论文总字数：45105字

摘 要

随着经济全球化的发展，中国同世界各国间的经济与文化联系日益频繁，为中国的发展带来了商业契机，但与此同时也带来了一些问题。广告作为一种媒介，由于其传播速度快、受众广的特点，对于商品的推广与销售发挥着越来越重要的作用，同时广告又有文化传播的重要职能。汽车广告作为广告中的一大类型，具有一定的典型性。各国通过汽车广告向他国传播本国的价值观念和消费文化。

本文主要从以下几个部分来对中美汽车文化进行分析比较:第一部分是绪论，主要对研究的背景、现状、目的和意义进行阐述。第二部分是对中美汽车广告发展概述。第三部分是中美汽车广告文化差异及产生原因。文中主要运用案例分析和对比分析的方法，以比亚迪为例分析中国汽车广告文化特点，以卡迪拉克为例分析美国汽车广告文化特点。通过结论对比得出中美汽车广告文化相似性和差异性，并找出相似性和差异性产生的原因。第四部分主要通过之前的分析，得出美国汽车广告文化对于中国的影响，并从影响中找到中国汽车广告发展的对策和方向。最后一部分为全文的总结部分。

关键词：汽车广告；中美文化；广告文化；比较

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements i

English Abstract ii

Chinese Abstract iii

Chapter One: Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 Literature Review 2

1.3 Research Target and Significance 2

Chapter Two: Review of Chinese and America Automobile Advertising 4

2.1 Development of Chinese Automobile Advertising 4

2.2 Development of American Automobile Advertising 5

Chapter Three: The Differences between Chinese and American Automobile Advertising 7

3.1 Cultural Characteristics of Chinese Automobile Advertising—BYD 7

3.2 Cultural Characteristic of American Automobile Advertising—Cadillac 9

3.3 Similarities between Chinese and American Automobile Advertising 11

3.4 Differences between Chinese and American Automobile Advertising 12

3.5 The Reasons for the Similarities and Differences 15

3.5.1 Factors leading to Similarities 15

3.5.2 Factors leading to the Differences 15

Chapter Four: Culture Influence of the U.S. Auto Advertising and Solution for China 18

4.1 Culture Influence of the U.S. Auto Advertising 18

4.2 Solution and Development for China 19

Chapter Five: Conclusion 21

References 22

Chapter One: Introduction

1.1 Research Background

‘Advertising Culture’ which means unique cultural depositing in advertisement is one of essential elements of advertising. It’s known that advertising has significant function of cultural transmission. Advertising in different eras shows epochal characteristics, and advertising in different countries and areas also shows unique cultural characteristics. Every area has its own culture, including way of thinking, life-style, value orientation, aesthetic consciousness, etc., which are used in originality and expression of advertising. Thus, viewers who watch advertisement around the world will know different culture in different areas. In the meantime, advertising culture is a kind of subculture belonging to business culture. With the development of global economic integration and international division of labor, communication and commodity circulation around the world become more and more frequent. Advertising serving as mass media becomes more and more important in goods’ promotion and selling because of its fast transmission and wide audience. In a word, advertising has dual function of business orientation and cultural communication.

Automobile advertising is a significant type in advertising and has its own typicality. It’s essential for most automobile companies to have good advertising effect. The reason is that automobile company would leave audience a deep impression by good advertising and achieve sales target. Generally, most automobile companies would use Ads format to advertising and popularize their new products. Obviously, we can also find that different companies present different contents and styles while advertising and the design of advertising is to match up different products’ characteristics. And styles of advertising are also related to enterprise culture and culture background of countries.

As an English major, I’ve learnt a lot about western culture in class and teachers also teach us to do research in cultural differences between western countries and China. In addition, I’m interested in automobile advertising, which is very common in daily life. Therefore, I’d like to make a comparative study between China and the United States in Automobile AD.

