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Individualism and Collectivism in Billboard Advertisements:

The American and the Chinese Context

Eszter Nucz1

My aim in this paper is to illustrate that human meaning making activities cannot be separated

from the context in which they take place. The relevance of context to meaning is especially

important when it comes to communication. The intended message of the addresser has to be

in line with the characteristics of the particular context (the contextual factors) the addressee

is in so that the message goes through. Contextual factors might range from dominant

religious beliefs to accepted forms of social behavior. In general, they come as a result of a

particular value system. The contextual factors of human understanding have been extensively

studied in several fields (among others, Kramsch 1998; Widdowson 1998; Abowd et al. 1999;

Kövecses 2006) and the results of these research have been used, for instance, to develop

successful marketing strategies. A product has to be relevant in order to be demanded by the

target audience and, depending on the context of the target audience, adequate marketing

strategies have to be implemented in order to create relevance.

My focus in this paper is on billboard advertisements of the following three types of

products as they appear in the United States and in China: (1) cosmetics, (2) real estate, and

(3) sports apparel. The United States represents a predominantly individualist cultural context

and China represents a predominantly collectivist cultural context. The underlying idea of my

analysis is that the characteristics of the context (individualism in the American context and

collectivism in the Chinese context) are prevalent in the content of the advertisements of the

three types of products. This is the main strategy implemented by the advertising companies

in order to make the products relevant to the target audience and motivate them to purchase

the items.

The structure of the paper goes as follows. The first part is a literature review section,

in which I will discuss definitions of context and advertising, as well as I will give the basic

features of individualist and collectivist cultures. In the second part, I will compare three

types of products as they appear on billboard advertisements in the United States and China. I

will rely on Harrison‟s image analysis (2003) as described in “Visual Social Semiotics:

Understanding How Still Images Make Meaning” in the analysis of the billboards. In the last

part, I will discuss the main conclusions of the paper.

1 The author completes her studies in the Cultural Linguistics PhD program at Eötvös Loránd University. E-mail

address: eszter.nucz@gmail.com

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1. Literature review

The basic questions to be addressed in this section are the following.

(a) What is context?

(b) What are the major characteristics of individualist and collectivist cultural contexts?

(c) In what ways is advertising related to context?

(a) What is context?

The literature of social studies lists numerous definitions of context. Goffman (1974), for

instance, describes context as the outcome of the “juxtaposition of a focal event and a field of

action within which that event is embedded” (p. 536). Pierce (2007) emphasizes the “broader

situational, social and cultural circumstances which influence language use and interpretation,

such as audience and purpose” (p. 42). Sperber and Wilson (1986) handle context as a

psychological construct, which is a “subset of the hearer‟s assumptions of the world” (pp. 15-

16). Widdowson (1998) addresses context as a “pre-existing cultural construct” that is

essentially dynamic in nature, because it is “created in the discourse process itself” (pp. 15-

16). Kramsch (1998) distinguishes between the “context of situation” (“the immediate

physical, spatial, temporal, social environment in which verbal exchanges take place”) and the

“context of culture” (“the historical knowledge, the beliefs, attitudes, values shared by

members of a discourse community and that contribute to the meaning of their verbal

exchanges”) (p. 126). Each definition approaches the notion with a different perspective and

each highlights elements that are key to understand what context is about, but none manages

to include all aspects at once. In fact it would be impossible to give a comprehensive

definition of context, because, as Hurfold and Heasley (1983) note, it is a flexible notion.

My particular focus in this paper is on cultural contexts, and I will follow the theory of

Geertz (1988) in my analysis. According to Geertz, cultural context is a complex web of

meaning that is “woven” by the people who belong to a particular social and cultural group

and that is expressed, among others, via a common language. Context is the web of meaning

itself, jointly defined by social characteristics (like history) and cultural traits (for instance

faith and religion).

(b) What are the major characteristics of individualist and collectivist cultural contexts?

