Measuring the Cultural Values Manifest in Advertising

Abstract Much of the critical discussion of advertising revolves around its cultural consequences. Even though advertising is a particularly persuasive proponent of a specific value system, a methodology for measuring the values manifest in advertising has not existed. A content analytic methodology synthesizing the work of previous authors and applicable to all media is presented, with detailed definitions. Procedures for an application to magazine advertising and reliability statistics from this application are discussed. The results suggest a methodology capable of describing the cultural character of commercialism. Potential applications to problems in advertising management and scholarly research in a number of inquiry areas are discussed. The first application, on a historical sample, is described, illustrating the potential benefits of the measurement scheme.