How people tell an ad story: Western vs. Asian styles

Abstract

The likelihood that people tell stories in advertising, as well as the type of stories they tell, may reflect their cultural variation. A content analysis shows that commercials in Taiwan are more likely to employ narrative appeals than are commercials in the United States, and the story structures in Taiwanese commercials are less likely to be well-developed. Narrative ads in the two cultures also differ on three content dimensions: problems to be solved, psychological benefits from solving the problem, and the emotion experienced in the process. The discussion of such differences relies on an integrated explanatory framework.

Keywords:

• advertising/public relations
• content analysis
• strategic communication