1.2 Literature Review

Many scholars have done relevant research in comparative culture study between China and the United States, including literature, music, painting, etc. There is little study about comparative study in advertising culture because advertising industry does not have a long history. Albers-Miller, etc. (1996) used Hofstede’s cultural model in the article Business advertising appeals as a mirror of cultural dimensions: A study of eleven countries to make a comparative study about advertising among 11 countries. According to their research, the scholars believe that commercial advertisement represent different regional cultures. William T. Neese and Jeffrey J. Haynie.’s study (2015) explores the ability of comparative advertising featuring foreign and domestic automobile brands to influence consumer ethnocentric reactions as the advertisement is being processed. Cheng Hong’s study (1996) and Muralidharan S’s study (2015) show cultural values that are reflected in Chinese and U.S. television commercials.

Domestic scholars make research in differences between Chinese culture and America culture. Scholars use some advertising cases to make comparative study and learn similarity and difference between different cultures. Sun Fengguo (2015) and Xiao Qingyun (2005) made a study about difference and factors between Chinese culture and America culture. For automobile advertising, Yang Li and Zhao Congmin (2008) wrote about questions of automobile advertising and some solutions. Chang Yuanyuan (2015) uses prototype theory to analyze automobile advertising. Li Zhengwang (2015) and Zhao Zhiming (2012) make some suggestion on automobile sales. ChengSen (2015), Hu Qionghua (2007) and Lu Yang (2014) show different culture between American and Chinese advertising. Gao Ji (2015) analyses different language characteristics in different advertising and Ren Shuqing (2008) analyses different cultural value in beverage advertising between China and America. And In a word, domestic scholars mainly make studies in comparative study between Chinese culture and America culture, but few do research in culture of automobile advertising.

1.3 Research Target and Significance

On account of significant sales function of automobile advertising, advertising will be very essential to automobile companies. According to the comparative study, the article will make a conclusion about cultural difference of automobile advertising between two countries and the influence of America automobile advertising. Finally the article will give suggestions about Chinese automobile advertising. The aim of the article is to improve the development of Chinese advertising industry and automobile industry. And it will also help advertiser to improve the quality of Chinese automobile advertising. In addition, it is a worthy research subject considering little comparative study in this subject at home and aboard.

Chapter Two: Review of Chinese and America Automobile Advertising

2.1 Development of Chinese Automobile Advertising

Different scholars hold different opinions on the development process of automobile advertising.

Wang Dan (2006) divides the development process of domestic automobile advertising into three stages: primary stage (1979-1989), steady growth stage (1990-1999) and full-speed development stage (2000-2004). In the primary stage, there were few automobile advertisements and most of advertising aimed to introduce products. In the steady growth stage, the quality of automobile advertising has been improved and the quantity of it has been increased. Automobile advertising mainly focused on products’ characteristics, company culture and services. In the third stage, because of the traditional automobile market slump in America, Japan and Europe, Chinese automobile market develops at a high speed. As a result, automobile advertising would change the structure of advertising and becomes more and more important.

Song Nianhua (2005) divides the development process of domestic automobile advertising into four stages: product promotion stage (in the 1980s), brand promotion stage (in the beginning of the 1990s), publicity orientation stage (in the late 1990s), and integrated marketing stage (since 2001). In the first stage, automobile manufactures change old business pattern that companies only care about manufacturing cars but not take notice of selling cars. However, at that time, the advertising volume in automobile industry was very low and the method of propaganda was very simple. In the second period when Chinese automobile industry learnt from foreign industry, the advertising volume in automobile industry increased. At that time, automobile advertising begin to show a consciousness of identity. In the third stage, with the increasing demand of private cars in the market and the development of media propaganda, demand difference became obvious. Therefore, automobile advertising emphatically point out product positioning. In the fourth stage, automobile advertising becomes characteristic. ‘Each car has its own glittery point and needs its own marketing mode. However, the common goal is to gain emotional resonance from target customers.’

The Chinese automobile industry and automobile advertising began very late. And for now, automobile advertising in China does not have complicated idea, which means a “vehicle-oriented” expressing way (mainly focus on product itself). Therefore, advertising lacks good propaganda plans which can impress the customers and have profound impacts. The purpose of advertising is to attract customers to buy goods. To achieve this goal, we need satisfy not only rational demand, but also emotional demand. Therefore, there is a large room for Chinese advertising industry to grow and improve. At the same time, in the recent years, Chinese government makes a series of privileged policies for automobile industry and the economy in China has a rapid development, which play an active role for automobile advertising.

