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The Return of Advertising in China: A Survey of the Ideological Reversal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Randall Stross
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Extract

During the 1980s, bracketed by the Third Plenum in 1978 and the suppression of the democracy movement in 1989, China edged, step by step, away from the orthodoxies of the Cultural Revolution, and each reversal excited a certain amount of commentary both within and without China. As time passed, and the list of reintroduced institutions and practices grew ever longer, habituation reduced the surprise of succeeding announcements. But the reintroduction of advertising, a cental totem of advanced capitalist culture, occupied a particularly significant place on the list because its reappearance in China forced the Chinese to reconsider distinctions that had formerly been drawn between capitalist and socialist societies. For most of its history, the People's Republic had castigated advertising as the apotheosis of the capitalist religion of consumption. This was especially so in the late 1960s during the height of the Cultural Revolution. Afterwards few commercial billboards or newspaper advertisements interrupted the skein of relentlessly political messages that crossed public space. When advertising was officially reintroduced in 1979, and its sanctioned scope expanded beyond industrial goods, the state faced a daunting ideological task: rebuilding a case for advertising in a socialist system that had long defined itself as one that did not need commercial exhortation. In essence, it had to sell the legitimacy of selling.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 123 , September 1990 , pp. 485 - 502
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1990

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References

1 For a survey of the vicissitudes of official treatment of commercial advertising in the People's Republic before 1979, see Bai-Yi, Xu, “The role of advertising in China,” University of Illinois, Department of Advertising, Working Paper No. 24, 15 November 1989, pp. 19–20.Google Scholar

2 Yunpeng, Ding, “Wei guanggao zhengming” (“Restoring the good name of advertising”), Wenhuibao, 14 January 1979.Google Scholar

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 “Chinese will permit foreign companies to advertise wares,” Wall Street Journal, 28 February 1979; advertisement in Beijing Review, 9 March 1979, p. 32.

6 “Qutan guanggao de zui” (Some interesting talk about advertising), Shichang yishu (Market Skills), No. 3 (1988) p. 33.

7 Ibid. See also Xianju, Yang, “Guanggao de xinli yixu erze” (“Two examples of psychological techniques for advertising”), Zhongguo qivejia (Chinese Entrepreneurs), No. 4, 1987, p. 32.Google Scholar

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9 Guangyuan, Yu, “Talking about advertising,” p. 2. Marshall I. Goldman, “Product differentiation and advertising: Some lessons from Soviet experience,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 68, No. 4 (1960), pp. 346–357.Google Scholar

10 Lianggang, Ji, “Guanyu shangye guanggao jige wenti de tantao” (“An exploration of some problems in commercial advertising”), Shanxi caijing xueyuan xuebao (Journal of the Shanxi College of Trade and Finance), March 1985, p. 95Google Scholar, reprinted in Renda, Shangye jingji, shangye qiye guanli, December 1985, pp. 94–97.

11 Jin Huishang and Li Enjing, “Truth is the lifeblood,” p. 108. Yu Guangyuan, “Talking about advertising,” p. 2.

12 Jin Huisheng and Li Enjing, “Truth is the lifeblood,” p. 108. Lianggang, Ji, “Guanyu shangye guanggao jige wenti de tantao” (“An exploration of some problems in commercial advertising”), Shanxi caijing xueyuan xuebao, March 1985, pp. 91–94.Google Scholar Reprinted in Renda, Fuyin baokan ziliao F51 Shangye jingji, shangye qiye guanli, December 1985, pp. 94–97. Tu, Shun, “Zhidao xiaofei, chuangzao xuqiu” (“Guide consumption, create demand”), Zhongguoguanggao, No. 3 (1987) pp. 17–19.Google Scholar In our own capitalist country, if we ignore the defences of advertising offered by advertising councils and others with a vested interest in the matter, and ask economists what function advertising plays in influencing general consumer demand in our economy, we receive a surprising answer: it has little, if any, effect. Julian Simon, one of the few economists who has studied advertising closely, concluded his study with words that bordered on regret that he had wasted his time studying the subject: “Those branches of advertising which are most in dispute – advertising for such products as beer, autos, soap, and aspirin – do not seem to have much effect upon the economy in any way, direct or indirect, and hence from an economic point of view it is immaterial whether they are present or absent.… All this implies that the economic study of advertising is not deserving of great attention.… (As the reader may realize, this is not a congenial point at which to arrive after spending several years working on the subject).” Simon, Julian, Issues in the Economics of Advertising (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1970), pp. 284–85.Google Scholar

