摘 要
文章在广告文体领域，通过对中英文广告作品的对比研究，讨论了不同地区、不同民族及两个不同国家之间的文化和思维差异，在分析了广告的语言特点，及中美两国之间的历史、民俗、性格偏好及价值观等特点的基础上，探讨了广告中所蕴含的这两种文化在思维方式等方面的差异，同时也向读者展示了广告英语的简约、精确、冼练的魔力。
关键词：广告； 文化； 民族； 思维差异； 展示
On Chinese and American Cultural Differences From the Contrast of Chinese and English Ads
Abstract
This dissertation analyses the cultural and thinking differences between two respective nations and ethnic groups by contrasting the work of Chinese and English Ads on the basis of discussing the features of advertising；by analyzing the historical, customary, characteristic and value features appeared in advertising language, the cultural differences in the thinking mode in China and America are observed. Meanwhile, this paper presents readers the brevity, accuracy and clarity of English Ads.
Key words: Advertisement; Culture; Ethnic; Mode of thinking
Manifestation
1. Introduction
1.1 Definition of culture
In a broad sense, language and advertising are all parts of culture, which E.B.Taylor, the famous anthropologist defined culture as “a complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by individuals as members of a society.” [15] Chinese famous scholars Zhang Dainian and Fang Keli refer culture to four aspects. Firstly, culture as all kinds of instruments. These instruments, or the materialized knowledge forces, are processed by human beings through natural materials. Secondly, culture as systems. These systems are built up during man’s social practice. Thirdly, culture as human behaviour. The behaviour, usually in the form of customs, is set up in social activities, especially in interpersonal communications. Fourthly, culture as ideology, including values, thought style, and aesthetic standards. Over a long time it comes into being as social psychology and social ideology. Social psychology refers to people’s spirit state in daily life, or the masses’ pervasive psychological state. Social ideology consists of political theories, concepts of legislation, philosophy, literature, art, religion, etc.
This article tries to study the relationship between language and culture in a way by laying emphasis on the cultural contents reflected in various Chinese and American advertising works, while most of the other articles discuss culture through vocabulary, grammar structure, syntax, etc.
1.2 Definition of advertising
The word of Advertising derived from early 20th century. And at first, the word only means informing the public .In 1872, Japan first translated the English word Advertising into “广告”,it had become commonly used by 1887.
Before 1890, the western society defined the Advertising as News about Product or service. During this stage, Ads were only being taken as a means of disseminating information, as a newspaper conveys recent news to the public.
Albert Lasker, the pioneer of American modern advertising, once said that Advertising is the salesmanship in print. Though this definition appeared before the emergence of Electronic Media, it has clearly revealed the nature of the Advertising, that is the sales itself has contained the meaning of persuasion.
In 1936, American professional Magazine Advertising Age consulted the broad masses for the definition of Advertising, finally the one which has been selected was that “To be paid by the advertisement owner, and to use the way of printing, writing, oral expressing, or picture and so on. To spread the information which are related with personal, customer products, labor, or sports and so on. To increase the purpose for selling, utilizing, voting, or supporting and so on. ”[8] We can know from the definition that the purpose of the Advertising was not only to gain some profit, but also to inform the public or the related person some knowledge.
In 1948, the committee on Definitions of the American Marketing Association, made the definition of Advertising, which exerted tremendous influence in the world, “Advertising is done for confirmed Advertisement owner, to express and spread not by the human beings for the conception, customer products, or service by some kinds of payment.” [11]
1.3 The purpose of advertising
Since advertising is the developing and flourishing industry in modern society. With sale as its nature, the only purpose of advertising is to convince the customers by introducing the merits of products and services.
Advertising is the “mouth”, says good for its products. Advertising is an art, a highly tasted creature, an art which makes its customers feel as if their dream have come true by way of affecting them. As the Advertising pioneer Lemont Robyca once said: “The sign of the first class advertising is not only convincing its customers to buy the products eagerly, but itself also becomes an unforgettable image in people’s and Ads designers’ eyes.” [8]
1.4 Significance of doing this research
This paper tries to analysis the cultural differences between America and China by comparing the Ads opus between two countries. There are several reasons for the author to choose this topic, and these reasons can also explain the relationship among language, culture and Ads in some extent.
