CULTURAL VALUES REFLECTED IN COCA-COLA TV COMMERCIALS IN THE U.S AND VIETNAM =

Abstract

ABSTRACT

This research investigates advertising strategies in US and Vietnamese TV commercials as well as the underlying cultural values as reflected in those advertisements. A cross-cultural framework is developed to compare and content-analyze these advertisements. The data used for this paper are taken from six Coca-cola TV commercials which were broadcasted in the two studied countries. The analyses show that adaptation strategy was preferred over standardization when marketing in Vietnam. The differences in advertising execution were due to cultural differences between (1) American and Vietnamese societies and between (2) the mass and the young audience. In particular, Vietnamese advertisements were more collectivistic oriented than their US counterparts. However, US commercials did not use low context communication style and hard sell appeals more often than the Vietnamese commercials. Moreover, low-context communication style or hard sell appeals were more preferred in the Vietnamese advertisement targeting young audience. The results also support the theory of advertising as a “distorted mirror” since both countries were reflected to be present-time oriented.