2.2 Development of American Automobile Advertising

The development of American automobile advertising is earlier than other countries. According to data, the earliest automobile advertising appeared in the Scientific American magazine on August 13^th, 1898. The manufacture named The Winton Motor Carriage Co. in Cleveland, Ohio published it. In the early days, the main competitor to the car is the carriage. The main purpose of automobile manufacturers is to persuade people to give up traditional carriages and to buy cars. Therefore, the initial stage of automobile advertising mainly cared about the content as above. Several years later, with the development of American automobile industry, automobile advertising developed fast. In the early 1990s, America owns the most advanced media industry around the world. And Madison Avenue in Manhattan becomes the center of American advertising industry. Until now, Madison Avenueis still the center. At the beginning, the content and pattern of automobile advertising was very simple and single. The advertising mainly consisted of many description words and few pictures. Because the quantity and pattern of automobile advertising increase, advertising’s contents are changed from automobile’s characteristics to individual experience and emotion caring. In a word, American automobile advertising industry has completed development, good innovativeness and focuses on significant meaning when creating advertising.

Chapter Three: The Differences between Chinese and American Automobile Advertising

3.1 Cultural Characteristics of Chinese Automobile Advertising—BYD

3.1.1 Focusing on advertising automobile characteristics

BYD Company designs different advertisements for different series of cars to show different characteristics. Although the amount of advertising is large, we can easily find that each advertisement focuses in practically on cars’ new characteristics and advantages. For example, in the advertisement of BYD S6, there is a couple carrying a lot of things, who are looking for car’s key to open the door. At the same time, there is a woman digging though her purse, with many things falling on the floor. However, compared to these people, a man is never in haste. He uses his smartwatch by touching to open the door. He has already driven away when the couple is looking for the key. “Are you still looking for your key?” This sentence clearly shows that using smartwatch to unlock is one of the most advanced characteristics of S6, so that drivers can open the door quickly and conveniently.

Another example is for BYD Qin’s advertisement. “5.9 seconds is not the concept of time, but the symbol of power.” “1.6 litters is not the save, but the gallop.” The voice-over leaves audience a deep impression. People may know that cars could accelerate fast and save fuel. The advertisement strengthens this impression by adding the picture of car’s driving in a high speed. At the end of it, the advertisement uses close-up view of car’s engine and words “double engines technology”. In a word, the advertisement does not have additional factors and aims to leave audience a deep impression of car’s wonderful performance.

3.1.2 Attaching importance to the family emotion

The family emotion is one of necessary factors in most Chinese automobile advertising. And there is no exception to BYD’s advertising. In BYD S7, a married couple decide to take vacation with husband’s parents. When they are going to leave, the wife’s parents shout, “We will go there, too.” Then, here comes a question, a couple with a child plus four parents equal 7 people. How can they go together? This problem can be solved easily because BYD S7 SUV could accommodate 7 people and people who seat in the car will not feel crowded and uncomfortable. Along the way, everyone smiles on their face filled with happiness. At the end of the advertisement, it shows a close-up view to the happy family and use voice-over “the supreme life, the endless joy.” In this advertisement, BYD adds the subject of travelling together, which contains the family emotion to the advertisement. Therefore, people can easily feel that the car’s interior is spacious and has large carload.

3.1.3 Paying attention to gaining success

Pursuing success in business and gain high-ranking status is a target for most Chinese people. Therefore, many Chinese advertising show these cultural characteristics. And there is no exception for BYD’s advertising. In the one of BYD S6’s advertisement, the hero drives S6 and comes to a perfectly splendid villa. He talks with many celebrities. This scene symbolizes reputation and status. At the end of the advertisement, the hero drives the car with a beautiful women sitting in the front passenger seat, which shows his success on the business and the love. In the beginning of the advertisement of M6, it describes a scene that people from both sides of the table shake hands, which shows a success of business negotiation. Thus, it reflects that the car belonging to successful businessman or businesswoman can highlight owner’s success and identity.

