[123doc] - a-cross-cultural-pragmatic-analysis-of-commercial-advertisements-in-american-and-vietnamese-magazines.pdf

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
DO THI PHUONG MAI
A CROSS-CULTURAL PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS
OF COMMERCIAL ADVERTISEMENTS
IN AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE MAGAZINES
(Nghiên cứu dụng học giao văn hóa về quảng cáo thƣơng mại
trên tạp chí Mĩ và Việt)
Major: English Linguistics
Code: 9220201.01
A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Hanoi - 2018

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
DO THI PHUONG MAI
A CROSS-CULTURAL PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS
OF COMMERCIAL ADVERTISEMENTS
IN AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE MAGAZINES
(Nghiên cứu dụng học giao văn hóa về quảng cáo thƣơng mại
trên tạp chí Mĩ và Việt)
Major: English Linguistics
Code: 9220201.01
Supervisor
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Quang
Hanoi - 2018

i
DECLARATION
I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the Doctor of
Philosophy degree at the University of Languages and International Studies,
Vietnam National University, Hanoi, is solely my own work other than where I
have clearly indicated that it is the works of others.
The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is
permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be
reproduced without my prior written consent.
I warrant that this authorization does not, to the best of my belief, infringe
the rights of any third party.
Hanoi, 2018
Signature
Do Thi Phuong Mai

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ABSTRACT
The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the use of politeness
strategies, advertising appeals and the realization of politeness strategies in
advertising appeals in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine
advertisements. The data for this study consist of 310 magazine advertisements
collected within a period of six months at the end of 2014. These advertisements
are analyzed on the basis of Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory and
Pollay’s (1983) advertising appeal system. The results reveal the preferences in
the use of positive politeness strategies in both American and Vietnamese
advertisements. Additionally, Effectiveness, Distinctive and Modern are the three
most popular appeals in selected advertisements. Another similarity between
American and Vietnamese magazine advertising is the realization of positive
politeness strategies in Effectiveness appeal. However, there exist the differences
in the use of politeness strategies and advertising appeals between American and
Vietnamese advertising. At the same time, the manifestation of some politeness
strategies, advertising appeals, and the realization of certain politeness strategies
in advertising appeals in American advertising is different from that of
Vietnamese advertising. The findings of the study, therefore, suggest that
appropriate advertising strategies be employed to achieve the goal of the
advertisements.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like first and foremost to extend my most sincere thanks to
Professor Nguyễn Quang, my supervisor, for his critical comments and valuable
instructions without which this thesis could not have been completed. I do
appreciate his kind encouragement, astute advice and immeasurable guidance
and support through every stage of my Ph.D. journey.
My indebtedness also goes to lecturers of University of Languages and
International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, for their immensely
helpful guidance and support during my time of study therein.
I am also grateful to my colleagues at Faculty of English, Hanoi National
University of Education for their support throughout the process of writing this thesis.
Last but not least, I am especially indebted to my beloved family members
whose help and encouragements contributed greatly to the completion of my study.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
FTA: Fact Threatening Act
H : Hearer(s)
S : Speaker(s)

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1.1. Pollay’s appeal system, 1983..............................................................13
Table 1.2. Classification of advertising appeals ..................................................15
Table 2.1. American and Vietnamese magazines used in the study....................47
Table 2.2. Research framework for politeness strategies in the study.................52
Table 2.3. Single bald-on record strategies in the study......................................53
Table 2.4. Single positive politeness strategies in the study................................55
Table 2.5. Single negative politeness strategies in the study...............................55
Table 2.6. Single off-record politeness strategies in the study ............................56
Table 2.7. Mixed politeness strategies in the study .............................................56
Table 2.8. Result of pilot test on Pollay’s system................................................58
Table 2.9. Five newly-added advertising appeals (Shen, 2013) ..........................59
Table 2.10. Advertising appeals in the study.......................................................60
Table 2.11. Elements in the research design........................................................64
Table 3.1. Frequency of politeness strategies in American and Vietnamese
commercial magazine advertisements..................................................................66
Table 3.2. Frequency of single positive politeness strategies in American and
Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements..............................................69
Table 3.3. Frequency of single negative politeness strategies in American and
Table 3.4. Bald-on record strategies in American and Vietnamese commercial
magazine advertisements .....................................................................................90
Table 3.5. Similarities and differences in politeness strategies used in American
and Vietnamese magazine advertisements...........................................................99
Table 4.1. Advertising appeals in American and Vietnamese commercial
magazine advertisements ...................................................................................102
Table 4.2. Similarities and differences in the use of advertising appeals in
American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements....................124
Table 5.1. Summary of the realization of politeness strategies in advertising
appeals in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements...147

