A study on the social and cultural effect of multinational advertising

Yi, Young-Hee(Major in Advertising Design Dept. of Industrial Design The Graduate School of Hong-Ik University)

Advertising became one of the most necessary part in modern industrial society. It has the economic character that advertising makes it possible to circulate the economy by connecting mass production and mass consumption. It is exposed to consumers through mass media.

Already the approach toward this kind of economic function of advertising has been tried from diverse angles. And advertising practioner has been tried interested in directing producing more effective advertisements. However the study about the ideological character of advertising is not enough. Robert Querrent said that the air that we breathe consists of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and advertising. When advertisement is exposed to the public through mass media, its social and cultural effects are enormous.

On the basis of this concept, I have tried to examine the social and cultural effect of advertising from the consumer's position. In today's glabalized circumstances, the multinational enterprises are doing their advertising activity all over the world. Their standardized advertising strategy is giving cultural shock to receivers because it ignors the cultural differences between nations and ethnic groups, and it regards human beings as identical group. Now we find our original cultural identity in danger in the process if accepting and internalizing the foreign cultural values.

I choose Coca-Cola advertisements as an example of standardized advertising strategy of the multinational enterprise and analyzed its internal values and trends. My study revealed that first, Coke advertisement reflects American thinking structure and life style second, it fuels westernizing of our life style. It also affects the vulnerable young people by transplanting thinking structure that 'western' is 'good'.