3.1.4 Combined with fashion factors

Many Chinese automobile advertising contains traditional Chinese culture in order to gain recognition from Chinese audience. BYD’s advertisements also contain this factor. Of even greater attention is the fashion factor in automobile advertising. The combination with fashion factors gives people a different feeling. For example in BYD SONG’s advertisement, the first picture is a woman’s flaming lip, which brings a visual shock to audience. The audience may have a feeling of fashion show. And because of color contrast of different things, it highlights the fashion and unique feature of automobile appearance. At the end of the advertisement, using sentence “fashion is more exciting, double color is more outstanding.” to show fashion culture in the modern world.

3.2 Cultural Characteristic of American Automobile Advertising—Cadillac

3.2.1 Emphasizing the personal value

Emphasizing the personal value is one of the most significant characteristic among Americans. This characteristic is obvious in American automobile advertising. For example, Cadillac ATS’s advertisement shows this characteristic. At the beginning, a four-year-old boy is playing his toy car. Then, his brother came and robbed his toy, with the words “it’s mine!” He left his little brother who sits on the floor alone. After that, the brother always robs the little boy’s toys, books, even a piece of pizza in the different growing-up stage. And the brother every time will say the same word “it’s mine!” Once when the little boy is basking himself on the beach, his brother points his MP3 and says fiercely “it’s mine!” Then, the little boy says to his brother “Come on Carlo!” Several years later, both of them become adults. The brother sees a new Cadillac parked in front of the house and wants to open it, but he fails. At that moment, the little boy goes out of the room and pushes the button of remote control. He says, “It’s mine, Carlo!” From the content of the advertisement, we could find that competition exists even between brothers. And it improves individualism in America. At the young age, the brother wants to show his power by bullying the little boy. However, when they grow up, the little boy gains success and status by hard-working.

3.1.2 Exploring adventure and pursing progress

Americans love adventure and purse innovation, which are shown in automobile advertising at a large proportion. For example, in the Cadillac CT6’s advertisement, it uses backsliding shot. The woman closes the umbrella and raindrop comes back to the sky. People walk back on the zebra crossing and the fountain stops spraying water. Everything becomes silent, and there are only a Cadillac car moving forward. “Only those who dare, drive the world forward.” The sentence reminds people to pursing forward. Only those people who dare to move forward, can they become the leader of the world.

Another example is in Cadillac XTS’s background music. “Our life is full of exploration. We do new things, start with the new way.” In the advertisement, Brad Pitt drives Cadillac along the way and sees many different kinds of views. At the end of the advertisement, the slogan shows, “we never predict the future, we only create.” It expresses the character of pursing wonderful life and exploring innovation in American culture. In addition, many advertisements of Cadillac use jungle or desert as the background. Cars drove in this environment could reflect the spirit of adventure in American culture.

3.1.3 Enjoying having fun and being with people

In many American automobile advertising, we can find a happy scene that many people are playing together. An example is in XTS’s advertisement named night out. At nightfall, two young men are playing baseball. Then, when they see a Cadillac coming, a man says to another, “Come on. Let’s go.” After that, they begin to drive the car. Along the way, they see an old man carrying his pet, whose car is broken. These two young men invite the old man to join them. Then, they drive to a pub. All of them drink and dance. When day breaks, they keep on driving and find another interesting place. From this advertisement, we can clearly feel that American like to have fun together. And in other Cadillac’s advertisements, there are also some dancing and singing scenes. All these content vivid demonstrates the enjoyment of pleasure in American culture.

