Cultural values reflected in theme and execution: A comparative study of US and Korean television commercials

This study develops a cross-cultural content analysis framework to examine underlying cultural dimensions: individualism/collectivism, time orientatio n, relationship with nature, and contextuality. Most cross-cultural content analyses have inferred that differences in execution have been due to assu med cultural differences in the societies examined (often based on the work of Hofstede [1980]); the development of the structure proposed here will a llow the direct investigation of those cultural issues. Television commerci als from the U.S. and Korea were selected as being representative of North American, and East Asian commercials. Both countries are present-time orien ted, and while individualism and collectivism are prevalent in both culture s, individualism is more dominant in the U.S. Korean commercials stress one ness-with-nature slightly more than U.S. commercials, and U.S. commercials use more direct approaches. Directions for refinement and future research a re identified.