13 Zhenxing, Fang, “Guanggaojie jixu jiejue de ruogan wenti zhi wojian” (“My views on some pressing problems needing attention in the advertising world”), Zhongguo guanggao, No. 3 (1987), p. 6.Google Scholar “New issue in China: Truth in advertising,” New York Times, 4 March 1981. “China likely to curb foreign products’ ads,” Advertising Age, 12 July 1982, p. 24. “China market hot despite setbacks,” Advertising Age, 9 June 1986, p. 59. The actual percentage of foreign advertising in China's total advertising expenditures was never large during the period in which it became controversial in the early 1980s. In 1982, foreign advertising was estimated to constitute only about 10 per cent of the total, or about $7.7 million; in 1984, only 6 per cent. A survey of advertising sponsors during a week in October 1985 revealed that of 154 advertisements heard on the national and Beijing radio stations during the course of the week, not one was for a foreign product or service. See Seligman, Scott D., “China's fledgling advertising industry: The start of something big?”, China Business Review, January–February 1984, p. 13.Google ScholarYuanzhen, Xie, “Waishang zai Zhongguo tuixiao chanpin juxian hezai” (“What are the limits on foreigners selling products in China?”, Bai Xing (People) (Hong Kong), 16 July 1985, p. 3.Google ScholarStewart, Sally and Campbell, Nigel, “Advertising in mainland China: A preliminary study,” International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 5, No. 4 (1986), pp. 317–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 Fang Zhenxing, “My views,” p. 6.

15 Advertising and Marketing In China: Past, Present, and Future (Hong Kong: The Asia Letter, 1985), pp. 159, 176–177. Anderson, Michael H., Madison Avenue In Asia: Politics and Transnational Advertising (Rutherford, New Jersey: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1984), p. 280.Google ScholarSeligman, Scott D., “Corporate and product promotion,” China Business Review, May-une (1986), p. 12.Google Scholar

16 Advertising and Marketing in China, p. 198. “The Impact Grows,” China Trade Report, August 1987, p. 10. Yunnui, Ren, “Cong wailai guanggao xianqi de” (“Some thoughts provoked by foreigners’ advertisements”), Shichang yishu, No. 3 (1987), pp. 20–21.Google Scholar

17 “Jiaqiang tiyu guanggao guanli de xin guiding” (“New regulations to strengthen control over sports advertising”), Zhongguo guanggao, No. 3 (1987), p. 48. In 1987, the longstanding ban on explicit tobacco product advertising was formalized. See “New regulations ban tobacco ads, redefine content prohibitions,” Business China, 30 November 1987, pp. 169–171.

18 Advertising and Marketing in China, p. 198.

19 Advertising and Marketing in China, p. 224. Xie Yuanzhen, “What are the limits,” p. 4.

20 To gain access to Red Flag, foreign advertisers had to pay a premium price – one–third more than for an advertisement of comparable size in thePeople's Daily, and four times more than for advertisments in other daily newspapers. Yuanzhen, Xie, “What are the limits,” p. 4; ”Ad space offered in Red Flag journal –of all places,” Business China, 23 January 1980, pp. 11–12.Google Scholar

21 Advertising and Marketing in China, pp. 211, 263.

22 Fang Zhenxing, “My views,” p. 7.

23 “‘Kekou kele bainian guanggao’ futu” (“Illustrations from ‘One Hundred Years of Coca-Cola Advertising’”), Zhongguo guanggao, No. 3(1986). In a typical Coca-Cola advertisement, a beauty in a bathing suit, reclining at the beach, smiles coquettishly at an outstretched arm that offers a bottle of Coke; the accompanying copy consists solely of a succinct double entendre: “Yes.”

24 “Meiguo huwai guanggao” (“Outdoor advertising in America”), Zhongguo guanggao, No. 1 (1985), pp. 37, 41. “Cong Aoyunhui Meiguo yundongdui fuzhuangkan Meiguo fuzhuangshang de shengyijing” (“The shrewd business sense of the American apparel business, as seen in the clothing of the U.S. Olympic athletes”). Jingji ribao (Economic Daily), 28 July 1984.

25 Fang Zhenxing, “My views,” p. 7.

26 “Niuye jietou yige chenggong de guanggao” (“A successful advertisement on the streets of New York”), Jingji ribao, 10 November 1985.