Firstly, since the United States is the global advertising capital, it has the largest and most influential advertising business in the world. China has been transforming its planned economy into a vigorous market one, which has grown rapidly over the last two decades. China is a small but robust child in the world of advertising.
What’s more, China is a major socialist country and the United States a leading capitalist country in the world. The social, ideological realities for the operation of advertising and its language in these two countries are quite different.
Most important of all, the United States is regarded as typical of western culture. The bulk of comparative studies of cultural contents in advertising have used the United States as either a “reference frame” or a “mode” of western culture. Similarly, it is meaningful to compare in a cultural perspective the advertising language in the United States with the one in China, though the studies mentioned above are different in many ways from the one in this thesis.
Nowadays, advertising in China as well as the United States has become virtually impossible to avoid or escape, because ads are so pervasive, aggressive, repetitive, and intrusive. Twitchell writes, “What distinguishes modern advertising is that it has jumped from the human voice and printed posters to anything that can carry it. Almost every physical object now carries advertising, almost every moment of time is calibrated by advertising.” [12]
In most cases, advertising works by using language in a given cultural environment. Accordingly it leaves us an opportunity to conduct a comparative study of the American and Chinese advertising language in a cultural perspective. This is what the thesis will focus on.
2. Chinese and American social culture reflected in Advertising Works
2.1 Chinese social culture reflected in advertising works
It was not the law, or the religion, but the traditional moral standards that maintain public order in ancient society. For thousands of years these standards have gradually turned into the cornerstone of Chinese moral system. Though we have the shortcomings of being conservative in our traditional moral system, its positive factors strengthen our moral sense, forge our ethnical character, and greatly influence the development of the Chinese national psychology and the reserved introvertion character. Just as He xiumeng in Modern Advertising said, “The ethnic culture plays an active role in public life, and its ethnic feature defines people’s reaction, and mode of behavior.” [15] The advertising language contains not only the information of the goods, but the value and behaves, as it is deeply limited and influenced by the moral principles and ethnical character, meanwhile, it also plays an important leading role in spreading our traditional ethnical morality. We can prove this from the following three points.
2.1.1 Humility and respect for the others as the code of behavior in Han ethnical morality
We all know a famous saying in Shangshu that “Pride makes deficit, and humility makes profit.” And it has become the behavior criteria of the contemporary people. This sense has also appeared in Advertising language. Such as the Ads made by the Beijing Cathy Dress co.ltd advertised it 6410 series by saying that “Although I am not the only one for you, but I can meet your satisfactory.” The advertisement is good, because it shows respect for the customers, and plain language with cordial tone fits the customer appropriately, it seems the only purpose of the product is to satisfy the customer. Therefore it is liked and accepted by most consumers.
2.1.2 The Doctrine of the Mean
The Doctrine of the Mean plays a tremendous role in Chinese traditional culture. It means “中者不偏不倚，无过而无不及之名，庸平常见也。”Zhong means using the modest attitude, and never going to extremes. Yong means speaking and acting in accordance with the normal code, and never changes. The sense of the Doctrine of the Mean does not exist isolately, it absorbs the other elements and gradually develops the typical character in Chinese thinking culture. Therefore, under such kind of moral sense, the social attitude has greatly limited the Advertising Language. Such as “ The world number one” or “Our product has won the global prize” always make the consumers doubt their product’ s quality, because it does not agree with the traditional morality, and therefore it seems untrue for most of the customers. Meanwhile, the Feland weiqi Industry clique deeply learn the Chinese culture, and used the Ads as “ Never make radical progress, only acquire steady development.” and made great success at that time.
With more and more cultural and economic exchange activities between the east and the west, the western culture has emerged into our lives, which tells us to be pushy, be confident, be brave in adventure, and become challenging. So it has positively influenced Chinese people’s thinking concept and value trend. Such as Beijing Sitong company used “不尽的活力，不懈的追求！”(Endless vitality, unremitting pursue.) Shanshan Clique said :“立足沧海，挑战未来” (Stand in the sea, and challenge the future.) Although it is contrary to the traditional standard--The Doctrine of the Mean, it manifests a value of pursuing success, brilliant, and the dream. So these are also excellent advertising works.
