This study is an examination of the cultural values reflected in automobile advertisements on top-viewed Web sites in China. The auto manufacturers covered in the study were from Germany, Japan, the United States, and China, which boast the largest market shares in the country. The study was intended to find out what differences, if any, were between the cultural values reflected in the advertisements of foreign-based automobile manufacturers and those for China’s domestic automobile manufacturers; whether there was a tendency of reflecting more Eastern cultural values in the advertisements of Japan-based automobile manufacturers than in the advertisements of Western countries-based manufacturers; if the cultural values reflected in Chinese advertisements changed over time, when compared with findings of prior research of others.
The study also tested one concept and two theories on cultural values: cultural imperialism, the “distorted mirror,“ and convergence and divergence in consumer behavior. The study has reconfirmed the concept of the “distorted mirror“ and supports some previous research findings that Chinese advertisements are a melting pot with both Eastern and Western cultural values, and the choice of cultural values depends on whether the value will help sell the products.
The study confirmed the prevalent positions that modernity and effectiveness values held in Chinese automobile advertisements; it also found two frequently used values—economy and popularity—in today’s Chinese ads.