL: http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-messages-meanings/color-meaning-symbolism-psychology.html

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List of Figures

A.1 American advertisement for a beer: Miller Lite . . . . . . . . . 27A.2 Set of American advertisements for a soda: Coca-Cola . . . . . 28A.3 American advertisement for a soda: Coca-Cola . . . . . . . . . 28A.4 American advertisement for a soda: Pepsi . . . . . . . . . . . 29A.5 American advertisement for the Marines . . . . . . . . . . . . 29A.6 American advertisement for a computer brand: Apple . . . . . 30A.7 American advertisement for Ethanol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30A.8 Internationnal advertisement in English for Mac Donald . . . 31

B.1 French advertisement for a beer: Pelforth “Blonde” . . . . . . 32B.2 French advertisement for a beer: Pelforth “Brune” . . . . . . . 33B.3 French advertisement for a beer: Pelforth “Ambrée” . . . . . . 33B.4 French advertisement for a beer: Stella Artois . . . . . . . . . 34B.5 Two French advertisement against the AIDS . . . . . . . . . . 35B.6 French advertisement for a soda: Pepsi . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35B.7 French advertisement for a car: Peugeot “307 HD” . . . . . . . 36B.8 French advertisement for a perfume: JP Gauthier “Le Male” . 36B.9 French advertisement for a perfume: Nina Ricci “Deci Delà” . 37B.10 Internationnal advertisement in French for Mac Donald . . . . 37

C.1 Japanese advertisement for a beer: Kirin [1] . . . . . . . . . . 38C.2 Japanese advertisement for a beer: Kirin [2] . . . . . . . . . . 39C.3 Japanese advertisement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39C.4 Japanese advertisement for a car: Sprinter Trueno . . . . . . . 40C.5 Japanese advertisement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40C.6 Japanese advertisement for a soda: Pepsi . . . . . . . . . . . . 41C.7 Japanese advertisement for a bank of images: ImageBank . . . 41C.8 Japanese advertisement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

D.1 Hofstede parameters for France (Data 2003) . . . . . . . . . . 43D.2 Hofstede parameters for Japan (Data 2003) . . . . . . . . . . . 44

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D.3 Hofstede parameters for United States (Data 2003) . . . . . . 44

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Appendix A

Advertisements from UnitedStates

Figure A.1: American advertisement for a beer: Miller Lite

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Figure A.2: Set of American advertisements for a soda: Coca-Cola

Figure A.3: American advertisement for a soda: Coca-Cola

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Figure A.4: American advertisement for a soda: Pepsi

Figure A.5: American advertisement for the Marines

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Figure A.6: American advertisement for a computer brand: Apple

Figure A.7: American advertisement for Ethanol

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Figure A.8: Internationnal advertisement in English for Mac Donald

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Appendix B

Advertisements from France

Figure B.1: French advertisement for a beer: Pelforth “Blonde”

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Figure B.2: French advertisement for a beer: Pelforth “Brune”

Figure B.3: French advertisement for a beer: Pelforth “Ambrée”

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Figure B.4: French advertisement for a beer: Stella Artois

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Figure B.5: Two French advertisement against the AIDS

Figure B.6: French advertisement for a soda: Pepsi

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Figure B.7: French advertisement for a car: Peugeot “307 HD”

Figure B.8: French advertisement for a perfume: JP Gauthier “Le Male”

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Figure B.9: French advertisement for a perfume: Nina Ricci “Deci Delà”

Figure B.10: Internationnal advertisement in French for Mac Donald

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Appendix C

Advertisements from Japan

Figure C.1: Japanese advertisement for a beer: Kirin [1]

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Figure C.2: Japanese advertisement for a beer: Kirin [2]

Figure C.3: Japanese advertisement

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Figure C.4: Japanese advertisement for a car: Sprinter Trueno


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Figure C.6: Japanese advertisement for a soda: Pepsi

Figure C.7: Japanese advertisement for a bank of images: ImageBank

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Appendix D

Hofstede’s graphics

Legend for next figures:

• PDI: Power distance

• IDV: Individualism

• MAS: Masculinity

• UAI: Uncertaincy avoidance

• LTO: Long term orientation

Next figures are extracted from Geert Hofstede’s website:

Figure D.1: Hofstede parameters for France (Data 2003)

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Figure D.2: Hofstede parameters for Japan (Data 2003)

Figure D.3: Hofstede parameters for United States (Data 2003)

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cross-cultural aspects of advertisements

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