2.1.3 Respect for the old and love for the young
Since the concept of respect for the old and love for the young has long become our traditional virtue, many advertising people also advocate such value. Such as Jinan Sanzhu oral liquid made an Ads during the Mother’s day in 1997, it said: “Mum, you brought me up, and now you are bringing my child up, you labored all your life for your daughter without regret, by the time of Mother’s Day, my greatest aspiration is to wish you can live long and healthy.” [16]This ads was calling a love for the family, advocating a prevailing custom, spreading the national virtue, and playing a leading role in establishing people’s codes of behavior.
2.1.4 Summary
Generally speaking, these three main characters in our ethnical moral system have existed for thousands of years, and these characters and cultural value are also represented in many advertising works. So we may say that it is culture that influences the Ads making, and meantime, Ads also help to spread the culture. By studying these advertising works, we can know better of our society, and also make the world to know us well.
2.2 American social culture reflected in advertising work
America is a country of only over two hundred years history, and it is called the “melting pot”, “salad bowl”, and “the globalized country”, etc. because of its typical multi-racial, multi-ethnical, and multi-cultural character. Despite of this, American society has also developed a distinctive value stystem, which influences all aspects of its national life, and also affects the advertising language. Its main five characters can be seen from the following examples.
2.2.1 Individualism
One of the greatest pleasures in life is simply to be treated as an individual. To speak and be heard.to ask and be helped.
America is a self-central country, the whole nation lives for their self-realization and self-respect. So the Ads was made directly to the individual. In America, every person has a strong sense of self-respect, every one wants the chance to speak and be heard, they want to be the Top Dog, not the Invisible Man. Such as the ads made by AT&T company : “ Highest Ranking Customer Satisfaction. Staying in touch with your customers, suppliers and partners is imperative to business success-whether you’re big or small, local or global.” At AT&T, we know that from experience. AT&T attributed its success to the communication with its customers, in order to meet their utmost satisfaction. In other words, it means to respect the consumers, the key to success is to satisfy them.
“ When you want the freedom of a cellular phone, you need the quality of a Motorola.”
“You’re free to choose. So choose everything.”(The New York Times, Dec 17, 2001)
Americans believe that to win respect, and to realize one’s dream, and to make one’s life meaningful, they must enjoy the freedom of both thought and action, or everything would be in vain. So the Motorola company published these two Ads , and made the “freedom” as its bait, therefore the consumer would happily and naturally choose their products.
“Rebel. A bike you can afford to be seen on.”
Americnas never wants to be bound by the tradition: from the Lost Generation to the Beat Generation, from the Modernism to the Post-modernism, we could find their rebelian Character, which was also be discovered by the prudent Japanese . Japan named their motor “Rebel”, which catered to the American’s psychology, and won great success.
2.2.2 Equality of opportunity and fair play
America is a typical business society, which stresses Equality of opportunity and fair play and these have become the common social values. So Americans believe that equal opportunity – take part in the competence – make success, which means under the premise of equal opportunity, and join the competence actively and win success, such a person can be called the winner.
“Upwardly mobile: At United States, we feel everyone deserves the same shot at success. Regardless of their sex or ethnic background, the most valued qualities that we look for are character and motivation. That’s what gets you to the top. And, at this airline, the sky’s the limit.” [14]
The ads which the American United Airline advertised for qualified personnel is rather excited to read, it noticed the equal opportunity, promoted only by one’s personal quality and the urge for improvement, not by one’s gender and ethnic group. And it encouraged the staff to work hard, challenge oneself, and pursue the glorious future.
2.2.3 Hard-working, and success-aspiring
.A . Brisbance, an American reporter, once said that “The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work.” In American’s eyes, work is a good thing, and one must take it seriously; working industriously will bring success. Only through unremitting efforts, one can make success, and control one’s own life.
“Work Hard. Fly Right – Continental Airlines. ” ( Newsweek, Mar 4,2002)
After “9·11” Terrorist Attack, American Airline inflicited heavy losses, and was faced with bankrupt. This ads combined “Fly Right” and “Work Hard”, the purpose is to make people realize that it was equally reasonable to travel by plane as well as work hard. Therefore, in order to work better, we’d better to travel by plane. (Notice, “Fly Right” is a pun.)
2.2.4 Valuing time and enjoying life
“Time is money.”
In Americans’ eyes, they consider time as material thing as money. Time is linear, which will never come back when once gone. So they often make a good plan of their work, study, enjoyment, and social communication, and try to achieve the most ideal effect in the limited time.
