商务英语毕业论文-从广告语言及创意看中美文化差异.doc

郑州大学西亚斯国际学院 从广告语言及创意看中美文化差异The Chinese-American Culture Differences in theLanguage and Creativity of Advertisement 姓 名学 籍 号专 业商务英语级 别2007系 别外语学院指导教师 填表日期： 2011 年 4 月 18 日The Chinese-American Culture Differences in the Language and Creativity of Advertisement从广告语言及创意看中美文化差异ID NO. 20071411432Tan Beijia (Tara Tan) Submitted as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of EnglishSIAS International College of Zhengzhou UniversityApril 18, 2011Faculty Advisor: Yao YujieAcknowledgmentsI would like to expres my sincere appreciation to my supervisor, Ms. Yao Yujie, for all her support and encouragement through the whole process of my writing and researching, and for her useful comments and advices on my thesis in all aspects. Without her great patience and generous help, the completion of this thesis would not have been possible.Also, I heartily thank all other teachers who have taught and instructed me during my B.A course.Finally, my special gratitude goes to my family and my close friends, who have shown care, love and expectation throughout my thesis writing. They always stand by my side whenever I need them. It is my fortune to have them all in my life.AbstractWith the globalization of politics and economy, the economic and cultural exchanges with foreign countries are increasing. As a specific carrier of culture, advertisement has become a significant instrument in cross-cultural-communication. Besides, advertising is subordinate to culture, and influenced by culture. A sharp contrast does exist in culture differences between China and America, so do the advertisements which can be traced in the language and creativity of advertising.Advertisements are products of economy. In cross-cultural-communication, each countries histories, values and thinking patterns are unique, thus the cultural contrast is inevitable. When Chinese advertisements showing in the global market, there is a crash between Chinese traditional culture and Western culture. Therefore, it has a significant meaning to research on the Chinese and American culture differences in advertising that can help Chinese enterprises break the cultural barrier in the foreign market and can make them more competent.This thesis firstly introduces culture, advertisements and the relationship between them, through the different features of Chinese and American advertisements to explain the reason why the differences exist in perspective of advertising language and creativity. In the end, the thesis sums up the suggestions and makes strategies for advertisers. Chinese enterprises and advertising practitioners shall meet the challenges and catch the opportunities to successfully occupy domestic market and enter international market.Keywords: advertisements; culture; language; creativity; value摘要随着全球政治、经济一体化的发展，国内外经济、文化的交流日益频繁。广告，作为一种特殊的文化载体，已经成为不同国家的人们开展文化传播与交流的重要工具。同时，广告还是文化重要组成部分，受文化的影响，又承载并反映着文化。而语言和创意则是实现广告的特定载体和具体表现形式。广告是商品经济的产物，它已深入到社会、经济、文化等各个领域。在全球化文化的传播与交流中，由于各国的历史积淀、价值观和思维模式的不同，会产生文化的差异和矛盾，中国和美国的文化交流亦是如此。在中国广告踏出国门的过程中，我们的传统文化与西方文化产生了强烈的碰撞。国内一些大型企业的文化难以整整融入国际市场；被国人认可的优秀广告作品，连年参加国际广告赛事中缺少有斩获，同时我们又不得不面对的是可口可乐、麦当劳等一系列国外品牌大举占领国内市场的现实。因此，研究广告传播中的中美文化差异，对于更好的打破世界市场经济中的文化壁垒，使中国企业在世界经济中提高竞争力，有着非常重要的意义。本文首先通过对文化和广告以及二者的关系的简介，来对比中美广告所呈现的不同特点，进而从广告语言和创意分析造成这些不同的原因，最后根据这些差异提出相应的建议，制定或调整广告策略。中国广告要勇敢的迎接挑战，敏锐的抓住机遇，实现超越与梦想，达到复兴和辉煌，使中国广告走出国门，走向世界。关键词：广告；文化；语言；创意；价值观 OutlineIntroduction11.1The meaning of culture11.2The meaning of advertisement21.3The relationship between culture and advertisements31.4Culture in advertisements41.4.1From the aspect of language41.4.2From the aspect of creativity5Features of Chinese advertisements and American advertisements62.1 Features of Chinese advertisements62.1.1 The emphasis of family62.1.2 The emphasis of caption62.2 Features of American advertisements72.2.1 The emphasis of individuality72.2.2 The emphasis of humor8 Comparison between Chinese culture and American culture in the language and creativity93.1 Different histories and culture backgrounds93.2 Different value essences103.2.1 Collectivism VS Individualism103.2.2 Femininity VS Masculinity133.2.3 High-uncertainty-avoidance VS Low-uncertainty-avoidance143.3 Different modes of thinking163.3.1 Circular VS Linear163.3.2 Concrete VS Abstract173.4 Different social customs18 Conclusion and suggestions194.1Findings of the research194.2Suggestions20Bibliography.2323The Chinese-American Culture Differences in the Language and Creativity of AdvertisementIntroduction1.1The meaning of cultureCulture is a complicated concept. Definitions of culture range from broader ones to narrower ones since culture is ubiquitous, multidimensional, complex, and all-pervasive and many definitions have been suggested from different angles.Over a century ago, E.B. Taylor defines cultures as “a complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by individuals as members of a society”(1). Culture is also defined from the following four aspects by Zhang Dainian and Fang Keli: First, culture is defined as instruments. These instruments, or the materialized knowledge forces, are proposed by human beings through natural materials; second, culture is defined as systems. These systems are built up during mans social practice; third, culture is defined as human behavior. The behavior, usually in the form of customs, is set up in social activities, especially in interpersonal communications; fourth, culture is defined as ideology, including values, thought style, and aesthetic standards, etc (5). As a result, combining with culture, the advertisements of each country reflect that countrys national cultural characteristics. Generally speaking, advertisements that contain rich national cultural values would easily be accepted by the people of