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Jodie Clay, St. Olaf College
In the realm of television advertising, American audiences often perceive commercials as intrusive, with a substantial 65% finding them unappealing (Wang, 2017). Surprisingly, a global phenomenon unfolds as people from all over the world eagerly consume compilations of Japanese advertisements. This paper aims to investigate the underlying reasons for this stark contrast and uncovers the intricate interplay of consumer culture, traditional beliefs, and advertising regulations that shape the advertising landscape in Japan and America. Drawing from cultural theories, Japan’s consumer culture is a "high-context society" that relies on familiar symbols and icons to effectively communicate. America’s consumer culture, on the other hand, is a "low-context culture" requiring Western traditions of rhetoric and logic to employ a push-pull approach to communicate ideas and actions. Based on traditional beliefs, Japan highly values connection and efficiency while America instead values power, innovation, and individualism. Thus, Japan prioritizes fostering positive sentiments surrounding their products and never over-interpreting a product for fear of insulting the customer's intelligence. American advertisers attract the audience's attention by emphasizing the customer as an individual and focusing on surprising the customer while communicating in a straightforward manner. Moreover, stringent advertising regulations in Japan enforce portraying a healthy society and lifestyle and forbid misleading or explicit content. By contrast, American advertising guidelines are more relaxed and stipulate that advertisers must not mislead or showcase violence and nudity. These differences are highlighted when comparing Japanese and American Coca-Cola commercials and Japan’s famous bread company Pasco's soft-selling marketing campaign to America’s cheese company Sargento's hard-selling advertising style.
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