The impact of global consumer culture on cultural values portrayed in print advertising in Japanese and American magazines

Abstract

The increase of globalization has prompted questions about the shift in local values and customs in countries around the globe, possibly creating a global consumer culture. This study investigated the degree of change between the advertising themes and cultural values that were portrayed in Japanese and American print advertisements in the 1970s and the current advertising themes in these countries. By continuing a study on data from the 1970s, this investigation analyzed the current advertising for similar cultural value themes and compared the results with the original study. The results of the Japanese advertising sample do not show the effects of globalization as the current results reflect consistent cultural values with the 1970s. The traditional cultural values in Japanese advertisements remain consistent over the decades, particularly with the status appeal, which remains a dominant cultural value portrayed in their advertising. The American advertising appeals changed considerably over the decades. The practical appeal surpassed the luxury appeal as a dominant theme. Furthermore, the themes of "being" and "doing" drastically decreased in American advertising, while the materalistic theme of "having" remained consistent. Common cultural values across borders that would be expected in a global consumer culture were not apparent in this study; instead, the differences were more evident between the Japanese and American advertising in the 2000s than the 1970s.