the nation, and has more influence on the target consumers. Therefore, having a good understanding of the basic cultural characteristics of a nation is of significance to code and decode advertising messages.1.2The meaning of advertisementNowadays, advertisements have become a part of peoples daily life. A modern world without advertisements is unimaginable. The word of “advertising” comes from the Latin word “advertere”, it means a way to attract attention or interest consumers and to influence their feelings toward the product, service or cause. Now, advertisement can be defined as the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media. The meaning of advertisements can be classified into two types. One is from narrow sense, which refers to the commercial advertisements that persuading customers to buy products and make profit through advertising. Another is from the broad sense, which refers to all kinds of advertisements, including commercial and non-commercial advertisements. Vestergaard and Schronder point out the three functions of advertisements, namely the informative function, the persuasive function and the reflective function (7). No one will buy a product without getting any information about it nor make sure that it will be much value to him or her. Therefore, the informative function is absolutely essential in advertisements. Besides, to judge an advertisement is successful or not relies on whether it can promote sales or not. Accordingly, persuading the audience to take purchasing action composes another important step in advertising. As for the third function, advertisements are not only marketing tools but also social actors and cultural artifacts; they can tell people something about the culture just like mirrors which reflect certain aspects of the societys value and structure, etc. 1.3The relationship between culture and advertisementsAdvertisements have a close relationship with culture. In fact, an advertisement serves as a mirror reflecting every aspect of culture. As a specific carrier of culture, advertisements have become a significant instrument in cross-cultural-communication. Besides, advertising is subordinate to culture, and influenced by culture. The essence of advertisements is commercially promoting a product or service, but the performance of advertisements is cultural. Since both advertising practitioners and the advertising target consumers live with certain social cultural customs, all aspects of culture inevitably have impact on advertisements, such as value essence, mode of thinking, ethical and moral concept, customs and etiquettes, etc, which result in the use of language and creativity in various nations or countries.Advertisements interact with culture. As a significant propagating means facing the public, advertising is in itself a piece of culture, not only conforming to the social cultural habits and catering to the aesthetic psychology of the public, but also playing a great role in influencing and forming them. Therefore, advertisements change the traditional culture to a degree and create and push the culture forward. They can change peoples values and ideological trend and guiding consumers behavior and life-style.Meanwhile, culture has a noticeable impact on advertisements. For example, the Coca-Cola slogan “cant beat the feeling” is changed into “I feel Cola” in Japan, into “Unique sensation” in Italy and into “The feeling of life” in China, which demonstrates that different adverting schemas have to be exploited in the different social cultural environments in order to succeed in promoting the product or service.1.4Culture in advertisements1.4.1From the aspect of languageIt has long been recognized that language is an essential and important part of a given culture and that the impact of culture upon a given language is something intrinsic and indispensable. Accordingly, there exists a close relationship between language and culture. Language and its culture influence are exemplified in the theoretical formulations of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which in essence states that language is a guide to “social reality”. This hypothesis implies that language is not simply a means of reporting experience but, more important, it is a way of defining experience.The advertising language is a special kind of language. It is also the reflection of culture. Concretely, it is the reflection of literature, psychology and aesthetics of the cultural community. It carries marks of influence of that cultural communitys tradition in its worldviews, social values, religion and the like. For instance, the family unification, friendship, kinship and harmony in Chinese culture are deeply reflected in Chinese advertising language. To a large extent, it can be stated that the advertising language inevitably mirrors its culture explicitly. There are two main reasons. In the first place, employing cultural content is one of the important strategies for advertisers to carry out a successful campaign. In the second place, the advertisers work in a given cultural environment. What they think or do is unavoidably influenced by the culture to which they belong.Generally speaking, to make a good advertisement and to influence the behavior of potential customers toward a predetermined direction, advertisers try to produce memorable and attracting works with the help of the culture.1.4.2From the aspect of creativityGreat advertisement is inspired by insights about brands, consumers, and how the two interact. It starts with a problem from the client and ends with a solution for consumers. Therefore, before advertisers write a single line of copy, doodle a sketch for a layout, or even begin to brainstorm, they need to understand