The most general distinguishing feature of individualist and collectivist cultural contexts is

that they are built on different value systems (Hofstede 2004). A main feature of individualist

mainstream American society is that the individual is put in the center. The society is “I-

centered” and, therefore, people are first of all perceived as independent entities, and only

secondarily appear as social ones. The dominant perspective on issues in the world is a

subjective one. The interests of the individual weigh more than the interests of the group the

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individual belongs to, and the social rules are designed so that they emphasize the

independence of the individual. A general goal of the individual is to shape the environment

so that the environment serves their interest. Individualistic cultures are associated with low-

context communication. In other words, people with this background believe in the

effectiveness of direct communication (Gudykunst 2003). According to Zhang and Shavitt

(2003), the most outstanding individualistic values are as follows: Self-improvement, self-

realization, goal-orientation, competitiveness, ambitiousness, and the ability to take risks, to

build a unique personality, and to achieve personal success.

Collectivist cultures like Chinese, on the contrary, present people primarily as non-

autonomous, social beings. People are required to ensure society stays functional and

cohesive. They make an inherent part of the social group from the beginning of birth, and the

interests of the group precede the interests of the individual. The aim is not the competition

but much rather the cooperation with in-group members. Emphasis is on conformity and

adaptation: It is the individual that changes his/her needs so that they fit the norms and the

interests of the environment. The dominant perspective on issues in the world is an objective

one. Collectivist cultures are associated with high-context communication, which means that

people tend to avoid any means of direct communication for the purpose of preserving

harmonious relationships (Gudykunst 2003). Following Zhang and Shavitt (2003), the most

outstanding collectivist values are, for instance, harmony with others and the ability to follow

social consensus.

When talking about individualist and collectivist cultural contexts, there are two

important ideas to note. First, in reality it is hard to draw a strict line between the two types of

cultures because most societies exhibit both individualist and collectivist tendencies. Second,

it is possible that a culture modifies its value preferences over a period of time. As Hofstede

(2004) describes, “cultures, especially natural cultures, are extremely stable over time (…)

change comes from the outside, in the form of forces of nature or forces of human beings:

trade, conquest, economical or political dominance, and technological breakthroughs” (p. 34).

Hofstede‟s line of thought provides to be especially relevant in the case of Chinese culture for

the following reason. China before the 1980s was a country closed off the rest of the world.

The imposition of open door policy in 1979, however, went hand in hand with the spread of

consumerism, which in turn started to change the Chinese cultural landscape. Zhang and

Shavitt‟s research (2003) shows that China‟s culture has become heavily influenced by

Western values. The older Chinese generation (people born before the imposition of open

door policy) has a tendency to preserve traditional (Confucian and collectivist) values (Zhang

and Shavitt 2003), but the young Chinese generation (people born after the 1980s) is open to

modernization and admires Western ways of living.

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(c) In what ways is advertising related to context?

The change in the value system of the two generations in China influences the marketing

strategies of foreign and domestic products alike. Zhang and Shavitt‟s findings (2003) show

that foreign products targeted at the Chinese young generation are advertised in commercials

that still advocate collectivistic values, but also carry individualistic traits in a constantly

growing number. This seems logical as advertising is the “tool of marketing for

communicating ideas and information about goods or services to a group” (Ulanoff 1977, p.

17). Since it “represents the want-satisfying qualities of the product for the consumer [and, as

such] it must relate product characteristics and consumer benefits to values the customer has

already learned,” the features of the context in which an item is promoted have to be taken

into consideration (Petit and Zakon 1962, pp. 15-16). A product has to be relevant in order to

be demanded by the target audience and, depending on the context the target audience lives

in, different strategies need to be implemented. What sales experts do when working out

marketing strategies is that they basically implement Sperber and Wilson‟s (1978) Relevance

Theory, namely that the audience “searches for meaning in communication situations that fits

their expectations of relevance” (1995, p. 3). Viewers of a billboard advertisement in the

United States and in China, because of the particular “webs of meaning” they “weave” and

live in, look for different meaning cues and, therefore, they have to be addressed in alternative

ways in order to reach marketing purposes.

