The Role of the Advertising Agency in the Cultural Message Content of Advertisements: A Comparison of the Middle East and the United States

ABSTRACT

This study compared responses of advertising agencies located in the Middle East and the United States to an email survey examining their approach in designing advertisements. The survey examined whether the advertising agency incorporated area-specific cultural values and advertising appeals in the execution of their advertisements. Results indicate that indeed advertising agencies do use, or at least report to use, different cultural values and advertising appeals. Advertising agencies in the Middle East tend to focus more on filial obedience, customs and traditions, loyalty to one's group, honor, and patience. In addition, agencies in the Middle East reported that they tended to portray women in a more modest fashion than their counterparts in the United States.     

Extremely thin models in print ads: The dark sides

To appeal to consumers as social beings, advertisers include social settings and human images in commercial messages. Extant empirical research shows that thin models are perceived as more attractive and that the use of attractive models results in higher ad effectiveness. However, this study offers empirical evidence of ‘dark sides’ of extremely thin models, such that they harm advertising performance. The negative effects of extremely thin models stem from their influence on consumers' psychological well-being, as well as their ethical judgements of the advertisement. Respondents in this study also regard an extremely thin model as less attractive than a more average model. These results suggest that organizations should reconsider the portrayal of extremely thin models in their promotional messages and, more generally, consider consumer ethics when developing marketing communication messages.     

Social media marketing: Comparative effect of advertisement sources

This study was conducted to conceptualise advertising value and consumer attitudes towards advertisements. The research was developed to reveal the effect of the source of advertisements on credibility perception through the theoretical framework of Ducoffe's (1995) advertising value model. The research objective is to identify source derogation in terms of credibility to create advertising value and a positive attitude towards advertisements launched through the Facebook social network. In this regard, the study used three distinct sources to generate and introduce product promotional messages: an associative reference group, an aspirational reference group and marketers themselves. This research revealed significant differences in developing advertisement value and forming a favourable attitude towards advertisements when the product-related message was developed by these three distinct groups, who have different source derogations.     

The numbing effect of mortality salience in consumer settings

Nationwide Insurance and Johnnie Walker Scotch aired advertisements that encouraged people to contemplate death. What are the immediate emotional and perceptual outcomes of such advertisements? With five studies, thinking about death was found to attenuate emotional reactions and perceptions, a novel finding in the literature. This attenuation was observed with neural and self‐report measures along with retrospective and prospective assessments of emotion and is an outcome not yet investigated in mortality salience research. Contemplating death dampened people's expectations of emotion in a future consumption experience and diminished the attractiveness of the experience. Similarly, contemplating death affected backward‐looking assessments of emotion, for example, when nostalgic memories are brought to mind. Importantly, this dampening effect of mortality salience was replicated with advertisements that portrayed death‐related concepts and attenuated emotional reactions to subsequent advertisements.     

Consumer Readings of Green Appeals in Advertisements

This study evaluates consumers’ interpretation of green advertisements. The overarching theme that surfaced from the findings was that of “convenience.” The themes brought out by respondents of “not compromising your lifestyle,” a “simple-fix,” and a “collective participation/minor changes” all reiterated the theme of convenience. This suggests that the environmental initiatives of many companies/brands are focusing on minor green activities rather than sustainable activities. Additionally, all advertisements alluded to anthropocentric considerations, a human-centered system of values that regards nature as subject to the demands of human-utility, as opposed to ecocentric considerations that provide a non-contingent basis for protecting the natural world.     

媒体的社会责任研究——以虚假广告为例

近年来,虚假广告严重侵害消费者利益的案件层出不穷。当人们纷纷把矛头指向代言人、广告商等主体时,却忽略了虚假广告的发布者——媒体的责任。文章介绍了虚假广告的界定、特征以及危害,对媒体的角色扮演和原因进行分析,并从归责原则和构成要件两个方面阐述了媒体责任的认定,最后,为虚假广告的防范提出了若干建议。     

Societal and cultural examination of public service advertisements of a society in transition

Although public service advertisements (PSAs) can be viewed as either change agents or reflections of concerns about societal needs, there is little research on this topic. Rapid changes in newly industrializing countries have apparently brought about several negative consequences. In this study, we used multiple methods for exploring PSAs in Thailand to identify important societal needs. Furthermore, we examined variations in attitudes towards specific public service advertising themes using demographic and cultural variables. Through both naturalistic inquiry and a large-scale survey of 1756 respondents, we found that the priority placed on safety and social needs in the Thai culture was clearly reflected in PSA themes and messages. In addition, attitudes towards PSA themes were found to vary by education, age and traditional values, but not by religion. Propositions and suggestions for future research are also provided in the final section.     

全球经济波动下政府拉动消费还须多管齐下

基于长期以来消费与投资结构失衡的情况下拉动经济增长的这一宏观背景,2007年很可能并非消费与投资刺激经济格局转变的“真正拐点”,短期内很难扭转二者的结构性失衡,政府应更加重视消费,全球经济波动情况下外需风险加大时显得更为突出;“一次性退税拉动消费”这一论点具有较大局限性,新时期拉动消费还须多管齐下。     

出口退税政策对我国外向型经济的影响

本文首先回顾了我国出口退税政策的历史沿革,并从中归纳出我国出口退税政策的基本特征。其后,从出口贸易量、出口产品结构和国家外汇储备等方面,分析了出口退税政策对我国外向型经济的影响。