how the brand fits into the lives of its target consumer, which is creativity.If advertisers want to attract consumers to buy your products, they need a special idea. The “idea” here refers to creativity. People assume advertising creativity as the fresh thinking activity which produced by advertisers, through imagination, combination, and production, to make the new cultural conception and idea by analyze the theme, content and manifestation so that public can feel the concrete image of the product beyond the potential characteristics of it.The creativity of advertisements also reflects different cultures. For example, Chinese public welfare advertisements are simple and direct, “节约用水”just four words can express the endeavor to protect water. In contrast, the same advertisements in American will bring more plots and emphasize the visual sense. The reason is the different Chinese and American culture.Features of Chinese advertisements and American advertisements2.1 Features of Chinese advertisements2.1.1 The emphasis of familyFamily orientation is undoubtedly the most typical example of Chinese nature which is largely the product of thousands of years of living and working together on the land. In Chinese culture, it is the development of family or clan that makes the society. Meanwhile, Chinese people instinctively think highly of the affection between family members. Therefore, Chinese advertisers like to use peoples feeling towards their family as their advertisements appeal. Accordingly, we can see that many Chinese advertisements take the pictures showing affection among family members as the background, to which one or two congratulating sentences attached. For instance, “妈妈，我会帮您干活了”. Nanda group proposed a series of advertisements on Fathers Day, “那是一只有力的手” to show the deeply love towards father. 2.1.2 The Emphasis of captionChinese advertisements usually have long caption, emphasize on the explanations and commentaries so that they can describe the situation or main characteristics of the product. This kind of TV advertisements try to attract and touch the viewers by create a warm atmosphere. For example, the family members sit together around table to drink milk happily which shows Yili milk is the customers best choice. Here is anther example from the advertisement for Coca-Cola: the elder brother came home with a young lady, and then the family members began to guess the relationship between them: is she the girlfriend, or the classmate or just close friend? Thanks to the courage of Cola, the shy brother finally introduced the young lady as his girlfriend to his family.2.2 Features of American advertisements2.2.1 The emphasis of individualityDifferent from Chinese, who value the family or group, American people emphasize individuality. The belief in the freedom of the individual is probably the most basic of all. By “self freedom”, Americans refer to the desire and the ability of all individuals to control their own life and destiny. An individual can do as well as his much bigger competitors, as long as he works hard. The individual creativity can be found in the winner of the 40th CLO AWARDS. The following advertisement is for Pepsi Cola.It is in a bar which a lot of old soldiers often visit. An old officer and his granddaughter come in.Grandpa: (to waiter) Jack, how are you?Waiter: Fine, thanks!Grandpa: Dear, what do you want?Granddaughter: Pepsi Cola, please.Waiter: We only have Coca-Cola.Granddaughter: Officer, you once fought for freedom; then, what is freedom? Freedom is to have the right to choose. Every body, no matter man, woman, adult and child, should live in the life he/ she wants and chooses things he/ she likes. No, Pepsi Cola!With the martial music, all people followed the girl to leave the bar. The “Pepsi” mark appears on the sense.This advertisement deeply reflects the individuality and self freedom of American people.2.2.2 The Emphasis of humorConsider this TV commercial: An amateur stage production shows two children lost in the forest. The good fairy appears from the overhead and starts floating toward them. “Not to fear, little children. I will helpppp” THUD! She plummets to the stage. Tag line: “Should have used Stren. Stren. The most dependable fishing line in the world.” The humor takes us by surprise and shows a situation that we can empathize with. It communicates a relevant, unexpected and memorable message about the product. It gives us a reason to buy. It works. Humor is the condiment of life as well as the lubricant of society; it is a kind of wisdom, strength, civilization and art. It can pass the honor to people in a pleasant way. In fact, humor is the nature of America which could be found in all aspect of human life.Humor in advertisements can increase more sense of funny so that you can decrease the boring or doubt about the product and let customer notice and memorize and finally be persuaded by it in a happy mood. According to the research, there is about 31% American broadcast advertisements is humorous style, about 25% TV advertisements and 15% magazine advertisements are both humorous. How do Americans show their sense of humor in advertisements? We can see as follows.Cutter pesticide advertisement: You can not bite back, but you can fight back. This advertisement makes us could not help laughing because of the humorous creativity. It tells us in a funny way that even though people can not bite the injurious insects back, we can fight and exterminate them by using Cutter pesticide. Rolex advertisement: Unlike me, my Rolex never needs a rest. In contrast with the watch owner, the advertisement humorously shows the excellent quality of Rolex.Comparison between Chinese culture and American culture in the language and creativity3.1