2. Billboard advertisements in the United States and in China

Keeping the ideas described in the literature review section in mind, in this part of the paper I

will analyze the billboard advertisements of three types of products. Two of the products

(Maybelline‟s Water Shine Elixir lipstick and Adidas sport apparel) entered the Chinese

market from abroad. Maybelline is an American branch of cosmetics owned by French

L‟Oreal. Adidas, largest sports apparel manufacturer in Europe, is a German company. The

focus of the analysis in these two cases is to see how the companies manage to make the very

same product relevant and desirable in an American and in a Chinese context. The third type

of product is real estate (apartments in newly built apartment houses). In this case, I will

compare the billboard advertisement of an American real estate company with headquarters in

Florida and the billboard advertisement of a Chinese real estate company located in Beijing.

The focus of the analysis here is to see how an advertising company of the same cultural

context as the target audience addresses the question of relevance and desirability in

promotion. I will rely on Harrison‟s image analysis (2003) as described in “Visual Social

Semiotics: Understanding How Still Images Make Meaning” in the analysis of the billboards.

A photo of each billboard advertisement is given in the Appendix section.

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2.1. Cosmetics: Maybelline in the United States and in China

Maybelline in the United States

The American edition of Maybelline‟s Water Shine Elixir Lipstick billboard advertisement

(labeled Photo 1 in the Appendix section) is compiled of two parts. The part on the left hand

side presents the viewer with the face of a European American woman. This woman is the

only human RP in the advertisement. The woman has a tanned skin, blue eyes, long brown

hair, and thick lips. Her lips are glowing in pink because she is wearing the advertised

product. She is in her early 20s, wearing a pink dress and a shiny necklace. She is surrounded

with light soap bubbles. At the bottom of the left side of advertisement the viewer receives

verbal cues: The word “Maybe” appears in capital letters.

The part on the right hand side presents the viewer with the same woman, standing in

the very right side of the advertisement. This time the viewer not only sees her face, but her

entire body up from the thighs. She is wearing the same short pink dress. Her left shoulder,

left arm and thighs are visible. She is standing so that she partly shows her back to the viewer,

but she keeps eye-contact as she turns her face in the direction of the viewer. Left to the

woman are two images of the advertised product in almost the same size as the woman. The

viewer sees linguistic cues on the left side of the product images. The name of the product is

written in capital letters: The word “shine” is in bold and the word “elixir” is present in a

larger font size than the rest of the words. Additional expressions like “perfectly defined” and

“fall under its spell” are present to persuade the viewer to purchase the product. Further

linguistic cues give information on the product: Among others, the viewer learns that the

lipstick has a new type of tip. The light soap bubbles appear in this part of the advertisement

too, but this time they are in the colors of the lipstick. At the bottom the viewer sees the

capital letters “lline” that combined with “Maybe” (the word in the first part of the

advertisement) gives the beauty product‟s brand name, “Maybelline”. This is how the two

parts of the advertisement come together and create a whole. Here the viewer sees “New

York” in capital letters, which is part of the brand name. The background of the advertisement

gives a blurred image of the city with skyscrapers and thousands of lights.

The American edition of the billboard advertisement presents the viewer with a

dynamic picture. It is upward orientation that dominates: The image of the woman (her face

on the left hand side and her body on the right hand side), the bubbles going up, the image of

the product on the right hand side, and the blurred New York skyscrapers in the background

present vertical vectors. The dynamism of the advertisement is further enhanced by the colors

that dominate. The viewer gets many different shades of pink, blue, and colors of shine. The

advertisement becomes lively, on the one hand, because the colors are contrasted. The

woman‟s shiny pink lips are heavily emphasized, and the bubbles are set against a dark

background on both sides (against the tanned skin of the woman‟s face on the left hand side,

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and against a dark bluish background on the right hand side). The bubbles symbolize one

feature of the lipstick, namely that it is light and easy to wear.