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1. Marketing mix ..................................................................................10
Figure 1.2. Promotion mix ...................................................................................10
Figure 1.3. Why Politeness?, adapted from Nguyễn Quang (2011)....................17
Figure 1.4. Lakoff (1973)’s rules of pragmatic competence ...............................19
Figure 1.5. Leech cost-benefit scale (1983).........................................................20
Figure 1.6. Possible strategies concerning the delivery of an FTA (Brown and
Levinson, 1987: 69)..............................................................................................21
Figure 2.1. Possible strategies concerning the delivery of an FTA, Nguyễn
Quang (2012), adapted from Brown and Levinson (1987)..................................57
Figure 2.2. Data analysis procedure.....................................................................63
Figure 5.1: Proportion of politeness strategies realized in advertising appeals in
American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements....................126

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION...................................................................................................i
ABSTRACT......................................................................................................... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................... iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.............................................................................iv
LIST OF TABLES ...............................................................................................v
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................vi
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................1
CHAPTER 1 REVIEW OF LITERATURE .....................................................7
1.1. Advertising......................................................................................................7
1.2. Advertising appeals.......................................................................................11
1.3. Politeness.......................................................................................................16
1.3.1. Definition ...................................................................................................18
1.3.2. Approaches to politeness............................................................................18
1.3.3. Concluding remarks ...................................................................................31
1.4. Politeness and advertising.............................................................................33
1.5. Review of previous studies ...........................................................................35
1.5.1. Previous studies of advertising from cross-cultural pragmatic
perspective...........................................................................................................35
1.5.2. Previous studies of advertising appeals .....................................................42
1.5.3. Concluding remarks ...................................................................................44
CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY..............................................45
2.1. Research questions........................................................................................45
2.2. Samples .........................................................................................................45
2.2.1. Selection of the magazines.........................................................................47
2.2.2. Selection of advertisements........................................................................47
2.3. Collection procedure .....................................................................................48
2.4. Coding...........................................................................................................49

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2.5. Research frameworks....................................................................................50
2.5.1. Politeness....................................................................................................50
2.5.2. Advertising appeals....................................................................................57
2.6. Data analysis .................................................................................................60
CHAPTER 3 POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN AMERICAN AND
VIETNAMESE COMMERCIAL MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENTS ......65
3.1. Frequency of politeness strategies in American and Vietnamese commercial
3.2. Single positive politeness strategies in American and Vietnamese
3.2.1. Frequency of single positive politeness strategies in American and
3.2.2. Linguistic realization of single positive politeness strategies in American
and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements.......................................70
3.3. Single negative politeness strategies in American and Vietnamese
3.3.1. Frequency of single negative politeness strategies in American and
3.3.2. Linguistic realization of single negative politeness strategies in American
and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements.......................................87
3.4. Bald-on record strategies in American and Vietnamese commercial
3.4.1. Frequency of bald-on record strategies in American and Vietnamese
3.4.2. Linguistic realization of bald-on record strategies in American and
3.5. The hybrid negative-positive politeness strategy in American and
3.6. Concluding remarks ......................................................................................97

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CHAPTER 4 ADVERTISING APPEALS IN AMERICAN AND
VIETNAMESE COMMERCIAL MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENTS ....101
4.1. Frequency of advertising appeals in American and Vietnamese commercial
magazine advertisements ...................................................................................101
4.2. Linguistic realization of advertising appeals in American and Vietnamese
commercial magazine advertisements................................................................109
4.2.1. Linguistic realization of Effectiveness appeal in American and Vietnamese
4.2.2. Linguistic realization of Distinctive appeal in American and Vietnamese
4.3. Concluding remarks ....................................................................................122
CHAPTER 5 REALIZATION OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN
ADVERTISING APPEALS IN AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE
COMMERCIAL MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENTS ................................125
5.1. Realization of positive politeness strategies in advertising appeals ...........126
5.2. Realization of negative politeness strategies in advertising appeals ..........134
5.3. Realization of bald-on record politeness strategies in advertising appeals 139
5.4. Realization of mixed politeness strategies in advertising appeals..............143
CONCLUSION.................................................................................................148
1. Recapitulation of the study.............................................................................148
2. Implication .....................................................................................................153
3. Limitations .....................................................................................................157
4. Suggestions for further studies.......................................................................158
REFERENCES.................................................................................................159
APPENDIXES ...................................................................................................... I
APPENDIX 1: POLITENESS STRATEGY FRAMEWORK ............................. I
APPENDIX 2: ADVERTISING APPEAL FRAMEWORK............................VIII
APPENDIX 3: SELECTED ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE STUDY .............. XI