3.3 Similarities between Chinese and American Automobile Advertising

3.3.1 Valuing pragmatism and advertising products’ characteristics

Pragmatism as a philosophical tradition began in the United States around 1870. Charles Sanders Peirce was generally considered to be its founder, and he used the sentence, “Consider the practical effects of the objects of your conception. Then, your conception of those effects is the whole of your conception of the object.” to describe pragmatism. Although the definition of pragmatism is different between Chinese and American, the practical significance of automobile advertising is the same. From BYD’s and Cadillac’s advertisement, we could easily find that each advertisement emphatically points out advantages of cars. Manufactures hope to improve practicability of cars by pointing out cars’ advantages. For example, in a 30-second advertisement of BYD L3, the sentence “6 speed automatic catch, liberate your left foot and right hand.” is very concise. It leaves audience a deep impression of automatic catch convenience and practicability. Furthermore, in BYD L3’s advertisement, the words “I want to be handsome, want strong power, want ESP, auto-start and auto-stop, car audio and video, rear view camera and want a large space.” shows the characteristic of large space, advanced function and practicability.

In the Cadillac’s advertisement, it uses the sentence “Choosing a car is like (a woman) trying on a dress.”, which shows the car’s practical value just like the clothes’. Choosing a car is a serious thing. “We do not just accelerate, we innovate. The Cadillac CTX, we do not just make luxury cars, we make Cadillac’s.” from these words, people can feel that the car owns superior capacity to accelerate and other superior function. Furthermore, this car is not only the representation of luxury, but it is very practical. In addition, in many Cadillac’s advertisements, words such as “beautiful” ”finest” appear frequently to show wonderful felling when people drive the car. In a word, no matter in Chinese or in American automobile advertising, the purpose of advertising car’s characteristics and pragmatism is the same.

3.3.2 Advocating natural value and pursuing environment protection

Chinese Daoism has the thought that man is an integral part of nature and it is the harmonious co-existence between human and nature. This thought which is consistent with Chinese thinking habits and value, is used widely in Chinese automobile advertising. In the beginning of BYD’s new energy car’s advertising video, it uses the sentence “when the first streak of sunlight reaches the ground, when we breathe the fresh air, we should cherish the earth mother’s upbringing.” The audience may have a consciousness of harmony and a responsibility of protecting environment. In the publicity of other cars, BYD also strengthens the characteristic of low fuel consumption and gives the audience a feeling of protecting environment. In America, people also adore and worship the nature. Cadillac uses not only prosperous cities as background, but also forest. All family or the driver would drive in green environment, feeling comfortable, which shows American love driving in the natural scenery.

3.3.3 Pursuing spiritual consumption

Under influence of advertising, customers not only buy a product, but also use brand value to satisfy their spiritual demands. The spiritual value of some famous brand’s mark or symbol is far beyond its use value. Therefore, in the automobile advertising, manufactures would add some factors, such as business success, love, happiness, social status. It’s not hard to find that the BYD’s or Cadillac’s advertising uses backgrounds such as gorgeous villa or luxury jewelry. In addition, the advertising also adds some scene like signing a contrast successfully, talking with celebrities. It also mentions some words such as “future” ”success” “dream” in many Cadillac’s advertisements, which would stresses a feeling of pursuing success. In a word, both Chinese and American advertising focus on people’s spirit felling of cars.

3.4 Differences between Chinese and American Automobile Advertising

3.4.1 Family emotion and personal value

In section 3.1, we could find that one of the most significant characteristics of Chinese automobile advertising is the family emotion. For example, in BYD S7’s advertisement, it does not show car’s advanced performance, but shows happiness feeling of the whole family. The family goes travelling together by driving the car. We can see the smiles on everyone’s face, which makes audience warm in the heart. China is a country which pays attention to family culture. And there is an old saying, “harmonious family can lead to the success of everything.” Chinese believe that family interest is more important than individual interest. And Chinese always miss their family and the country. Thus, this advertisement obtains the customer’s emotion response by showing harmonious family atmosphere. And using this method will increase sales amount of BYD S7.

On the contrary, although there is a family scene in American advertising, American advertising does not emphasize it. American advertising pays much attention on individual feelings and cares about individual value. Thus advertising notices whether products can bring wonderful user experience. Individualism is the essence of American culture and the core of American thoughts. In section 3.2, from the example of XTS, we could find that the advertisement highlights the little brother’s success. Because he gains Cadillac XTS finally, he owns high individual value. In addition, in many American automobile advertising, it uses “I” as the first-person narrator. It’s obvious that the advertising wants to show individual feeling about driving the car.