The woman is the most salient RP. It is her image that is the largest in size and,

therefore, it immediately captures the attention of the viewer on both sides of the

advertisement. Her image on the left hand side is presented frontally to the viewer, which

“creates stronger involvement on the part of the viewer as it implies that the RP is „one of us‟”

(Harrison 2003, p. 53). Also, the woman is looking horizontally, directly at the viewer

(medium angle), which “causes the viewer to feel a strong engagement with the RP (…) the

image act of demand is taking place” (p. 53). The woman‟s image on the right hand side is

presented obliquely to the viewer, which “creates greater detachment since it implies that the

RP is „one of them‟” (Harrison 2003, p. 53). The strategy of presenting the woman in two

angles in the two sides helps to convey the message of the advertisement: “Purchase and wear

the product (left hand side image, the RP is „one of us‟), and you become the person you

desire to be, one of „them‟ (right hand side image, the RP is „one of them‟)”.

The desire in the viewer to purchase the product and, thus, become like the woman in

the advertisement is achieved because the advertisement presents the product in a frame that

is highly relevant in the American context: the sexuality frame (Friedman 2006). The left

hand side image evokes the sexuality frame because the woman‟s lips are thick, heavily

emphasized with color, and they are half open. The right hand side image evokes the frame,

because she is wearing a short pink dress and her shoulders, her left arm, and her thighs are

left uncovered. Also, she has the same facial expression as the one on the left hand side

image: Her lips are half open. Importantly, the sexuality frame presents a type of woman that

is socially desirable in the American context: The woman, who is young, thin, healthy, and

sexy. The advertisement puts the idea in the head of the target audience (American women in

their 20s and 30s) that, in order to be desirable, they need to have these traits and also, that

this purpose is easy to achieve with the product. The verbal communication tools the

advertisement uses are characteristic of low-context individual cultures, because they directly

tell the audience what to do (Gudykunst 2003). For instance, it aims to enhance the target

audience‟s motivation to purchase the product with a direct imperative sentence (“Fall under

its spell”). Besides language, the visual cues of the billboard carry several features that are

central to individualism (Zhang and Shavitt 2003): The woman appears as an individual

entity, whose aim is to develop a unique personality (using the product), to stand out from the

crowd, and, thus, to have an effect on her environment.

Maybelline in China

The Chinese edition of Maybelline‟s Water Shine Lipstick billboard advertisement (labeled

Photo 2 in the Appendix section), presents the viewer with one human RP: A young woman

in her mid/late 20s, who is of Chinese origin, who has dark eyes, long black hair and a fair

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skin. Wearing a white coat and carrying a white handbag, she is standing in the center (a bit to

the left) of the advertisement. The right hand side of the advertisement shows images of the

lipstick in three colors. The viewer further gets verbal cues here. The brand name “Water

Shine” first appears in Chinese characters and then in English. In the bottom right corner the

viewer sees three lines of words: The first line says “Maybelline” in Chinese characters; the

second line says “Ziyi World New York;” and the third line says “Maybelline” in English.

The second line becomes relevant because the woman in the advertisement is Chinese actress

Ziyi Zhang, who is well-known in China and has started to gain fame abroad as well

(including the United States). Her image creates a narrative telling that she is a young and

healthy woman, who takes life events with a calm, reserved, and happy attitude.

When compared to the American edition, the most obvious difference to identify is the

frame in which the female RP is present. The sexuality frame that dominates the American

edition is entirely missing in the Chinese advertisement. The woman‟s body is covered; none

of her body parts are naked; she is thin but this fact is not emphasized; she is smiling and she

is not keeping her lips half open; her eyes and lips are not highlighted. The general impression

the viewer gets is that of the pleasant woman, and not the sexy woman. The advertisement

manages to make the product relevant to the Chinese context and desirable for the target

audience (Chinese women in their 20s and 30s) so that it builds on the image of the socially

desirable Chinese woman. The image of the socially desirable Chinese woman does not fit the

sexuality frame. On the contrary, being young and healthy (fair skin, white teeth, long black

hair), and being balanced and reserved are the features that are emphasized in this context.

