TESTING THE CROSS-NATIONAL APPLICABILITY OF UNITED-STATES AND RUSSIANADVERTISING BELIEF AND ATTITUDE MEASURES

Examining the cross-national applicability of advertising measures is becoming increasingly important, especially in rapidly changing countr ies such as Russia. Therefore, our study's purpose is first to demonst rate recommended procedures for testing the cross-national equivalence of advertising belief and attitude measures. Then, we conduct an init ial cross-national comparison of beliefs and attitudes toward advertis ing in general between student samples from both the U.S. (n=148) and from Russia (n=64). Results indicate that, while Russian respondents f elt advertising is more essential, U.S. respondents felt advertising r esulted in greater negative social effects. Also, U.S. respondents wer e more favorable toward the institution of advertising (its purpose an d effects), with no differences for the instrument of advertising (its methods and practices). Russian respondents' attitudes toward adverti sing in general were more favorable than those of U.S. respondents.