3.4.2 Zhongyong and adventure

Zhongyong is the core of Chinese traditional culture and is one of the significant values that Chinese recognize. Because Chinese are used to seeing beautiful background and like feeling comfortable, many Chinese automobile advertising uses forest or roads in the city as the background to show comfortable feeling. In BYD F8’s advertisement, a woman drives the car along the road in the city. It leaves audience an impression about freedom and comfort. On the contrary, Chinese automobile advertising uses little hostile environment such as desert and snowfield as background.

In contrast, American loves freedom and adventure. In Cadillac SLS’s advertisement, the spy steals the box which contains important message. Then he uses locator to find the car and drives away. Along the way, he escapes from trackers and bombs. After he gets rid of trackers and drives on the road in the city, we finally find the truth that “he” actually is a beautiful woman. Therefore, we could find that in America not only men love adventure, but also women do. And in CT6’s advertisement mentioned in section 3.2, the sentence “only those who dare, drive the world forward.” also reminds people of pursuing future. In a word, the characteristic of adventure is obvious in American automobile advertising.

3.4.3 Accurate expression and inductive reasoning

No matter for selling products or shaping the brand and no matter using narration or direction, Chinese automobile advertising always uses accurate and straightforward expression. The advertising will show the information directly to audience. And the word is the most important part in an advertisement. In most BYD’s advertisements, it uses word and close-up shot to straightforward describe car’s advanced design.

On the contrary, narration is used more often in American automobile advertising. In the narration, it’s hard for audience to guess the ending of the story. They need deduct details to understand the hint. Using this way could increase interest to a certain extent. For example, in Cadillac SLS’s advertisement, although we can guess that the hero may succeed in finishing the task, we could not know the ending that the man and the woman exchange their identity. In another advertisement, we see a scene which is like rocket launching. The controller is counting the number backward. After he gives an instruction of launching, we see a Cadillac car sped on. American advertising has splendid ideas, which needs audience think about it by themselves. And because of it, different audience may have different opinions or feelings.

3.5 The Reasons for the Similarities and Differences

3.5.1 Factors leading to Similarities

3.5.1.1 The purpose of advertising

Advertising has dual function of business orientation and cultural communication. American advertising association defines advertising as a non-free social media. The purpose of advertising is to spread information, induce customers purchasing products and gain profits. Therefore, automobile manufactures want to promote products and leave a deep impression to customers by publishing advertising. And the ultimate aim is to increase sales volume. This is the common point for Chinese and American automobile advertising. In addition, although the development level, economic situation and policy are different between China and America, the purpose of advertising is the same. No matter in which country, the advertising would change customers’ opinions about the products by spreading the country’s culture and value.

3.5.1.2 Hierarchy of needs

American psychologist Maslow mentioned hierarchy of needs theory in his book Motivation and personality in 1943. In his book, he divided human needs from high level to low level into five kinds, physiological needs, safety needs, belonging needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs. Maslow's theory suggests that the most basic level of needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire (or focus motivation upon) the secondary or higher level needs. In automobile advertising, the most obvious need is the belonging needs, which means satisfying people’s emotion need and gaining spirit consumption. No matter in Chinese or American automobile advertising, people desire to gain business success, increase wealth and have a high social-status. Automobile advertising satisfies customers’ emotion and belonging needs and acquires understanding of customers.

3.5.2 Factors leading to the Differences

3.5.2.1 Different levels of economic development

The economic base decides a superstructure, and it plays a key role in the process of development of society. Advertising is the outcome of economy development and it will develop under the influence of social economy. Thus the level of economy decides the level advertising. Economy development will promote advertising development. And at the same time, the development of advertising will improve economy development. America had industrial revolution early and actively, and it pays much attention on the development of capitalist economy. Therefore, the advertising industry develops early in America. According to data, the earliest automobile advertising appeared in the Scientific American magazine on August 13^th, 1898. Nowadays, America is the most economically developed countries around the world. And the development of advertising industry is mature. The advertising industry owns complete industry chain. However, China is a developing country, which developed late and short. Therefore, China’s advertising industry is not mature now.

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