Comparative Study of Appeals to Ownership in Print Advertising for Automobiles:The U.S. and U.K., 1930-2000

摘要

Appeals to automobile ownership in U.S. and U.K. print advertising were studied fortheir attribute and motive content. Results of coding of the ad sample showed the U.S. to besignificantly higher in the proportion of ads with technology appeals than the ad sample from theU.K. Ads in the sample from the U.K. were higher in the proportion of ads with appeals tocomfort and with achievement content. Discriminant analysis indicated the best set of predictorsthat differentiated the countries to be the presence of technology and comfort appeals, highimportance appeals to status, and the achievement content in an ad. Time trends across decadesshowed decreasing proportions of technology appeals in ads in the U.K. sample in decades afterthe 1940s, and decreasing achievement content in U.S. ads in decades after the 1950s.Contributions that the study of historical ad series for automobiles can make to both anunderstanding of culture through its artifacts and managerial and policy applications are noted.