Abstract

Advertisement is not only an economic activity, but also a cultural communication. Advertisements in a certain country attract certain target customers, so they reflect the distinct culture of this country. As a special phenomenon of the market economy, advertisement aroused a lot of people’s interest to study. The academic study of advertisement in the West has a history of more than hundreds of years. The academic study of it in China, by contrast, is still in its infancy. In recent years, researches about advertisements or advertising both here and abroad are too numerous to enumerate. Among which mainly focus on advertisement translation and cultural differences, the key point of which is the cultural differences and cultural clash. There is no doubt that these studies are superficial; meanwhile, the materials of these researches are usually out of date. In order to analyze the topic systematically, this thesis selects some novel materials, gives definition of important terms and illustrates typical examples to achieve the goal. Based on a brief discussion on advertisements and advertising, including the definition, history and development, classifications and functions, this thesis analyzes the differences between and integration of Chinese and Western cultures contained in some typical examples of advertisements at home and abroad, aiming to understand the cultural differences and integration in the field of advertisement against the globalization. Finally, the thesis gives a review of the whole paper and draws the conclusion.

Key words: cultural differences; cultural integration; advertisement

摘  要

广告活动不仅是一种经济活动，还是一种文化交流。一个国家的广告反映的是该国特有的文化。作为市场经济中一个特别的现象，广告激起了很多人的研究兴趣。西方已对广告有数百年的学术研究，而中国对广告的研究还在起步阶段。近年来，围绕国内外各类广告进行的研究不胜枚举，其中，对国外广告的研究大多集中在语言翻译和文化差异方面，重点是研究过去某个时间点文化的差异和碰撞，研究素材较为陈旧，缺乏新意。本文旨在通过定义法（即定义广告相关术语）和列举法（即列举相关案例）等方法，试图通过选取新颖的素材，对中西方广告之间的文化差异与融合进行比较系统的分析。在简要介绍广告的定义、起源、发展进程及相关术语含义的基础上，本文从文化差异和文化融合两个方面切入，利用列举法和例证法研究分析中西方广告之间的文化差异与融合，重点旨在了解跨文化交流与日俱增的全球化背景趋势下的文化差异与融合。在此基础上，简要概括通过本课题研究得出的相关结论并作评述。

关键词:文化差异；文化融合；广告