“Time is money. And as times become more competitive, companies across the world have set their sights on shaving off every second, to stay ahead in the race. …We offer complete and integrated document processing solutions that save time and money.” [5]
As the life pace is rapid in these days, competition has become even hotter today. Whose products can save more time, and more money, who would succeed in such competence. American Xerox company declared that their office equipment can help consumers save time and money, and this would obviously draw consumers’ attention.
“BE YOUNG
HAVE FUN
DRINK PEPSI.”
A saying is prevailing in America, “Work Hard and Play Hard”. One of their important conceptions is to divide the working hour apart with relaxing hour. They think working is important, while taking enjoyment is the best way to get relaxed and promote work efficiently. Drink Pepsi can make a person keep young, and enjoy fun, why not drink it?
2.2.5 Materialism.
Americans believe to realize success through one’s own efforts, so the possession of material treasure has become the standard to measure whether one is successful or not. For Americans, to own expensive dress, luxury car, pretty villa, and spend money like water are the best signs to show one’s social and economic status.
“ Our own luxurious rabbit fur muffler in camel.” (The New York Times, Dec 17,2001)
“The 255 HP NISSAN MAXIMA. All-out luxury. All-out performance. (The New York Times, Feb 26,2002)
These two pieces of Ads all appeal for luxury, its purpose is to satisfy the consumers’ s desire, who want to pursue material enjoyment and manifest one’s social status. “Make the most of it.” Money is the name of an American Magazine. From its slogan, we can easily deduce the Americans’ desire towards money.
2.2.6 Summary.
American linguist Edward Sapair ever said that “There is something behind language, and language can not exist without culture.” [15] By analysis American modern advertising language, we prove that, certain advertising language mirrors certain ethnic culture, it manifests every aspects of such culture; every successful advertisement must deep-rooted in certain ethnic culture, so as to become popular among the audience. From these advertising works, we know more about American character, which would help us more in cross-cultural communication between our two countries.
3. Contemporary Chinese and American culture reflected in Ads.
People in different age, ethnic groups, gender would have different taste for product, and therefore they would have different opinion in watching Ads. So people with different cultural background would surely have diversities in appreciating advertising works. We will discuss the cultural differences from the following five spheres of age, exaggeration, female, color and value that appeared in modern Ads work.
3.1 Age
“It has followed me for over a decade, and it is even more trustworthy than my husband: he has left me alone, but my Jingle watch has still accompanied me…”[13]In American, admakers deduced a conclusion through analysis that there were about 59,000,000 people over 50 years old. And they received nearly $1000 billion a year, which was higher than the average consumers. As their children lived independently, and therefore they shouldered no heavy burden any more, so they spent money freely, considered less about the price, and more on the famous brand and excellent quality. That is to say, they had astonishing purchasing power, and could be called “The Rich” group. However, they lacked spiritual ballast and dependence, and especially needed warm affection in their last phase. As a result, the admakers did their utmost to cater for their requirement feature, and made such an appropriate, cordial, and unforgettable ads. Therefore, this ads of “Jingle” watch has attracted many old ladies from that time even to now.
Such kind of thing is rather different in China, the Ads made especially for the elders are much less than that in US. The same type of Ads is always advertising some medicine or appealing the young people to buy for their parents. Such as:
“腰腿疼,贴骨通,痛痛痛,贴贴贴, 早帖早轻松.”(“帖骨通”广告)
“腰酸背痛腿抽筋,请用巨能钙”(巨能中老年钙片)
“妈妈,我又梦见了村边的小溪,梦见了奶奶,梦见了你. 妈妈,我给你捎去一样好东西.
威力洗衣机,献给母亲的爱! (威力洗衣机广告)
四十年的风雨历程，中华永远我心中！（中华牙膏广告）
These Ads show the typical Chinese Culture. The elders are always quite economical in spending money, their concept is “to save as much as possible”, “spend money at the most essential time”. So they seldom spend their money on luxury things, they only buy the products which they have used for many years, and it is difficult for them to buy the new product which they have never listened or used before. So many admakers advertise their product directly to the young, let them to buy it for the elder.