Several of these characteristics are central to collectivism (Zhang and Shavitt 2003).

The second difference between the American and the Chinese edition of the billboard

advertisement has to do with the extent to which the ad engages the viewer. Although the RP

is looking directly at the viewer, the viewer only sees her from the waist up, which creates

“far personal distance” (Harrison 2003, p. 53). Also, she is presented obliquely, which gives

the impression that the RP is “one of them” (Harrison 2003, p. 53). The “she is one of them”

idea is logical considering that Chinese culture, because of modernization, globalization,

consumerism, and the influence of “the West,” is undergoing change. The Chinese actress

represents “them,” that is, members of Chinese culture who have already become part of “the

West” too. There is a clear metonymic association the advertisement plays with, namely that

purchasing the product stands for buying a piece of “the West.” The “piece of the West” idea

is further enhanced with the “Hello from Maybelline” logo in the top right corner. It creates

an impression in the viewer as if the advertisement itself was a quick “Hello” from “the West”

with the intention to provide the target audience with a taste of Western way of living. It is

suggested that the overall message of the advertisement is built on a combination of

collectivist and individualist features. The image of the female RP reflects collectivist values

and that is why the target audience can relate to the advertisement. In the same time, the

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billboard goes one step further so that it creates a metonymic relationship between the product

and American culture: (buying) the lipstick stands for (buying a piece of) American culture.

The composition of the Chinese advertisement helps to convey its message. The

viewer first sees the woman because the size of her image makes her the most salient, but then

the clear right/left system guides the eye of the viewer from the “Hello from Maybelline” logo

and the linguistic cues in the direction of the woman saying “this product makes you become

like me and it also makes you part of the West.” The right/left composition of the

advertisement might be based on the idea that traditional Chinese characters in earlier times

were written vertically from the right to the left of the page, and this old tradition might make

Chinese viewers discover the content of the advertisement in a right-to-left direction.

The third difference between the American and the Chinese edition of the billboard

advertisement has to do with its dynamism. The Chinese edition appears less dynamic,

because it only works with one dynamic image (the female RP) and with fewer colors. The

color of the Chinese RP‟s jacket and handbag is dull white and the background is dark red.

The background is so dark that the linguistic cues in black Chinese characters are hard to

read. In fact this might even be pleasing to the Chinese eye because, as McCracken (1988)

notes, color red is the symbol of luck, energy, happiness, and joy in Chinese culture. Also, the

label “Maybelline” in Chinese characters is written in yellow, which is the color of wealth in

this context (McCracken 1988). It is to be concluded then that an additional strategy

implemented in the case of the Chinese edition of the billboard advertisement to make the

target audience relate to the product is culture-specific color symbolism.

2.2. Real estate: Apartment houses in the United States and in China

Splendor Homes (Florida, US)

The American billboard advertisement of Splendor Homes (labeled Photo 3 in the Appendix

section) presents the viewer with one human RP in the bottom right corner. The human RP is

a young, thin woman in her late 20s or early 30s, who has a healthy, tanned and long dark

brown hair. Her arms spread open wide. She is smiling while looking up the sky. She is

wearing a white and pink striped shirt. Her belly is visible, which adds to her healthy look.

She is standing on the white balcony of an apartment that is advertised on the billboard. The

rest of the advertisement gives the view from the apartment‟s balcony. The viewer sees a huge

green field and the light blue sky. There are several vectors in the advertisement (the body of

the woman – vertical vector; the arms of the woman – horizontal vector; the balcony – both

horizontal and vertical vector; the field and the sky – horizontal vectors), which create

dynamism. The images tell the viewer the story of a young, married woman (also young

mother) who has just found the home of her dreams for herself and for her family.

