Rethinking Cannes: A study of the debate on the cultural and ideological aspects of commercial advertising in China.

摘要

The thesis involves a content analysis of the debate within the Chinese advertising community on China's defeat in the Cannes International Advertising Festival. In this study, I examine the relationships among actors in the project of modernity in China and the way they deal with international and domestic hegemonic forces during China's transition to a market economy. The result shows that advertising media, being cross-boundary between culture and economy, is appropriated for different political ends. To insure its powerful status, the Chinese government exerts the notion of "advertising with Chinese characteristics" through the discourse of cultural advertising for subtle ideological communication of a nationalistic discourse based on tradition. However, the Chinese government overlooks the way changes in economy will eventually influence and be influenced by changes in culture and ideology as shown in the case of advertising where professionals challenge elitism with professional solidarity that overrode the former boundaries of ideology.