“独立,从掌握一辆凤凰自行车开始.”(我国凤凰自行车广告)
For the same reason, the admakers found we have 3 billion teenagers in China, and most of them were around 16 years old, a really nice age, and they were the users, their parents are the real purchasers. Admakers discovered that the feature for these teenagers was that they began to become mature, and more self-respected, and they started to pursue personality and independence in their lives. The convergence for the both side is “Independence”, the young wished they could become real independent, and the parents also hoped their children could be independent early, so the theme of this Ads was decided, “ Become independent, begin with owning a Fenghuang Bicycle.” And Fenghuang Bicycle was then rather popular during that time.
It seems also uncommon in America, Americans attach importance to the independent sense of their children, their independent character has been developed since they were only several years old. Not so late as it was in China.
3.2 Exaggeration
“Life is short, live it up.”（an ads of computer game.）
Delivery room, a pregnant woman is bearing a baby. Suddenly, a baby bombs like a bullet out of the woman’s body, smashes the glass of the delivery room, passes the city, campagna, and rivers in great speed. And in the upper air: the baby quickly turns to a youngster, a middle-ager and then to an old man, and the voice is also turns from childish to mature, and to the aged…. This process changes in rapid speed. Instantly, the old man plunged into the public graveyard. In the end, the Ads slogan appears “life is short, live it up.”
We can see that American Ads intend to show their theme in an extremely impressive manner, and while Chinese Ads have less impressive effect. Such as :
“举杯天地醉，中国贵州醇”（贵州醇酒广告）
“天地人和，古井贡酒”（古井贡酒广告）
“当太阳升起的时候，我们的爱天长地久！”（太阳神广告）
“长夜如诗，衣裳如梦。”（华歌尔服装广告）
“春风轻轻吻上了您的脸。”（某化妆品广告）
These show that Chinese people are implicative, they often want to compare the products with some permanent objects, such as the sky, the sun, and the wind, etc. They would rather to make their work joyful or appreciative than to shock their people.
3.3 Female
Traditionally, a woman in China was shackled with feudal ethics called “the three obediences: obedience to her father before marriage, to her husband after marriage, and to her sons after the death of her husband ” As Gu Hongming put it more than 80years ago, “A true Chinese woman has no self.” In the first half of the 20th century, Chinese women gradually improved their status.
However, woman’s image has still not changed totally in advertising work. Even until recently, it is not surprising for Chinese advertisers to target their ads on women even though they are advertising male products.
In a commercial, facing the audience a woman asked : “As a wife, what can a woman do for her husband?”(CCTV-8,December 11,2000) The answer is to buy Tongmei(通美) healthy underclothing for her husband.
What’s more, the word “sexy” used to be completely strange to Chinese women before China opened its door to the outside world; but now, to some extent, it has become one of their standards to value beauty. So many advertisements lure women to buy their products to become buxom and sexy. The most well-known and popular slogans for buxom creams are, “ 没啥大不了的”(Nothing can not be bigger.) and “做女人挺好”(Stand out as a woman.); the later was stated by Ning Jing, a well-known actress. In Chinese, these two slogans are puns.
In modern Advertisement, women in Ads largely act as mother, wife, lovers, etc. Such as in the Ads of Diaopai transparent soap, an old woman is washing a huge basin of dirty clothes industriously, while the old man is drinking tea and reading newspaper with ease. Another example, a woman in red colthes walking coquettishly pass three men, while the three men are all appealed to notice her, she walks onto a bus and show her legs, twists her head and smiles to the men. Then a man’s voice is heard “不只是吸引。浪莎丝袜” (Not only appealing. Langsha silk stocking.) Such kind of Ads can also be seen in a pile of shampoo, perfume, pretty clothes, washing machine, seasoning, etc.
All these seem to tell the public, that woman still plays a role of appendage, they seldom become independent, and serve for themselves.
Such circumstances also appear in America. The most shocking Ads in 20th century in America was an Ads of hair dyer. The theme was “She did , or she didn’t…”[4] With the head of a pretty woman show on the billboard. The purpose of this Ads was to sell the hair dyer, while for men, the content seemed to connect with sex.
It is not surprising now that many ads use, implicitly or explicitly, sex as selling appeal repeatedly in the media, especially in CCTV, or use woman as appendage to man, such as mother, lover, actress, etc. However, with the improvement of women’s social status, admakers would attach more respect to women, and make more valuable and appreciative advertisement in the future.