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The target audience of the advertisement is women with the same parameters as the

woman in the billboard, with the basic difference that the woman in the billboard is already

living her dreams (because she is in the possession of the advertised product). The target

audience is called on to follow the woman in the advertisement, that is, to purchase an

apartment by Splendor Homes. The woman is presented obliquely to the viewer, she is

“looking [at the sky] within the image [and thus] she becomes an object of contemplation for

the viewer, creating less engagement than that of the demand” (Harrison 2003, p. 53). The

colors of the advertisement are pleasing to the eye: The pink and white stripes of the woman‟s

shirt promote youth; her tanned skin promotes health; the balcony and the linguistic cues in

white promote comfort and luxury; the green field and the blue sky promote freedom and life

without limits.

The advertisement manages to make the product relevant to the target audience so that

it heavily builds on features central to individualism (Zhang and Shavitt 2003). There are

several elements that evoke the so-called individual freedom frame: The woman is young and

healthy; she is looking happily in an upward direction (indicating that the limit is the sky); the

spread arms of the woman; the spread arms of the woman in the bottom right corner as they

point upwards and in the direction of the huge green field and the blue sky. The field and the

sky are part of nature and, as such, they represent an independent form of existence in which

one is released of social constraints. Also, since the field and the sky are the largest images of

the advertisement, they further represent space, which is a symbol of independence again. The

linguistic cues help to evoke the individual freedom frame: The advertisement talks in first

person singular and states “I am independent;” also, the “I want” construction appears four

times; and there is a direct imperative sentence (“Be yourself”) highlighted in bold. Similarly

to the American edition of the Maybelline billboard, this advertisement also implements

communication strategies that are preferred in low-context individualistic cultures, in other

words, it manages to convey its message as directly as possible (Gudykunst 2003).

Beijing Real Estate (Beijing, China)

The Chinese billboard advertisement of Beijing Real Estate (labeled Photo 4 in the Appendix

section), similarly to the American billboard, presents the viewer with one human RP: A

woman standing in the bottom right corner. The woman is of Chinese origin; she is in her late

20s or early 30s, she has white skin and long dark hair. The woman is wearing a long dress.

The dress makes the woman‟s appearance formal, as it resembles an elegant evening dress

that leaves the shoulders and the back uncovered. The fact that she is holding a cup in her

hands adds to her image: She makes the impression in the viewer that the she feels

comfortable as if she was at home. She is standing with her back to the viewer and the viewer

sees only part of her face as she is looking at the apartment house. The apartment house takes

up the rest of the space in the advertisement.

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The image of the woman is the largest in size and, therefore, it is the most salient.

Following the right to left composition of the advertisement, the viewer first sees the woman

and then studies the rest of the advertisement. The viewer in fact studies the product (the

apartment) as if he/she was looking at it with the eye of the woman. Similarly to the Chinese

edition of the Maybelline advertisement, dark red is a dominant color here too. It is the color

of the woman‟s dress, the color of the apartments‟ balconies, and it also gives a thick frame to

the billboard. Symbolizing luck, energy, happiness, and joy (McCracken 1988), red makes the

target audience associate the product (the apartments) with these positive concepts. Besides

red, it is colors green (the small park in front of the apartment house), white (some of the

Chinese characters), black (some of the Chinese characters), and orange (the sky) that appear

on the billboard. The advertisement also plays with verbal communication tools: It lists

information on the apartments in black Chinese characters in decreasing font size from top to

bottom. At the very bottom of the advertisement, the contact information (a telephone

number) of the real estate company is written in big, white, bold numbers.