27 Lin, Bing, “Guanggao de xuewen” (“Advertising knowledge”), Jiefang ribao, 26 June 1984.Google Scholar

28 Beijing shangxueyuan shangye jingjixi (Beijing College of Business, Department of Business Economics), “Beijingshi dianshi guanggao xuanchuan de diaocha” (“A survey of television advertising in Beijing”), Zhongguo guanggao, No. 5 (1983), p. 42; Pollay, Richard W., Tse, David K., and Wang, Zheng-Yuan, “Advertising, propaganda, and value change in economic development: The new cultural revolution in China and attitudes toward advertising,” Journal of Business Research, forthcoming 1990.Google Scholar “Commercials are big hits on Chinese TV,” San Jose Mercury News, 9 January 1988. For an analysis of the weaknesses in Chinese survey research in the early 1980s, see Rosen, Stanley, “Survey research in the People's Republic of China: Some methodological problems,” Canadian and International Education Vol. 16, No. 1 (1987), pp. 190–197.Google Scholar For the first western studies of Chinese reactions to advertising, see Semenik, Richard J., Zhou, Nan, and Moore, William L., “Chinese managers’ attitudes toward advertising in China,” Journal of Advertising, Vol 15, No. 4 (1986), pp. 56–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarHo, Suk-Ching and Sin, Yat-Ming, “Advertising in China: Looking back at looking forward,” International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 5, No. 4 (1986), pp. 307–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29 Beijing College of Business, “TV advertising in Beijing,” p. 42.

30 Ibid.

31 Yu Guangyuan “Talking about advertising,” p. 2.

32 Jin Huisheng and Li Enjing, “Truth is the lifeblood,” p. 108. Minhui, Pei, “Guanggao xuanchuan ying zhuyi shehui xiaoyi” (“Advertising persuasion should emphasize social benefits”), Jingji ribao, 1 March 1987.Google Scholar When Chinese newspapers began carrying a Chinese adaptation of the personals, one more difference in advertising practices between capitalist and socialist societies appeared to disappear. But Zhongguo guanggao defended the Chinese personals as a superior version to their equivalent in the west, where such advertisements frequently involved “deception” and “crime”. The personals carried in China's Shichang (Marketplace) were marriage proposals whose truthfulness was vouched for by employers. The advertiser's responsible unit had to authenticate the person's true name, age, height, education, occupation, wages, previous marriage history, number of children, state of health, address, and other details. See Jihong, Wang, “Zhenghun guanggao de shehui zuoyong” (“The social function of marriage proposal advertisements”), Zhongguo guanggao, No. 3 (1987), pp. 47–48.Google Scholar

33 Advertising and Marketing in China, 176; Wang Zhongming, “Maintain a socialist direction,” p. 2.

34 “Guanggao xuanchuan zhong de hunluan xianxiang jixu jiuzheng” (“Confusion in advertising promotion must be corrected”), Jingji ribao, 22 August 1983. “Guanggao de shengming” (“Advertising's lifeblood”), Renmin ribao, 31 January 1981.

35 “Kandeng guanggao ye ying yange shencha” (“There should be strict investigation before publication of advertisements”), Renmin ribao, 18 May 1985.

36 Zhongpu, Tang, “Shilun woguo guanggaoye fazhan de heli quxiang” (“Some exploratory thoughts about proper directions for the expansion of China's advertising”), Zhongguo quanggao, No. 2 (1987), pp. 4–6.Google Scholar Jin Huisheng and Li Enjing “Truth is the lifeblood,” p. 110. Wang Zhongming, “Maintain a socialist direction,” p. 3.

37 “Confusion in advertising promotion must be corrected,” Jingji ribao, 22 August 1983. Jin Huisheng and Li Enjing, “Truth is the lifeblood,” p. 109. “Qingchu jingshen wuran, banhao shehui zhuyi guanggao” (“Eliminate spiritual pollution, do socialist advertising well”), Zhongguo guanggao, No. 5 (1983), p. 2.

38 “Eliminate spiritual pollution,” p. 2.

39 Zhu, Xuehai, trans., “Dui guanggao kanfa de jidian jieda” (“Some answers concerning advertising”), Zhongguo guanggao, No. 2 (1984), p. 44.Google Scholar

40 “Madison Avenue in China,” San Francisco Chronicle, 25 March 1979.

41 “China's commercialism sparks advertising boom,” Dallas Morning News, 8 September 1986. Seligman, Scott D., “Corporate and product promotion,” China Business Review, May-June 1986, p. 9.Google Scholar “A cultural revolution,” China Trade Report, September 1984, pp. 8–9.