Generally speaking, ads of this kind in China meet much less criticism from their audiences, especially feminists, if there is any in China, than they do in America. This is due to the two countries’ different cultural backgrounds. In America history, feminism had been a weak and often embattled force in American life for more than forty years after the adoption of the woman suffrage amendment in 1920. Through the 1950s and early 1960s, active feminism was often difficult to detect. The 1963 publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mysique is often cited as the first event of contemporary women’s liberation. In 1966, Friedan joined with other feminists to create the National Organization for Women, which was to become the nation’s largest and most influential feminist organization. NOW reflected the varying constituencies of the emerging feminist movement. It protects women’s rights of profession, political position, religion and countless other areas in American life, [1][5]while in China, women have no such organizations except the Women United Organization, but women’s social status are also rising with time.
3.4 Color
International marketers may encounter problems with the connotative meanings of colors and other signs and symbols as they vary from culture to culture. Laurence Jacobs and colleagues note: “Like language, marketers in a particular nation often take color for granted, having experienced certain color associations all their lives, and do not even question whether other associations may exist in different societies.” For example, while black signifies mourning in many western cultures, white is the coolor most associated with death in China, Japan and India. People would dress themselves in white in mourning in China, and it is called “白事”; while bride and groom would dress themselves in big red on wedding ceremony, and it is called “红事”.Surprisingly to them, the bride would go to church in white gowns in the Christian countries. Red is also considered a sign of positive color.
These days a series of new Ads work appeared on the street billboard, which is made by Yida chewing gum（益达口香糖）. The content is
“我的热情是橙色的，我的笑容是洁白的。.”（ My enthusiasm is orange, my smile is white） The background is orange, with a young Chinese girl and a young foreign man smiling and showing their white teeth.
“我的希望是绿色的，我的笑容是洁白的。.”（My hope is green, my smile is white.） The background is green, the girl is looking at the sky with hope and smile, and showing her white teech.
“我的梦想是蓝色的，我的笑容是洁白的。.”（My dream is blue, my smile is white.） The background is blue, the man is smiling and showing his white teeth, his eyes are closed, seems dreaming of something,
“我的浪漫是红色的，我的笑容是洁白的。.”（My romantic is red, my smile is white.）The background is red, the man is smiling and showing his white teeth, under his face, a large bind of red rose is booming.
Such Ads will be popular in China, because the color mentioned in the Ads are cater to Chinese people, orange, green, blue, and red. While if such Ads appear in America, it may cause some social problem, because the word “blue” in America means “concerned with sex in a way that might offend some people.”
Another example is the “black storm” in 1997. Shengquan Beer-------for the man who never afraid of dark. Seven picture with black background and said : “This road is so dark, don’t be afraid, I am here; all the experience will become treasure; especially the experience of searching in the dark; if you never experience dark, you will never know it : want to know the taste of dark? ” [16]The title of the ads is “For the man who never afraid of dark.” Actually, “dark” means the slight backward on the way to success.
While in America, “dark” also hints “black”, a word of discrimination, which is always connected with Negroes, and whose social status is rather low in America. So this Ads was quite successful in China, and would fail in America, for the America would consider that this kind of beer was made especially for the Negroes.
3.5 Value
The traditional value of China is to maintain the consolidation of our nation, put the interest of our nation and ethnic group at the first place. China, in history, has always been a nation of prosperity, self-respect and self-confidence. Especially after the pursue of open door policy, Chinese people feel the mighty power of peace and unity, and such basic value has also been represented in Advertising language. Such as the typical example of Changhong color television. In 1980s, it’s Ads is “天上彩虹，人间长虹。”The word is elegant and appropriate, and represents the feature of color television, but it lacks of the image of the King of color television. And in 1990s, “太阳最红，长虹更新。”appears in CCTV. This time is better, but it still lack enough power. And until 1994, it said, “ 以产业报国，民族昌盛为己任。”shows its great ambition, and its national responsibility. This Ads represents its strength, and also wins great public attention.
Another traditional value is the worship toward The King and The Power. From the feudal society, the King and the Officials held the standard of right and wrong, controlled the power of live and death, this formed a psychology of obedience to the superior and afraid of the officials, and such psychology has already sunk into the nation’s value standard.