The basic difference between the American real estate advertisement and the Chinese

one is that the latter is working with an entirely different frame. The Chinese advertisement

does not include imperative structure, it does not list individual needs (“I want”), nor does it

contain any image that would evoke the individual freedom frame. The advertisement clearly

implements communication strategies that are preferred in high-context collectivist cultures

and, as such, it only implies but does not state anything directly (Gudykunst 2003). The

advertisement, similarly to the Chinese edition of the Maybelline billboard, builds on the

image of the socially desirable Chinese woman, who is young, healthy, calm, peaceful, and

reserved. The advertisement presents this image in a comfort frame managing to convey the

message that the place of the socially desirable Chinese woman is at home. The woman

holding a cup in her hands adds to this image so that it presents the advertised apartments as

they have all the facilities that make the woman feel at home. The woman is presented in an

oblique angle, which gives the viewer the impression that she is “one of them” – one of those

who are already living a peaceful and comfortable life in one of the advertised apartments.

The advertisement aims to raise the target audience‟s desire to live in the comfort frame and

offers the product as a solution in doing so.

2.3. Sports Apparel: Adidas in the United States and in China

Adidas in the United States

The American edition of the Adidas billboard advertisement (labeled Photo 5 in the Appendix

section) advertises a type of Adidas shirt that is specifically designed for women in their 20s

and 30s. In line with the target audience, the billboard advertisement presents the viewer with

one human RP in the very center: A woman in her late 20s standing on a cliff barefoot. She

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has long, light brown, wavy hair and a healthy complexion. She is wearing blue jeans and the

advertised product, the Adidas shirt. She is standing with her back to the viewer, in slight

straddle position, holding her right hand on her hips and her left hand on her left thigh. The

advertisement has a center/margin composition. The woman and the cliff are in the center of

the foreground. It is the blue sky with some white and grey clouds that give the background.

The viewer is given information on the product in the bottom right corner (the products name,

design, and purpose are listed there).

The overall impression of the advertisement is that it is dynamic. It tells the story of a

young, healthy, self-determined, independent, and free woman who has left society‟s

constraints behind (she is in nature, standing on a cliff). The notion of freedom is key in this

advertisement as the very image of the product is built around the concept. Similarly to the

American real estate advertisement, it is the individual freedom frame that is evoked. The

billboard sends the target audience the message: “Purchase and wear this Adidas item and

you‟ll become as free as the woman here.” There are several elements in the advertisement

that help to build up the individual freedom frame: The wind blowing the woman‟s hair, the

woman standing on a cliff in nature, the sky (symbolizing that there are no limits), the woman

being barefoot, the woman wearing casual blue jeans, the body posture of the woman, and

most importantly, the product itself. The product is a shirt that is purposefully oversized,

telling that women do not necessarily have to wear items of small size in order to be

attractive. The advertisement is heavily building on features that are central to individualism

(Zhang and Shavitt 2003), as for instance, the ability to take risks (standing on a cliff), and the

ability to focus on personal needs, stand out of the crowd and be unique. The fact that these

are the desired features of a woman in the American context are even directly verbalized: The

purpose of the product as stated in the bottom right corner of the advertisement is “To be seen

and noticed.”

Adidas in China

The Chinese edition of the Adidas billboard advertisement (labeled Photo 6 in the Appendix

section) was specifically prepared for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and, thus, its target

audience is broader than that of the American Adidas billboard. The Chinese billboard was

targeted at anyone of any nationality who followed or participated in the Olympic Games.

What makes this advertisement unique is that it builds its imagery entirely on

collectivist features of Chinese culture (where the Games took place). The billboard presents

the viewer with one salient RP in the center of the advertisement and thousands of other RPs

that add a frame to the advertisement. The advertisement has a center/periphery composition.

The salient RP in the center is a Chinese female basketball player wearing dark red Adidas

apparel. She is depicted in the moment of jumping to the basketball backboard as she is trying

to throw the ball in the basket. The viewer sees her whole body in a jumping position. She is

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looking in the direction of the ball and the basket with a determined facial expression, which

indicates her desire to finish the line of movement successfully. The thousands of other RPs

are everyday people of Chinese origin that, as they are holding together, create one coherent

mass in order to help the female RP throw the ball in the basket. It is the mass that holds the

female RP (trying to hold her up higher) and it is the mass that holds the basketball backboard

as well (trying to keep it in a position so that the female player can throw the ball in the

basket).

