Chinese Consumer Readings of Global and Local Advertising Appeals

An implicit assumption in advertising content analysis, as well as in studies of advertiser intent, is that what an ad says, or what its creator intends for it to convey, is also what it means to consumers. The presence of global images and foreign appeals in advertising is thus often incorrectly taken as evidence that local culture is becoming globalized, and that consumer values are changing accordingly. Using a reader-response approach to analyze upscale Chinese consumers' understandings of global and local television and print advertising, we find that this is not the case. Instead, we find two dialectic reactions by Chinese consumers. One side is largely driven by the desire for global cosmopolitanism and status goods for the sake of mianzi (prestige face), whereas the other side is motivated by a more nationalistic desire to invoke Chinese values that are seen as local in origin. These opposing advertising meanings and preferences have important implications for understanding how international advertising affects local cultures.