It is forbidden to use the national leader and local government official as the ads player in China’s modern advertising by the Advertising Law. Perhaps its cultural factor is the value of adoration for power. Though some advertisement use the King to publish their products, however, the King had been overthrown and never turned over again. But it is impossible to make the national leader to advertise their products, and even the players who acted themselves as national leaders in a movie or TV series.
The American value is different from ours. In their eyes, the status of money and divinity exceed that of regality and regime. So, not only local officials, even if their presidents and ministers can act in Advertising. For example, Franklin Roosevelt, has advertised for Pike Pen. In the picture, the president is signing some documents with Pike pen. The voice said: “ President uses Pike!”
Another example, in a picture appears the world famous woman Prime Minister , Margaret Thatcher, who is playing a kite. The poor-shaped old president is dancing disco. The very president with his bare feet in water, and is playing the Nokia Mobile Phone.
Jan 13,1992. Bush appeared on the TV screen. He is strolling on the golf playground of California, and said: “On the land of America, you can appreciate widely different scenery, see the rolling green field, step into the smooth white beach, enjoy the feverish jazz in Disney World, and have a look at the big lake and the big canyon. ” [14]At last , he added that, “The president has invited you, what are you waiting for?” After the Ads was played on TV, the amount of foreign travelers jump to 39,100,000 during that year.
Besides the “power” value, Chinese people have strong sense of “family”, and “reunion”.
“孔府家酒，叫人想家。”（孔府家酒广告）
“孝敬爸妈，脑白金!”（脑白金广告）
“亲爱的爸爸妈妈在等我，等我快回家……”（金龙鱼食用调和油广告）
“思念汤圆，团团圆圆.”(思念汤圆广告)
While Americans cherish “individualism”, “love”, “money”, ect. From the following Advertising, we can easily read some social problem of America.“SEX?LOVE?DIVORCE?CAREER?MONEY? Speak LIVE with the nation’s top psychics as they explore your life, love and future! ” [13]
An adveritsement of a psychological network shows that the main American social problems are the ones that mentioned above.
They also like Adventure:“Big thrills, small bills.” (American Budget taxi company).
The differences in value standards are also very important to be awared. As many advertising work which are rather popular in China get the cold shoulder in America, or in other country. To learn these different value can also help us to know the culture well, and to better learn and know the language well.
4. Conclusion
To a large extent, it can be stated that advertising language represents its cultural environment explicitly or implicitly. First, to know the cultural contents is one of the important strategies for admakers to carry out a successful campaign. Second, an admaker works in a certain cultural environment. What people think or do is unavoidably influenced by the culture which they belong to; so in advertising language, this is often reflected in an implicit way. So, why can a famous advertisement be successful in China, but fail totally in America, or vice versa? ” or “why does an advertisement use such one language instead of others?” And such questions can now be answered from a cultural perspective. And this is a common characteristic of the Chinese and American advertising language.
As American culture is different from Chinese one in many ways, the advertising language is also different between these two countries. Just as Bathes sees it, “the popular culture is a machine embodying human desires” [11], we can say that advertising language produces, meets and reflects human desires, and reflects the culture it belongs to.
The discussion of the common characteristics and the differences between the cultural contents reflected in the American and Chinese advertising language is of great significance. To run a successful advertising campaign, one needs to know particularly and observes carefully the relevant cultural background. It is of great help for people who work in an cross-cultural advertising agency and want to market a product successfully in two or more countries.
We must point out that, although the cultural contents in relation to society , age, exaggeration, female, color , value, and relative sentiments, are already studied in this paper, however, other cultural contents such as philosophy, thought style and religion are also worth investigating. In addition, the influence of advertising language on culture is as important as the influence of culture on advertising language, because the relationship between advertising language and culture is interactive. This is also worth further research
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Acknowledgments
Many people contributed to this thesis. I am grateful to my parents who brought birth to me so that I can have this chance to write the thesis. Also I express my appreciation to my supervisor, Professor Jia Qin, who gave me many helpful suggestions to finish my manuscript. I wish to thank my friend Chen Xiaoyu who encouraged me a lot, and supported me with many useful relevants. For their valuable suggestions on the preparation of the thesis, I am also indebted to the following lecturers: Chen Renzhen, Zhang Ri, Peng Jiahai, Hu Fang.
