Our ads 'R US: an exploratory content analysis of American advertisements

Abstract

PurposeTo describe contemporary US society based on the dominant themes featured in magazine advertisements.Design/methodology/approachFrom eight general circulation magazines, 2,158 full‐page advertisements are examined using content analysis. The analysis includes the examination of ad characteristics, creative strategies and a critical literary analysis.FindingsThe results show evidence that US cultural values are embedded in popular magazine advertisements. In particular, individualism, low context communication patterns and action/achievement values are most common.Research limitations/implicationsThis study represents a snapshot in time. Neither culture nor media options are static. As a result, future work in this area should examine these changes.Practical implicationsSince only a few cultural dimensions are dominant in the sample, the results suggest that advertisers need not embed all social values in ads.Originality/valueThis paper provides evidence that an adaptive advertising strategy may be more effective than a global approach.

The Effects of Empathy on Disparagement Humor

“…Research has identified that this appeal is more common in Western and individualistic cultures (Lin, 1993;Mueller, 1987). In a recent study of 2,158 print advertisements, Okigbo, Martin, and Amienyi (2005) found that American magazines demonstrate U.S. cultural values, the most common cultural values being individualism, low context communication, and product merit. With regard to both appeals, evidence has shown that there is a difference between Western and Eastern advertisements.…”

Business communication as cultural text: Exchange and feedback of promotional video clips

“…Both intra-and intercultural differences emerged among the New Zealand and Israeli student groups regarding norms of interaction in the public domain (Frith, 1998;McLuhan, 1964;Okigbo et al, 2005). While Israeli students depicted as legitimate images of intimate relationships between the sexes and portrayed young attractive women as part of their sales pitch, students from New Zealand expressed more restricted norms of intimacy in public.…”

Individualism in Western advertising: A comparative study of Spanish and US newspaper advertisements

“…Individualism and collectivism have become topics related to advertising (Lee and Yoo, 2012), albeit in an asymmetrical fashion that tends towards the prevalence of individualism. As Okigbo et al (2005) state, ‘[t]he equality value may be appealing in philosophical and political discourses, but in advertising, it is better to accentuate individualism and uniqueness’ (p. 322). Aside from studies that take into account individualism in effects research (Emery and Tian, 2010; Gürhan-Canli and Maheswaran, 2000), there are a considerable number of empirical studies that deal with the reflection of individualism and collectivism through advertising.…”

“…23, 30–31). Individualism is also an important value in many American magazine advertisements (Okigbo et al, 2005: 322). More specifically, Hirschman (2003) found features of the typically American rugged individualism in the advertising of magazines like Hunting or Guns & Ammo .…”

“…Whether advertising reflects social values, or creates them, it is the subject of the important theoretical shape-versus-mirror debate (Moriarty et al, 2009: 113–115). Although we consider that advertising may be a shaping and mirroring discourse simultaneously, we draw on the widely accepted assumption that, as cultural products, advertisements reflect the values of a culture (McIntyre and Wei, 1998: 18; Okigbo et al, 2005: 314; Pollay, 1983: 73) and are affected by the economic, social and cultural context (Nowak, 1990: 394). More specifically, in some of the studies reviewed above, hypotheses tend to prove that Western ads emphasize individualism and independence, while collectivistic appeals would be more prevalent in Asian advertisements (Cheong et al, 2010; Cho et al, 1999: 62; Han and Shavitt, 1994: 330).…”