The RPs are present in three different ways. The viewer sees the whole body of the

female RP in the center (“close social distance” Harrison 2003, p. 53) and sees members of

the mass either from shoulder up (“close personal distance” Harrison 2003, p. 53) or from

their heads up only (“intimate distance” Harrison 2003, p. 53). The RPs create a very

powerful image and achieve doing so because they embody a basic idea of collectivism,

namely that members of a group (in this case, the Chinese nation) have to hold on to each

other and create a cohesive whole in order to achieve a common goal (in this case, play

successfully in the Olympic Games). It is specifically interesting in this advertisement that the

RP in focus is a female and the RPs creating the mass are all males. Having the knowledge in

mind that Chinese society is a clearly a patriarchal one; the viewer might be surprised at a

first glimpse on how traditional gender roles are diminished in the image. At a second

glimpse, the viewer realizes that group cohesion and the importance of a common goal

overrides traditional gender roles.

In clear contrast to the American Adidas advertisement, the frame evoked here is that

of interdependence. The linguistic cues of the advertisement (“Beijing Olympics 2008” in

Chinese characters and the well-known Adidas slogan, “Impossible is nothing” in both

Chinese characters and in English on the right hand side of the advertisement) are

metonymically linked to the cohesion of the mass that helps the female RP throw the ball in

the basket. The mass is of the very same color (grey) as the linguistic cues, which creates an

unconscious metonymic link (the power one receives from group cohesion stands for the

power one receives wearing Adidas apparel). With the help of this metonymic link, the viewer

gets a direct message (group cohesion leads to success) and also an indirect one (wearing

Adidas apparel leads to success).

Adidas manages to take the advertisement even closer to the Chinese community so

that is uses dark red (Chinese symbol of luck, happiness, energy, and joy) as the only lively

color on the billboard (McCracken 1988). Dark red is the color of the Adidas apparel the

female basketball player in the center is wearing. This is how she stands out from the grey

mass and how she becomes associated with the positive concepts that dark red in Chinese

culture symbolizes.

13

3. Conclusion

The general idea of this paper was that context and meaning are two concepts that are

inherently related. The specific idea was that companies build the marketing strategies of their

products on characteristics of the target audience‟s context, and that is how they manage to

make the products relevant and desirable. In order to illustrate this idea, I analyzed three types

of products as they appear in the individualist American and in the collectivist Chinese

contexts: (1) cosmetics, (2) real estate, and (3) sports apparel. The analysis revealed that the

advertisements designed for the American market manage to make the products desirable so

that they present the items in conceptual frames that are relevant to the individualist cultural

context (for instance, the sexuality and the individual freedom frames). The analysis of the

Chinese editions gave the same results, namely that the advertisements designed for the

Chinese market manage to make the products desirable so that they present the items in

conceptual frames that are relevant to the collectivist cultural context (for instance, the

comfort and the interdependence frames). An additional finding in the case of the Chinese

editions was that culture-specific color symbolism is further used to make the product

relevant to the Chinese context. The findings of the analysis are in line with that of Zhang and

Shavitt (2003), namely that the influence of modernization, globalization, consumerism, and

that of “the West” with rather individualist values is observable in the Chinese

advertisements; nevertheless, it is still Chinese collectivist values that dominate the Chinese

editions. As a continuation of the research, it would be interesting to analyze billboard

advertisements that have recently been prepared for the Chinese market, and see whether it is

still the collectivist values that marketing strategies are built on or, as a result of the ongoing

march of globalization, it is individualism that has turned to become dominant.

14

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Photo1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (Photos of the billboard advertisements in the Appendix section) were all

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16

Appendix

Photo 1

Photo 2

17

Photo 3

Photo 4

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Photo 5

Photo 6