1
INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale for the study
In today’s world of consumerism, advertising plays a significant role in
that “it [advertising] creates needs, more needs and entices the consumer”
(Jurgensen, 2006: 9). The advertising market is so cunning that it transforms
simple shirts, bags, shoes or sneakers into precious objects. In order to do so, ad-
writers have used a variety of techniques to make their products more appealing
to their consumers. They have applied both textual and non-textual methods,
including all kinds of visual and linguistic tricks in order to persuade their
audience. An ideal advertisement, as Chow (2010) explains, must draw attention,
arouse interest, stimulate desire, create conviction, and above all, get action.
Shimp & Andrew (2013) argue that most consumer behaviors are swayed
by emotions rather than rationality. As a result, when forming the language of
advertising, ad-writers normally resort to two major advertising approaches,
namely “soft-sell” appeal (or indirect advertising) and “hard-sell” appeal (or
direct advertising) (Mueller, 1986). Additionally, with regard to other
interlocutor’s emotions, rapport may be the most essential factor determining the
attraction and sustainment of their involvement in communication. Advertisers,
therefore, apply a variety of strategies to guarantee the rapport with their potential
consumers, of which politeness strategies are one of the most popular ones.
The study of politeness in advertising text is of interest to many linguists
as the language used by ad-writers must be careful in order not to offend the
prospective customers and at the same time successfully in persuading these
customers to buy the products or use the services advertised. There have been
relatively few studies on politeness and advertising nationally and
internationally. Such research includes studies by Mai Xuân Huy (2005), Hồ Vi
Nữ Mỹ Linh (2011), Ngũ Thiện Hùng (2011), Hardin (1997; 2001), Escribano

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(2006), Stehlik (2007), Wise (2011), to name a few. There are also certain
studies comparing the expression of politeness in advertising in two languages,
for example Koga and Pearson (1992), Gas & Neru (2006), Wise (2011) or
Hermosilla (2012). However, there have not been sufficient studies on politeness
strategies in American and Vietnamese advertising.
Furthermore, thanks to the globalization of the world marketplace,
international advertising segment has been expanding (Tomkins, 2000).
Therefore, it is significant that advertisers understand cultural universals and
exclusions that tend to condition advertising appeals in different markets.
Cultural difference is an important factor in understanding international
advertising successfully (Keegan, 1989) because consumers growing up in a
particular culture are accustomed to a specific culture (Zhang & Gelb, 1996). In
other words, advertising is culture-oriented discipline as it is based on language
and other communication tools which are deeply rooted in the given culture of a
society (Shutte & Ciarlante, 1998). Particularly, advertising communicates
cultural values through advertising appeals (Pollay, 1983) because ad-writers
often refer to cultural values when they have to select the primary advertising
appeals. Based on this view, a larger number of cross-cultural studies have
examined similarities or differences in cultural values embedded in advertising
contents. Typical examples include Cheng and Schweitzer (1996), Albers-Miller
and Stafford (1999), Lin (2009, Shen (2013), and Sar & Rodriguez (2014) who
employ content analysis to see the cross-national differences in advertising
strategy. However, to the best of the author’s knowledge, virtually no study has
focused on the potential relationship between politeness and advertising appeals.
Consequently, this study employs Brown and Levinson (1987)’s politeness theory
and Pollay (1983)’s advertising appeal conceptual framework to examine how
American and Vietnamese advertising differ from each other in the use of
politeness strategies and advertising appeals.

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2. Aim and objectives of the study
The overall aim of the study is to pragmatically provide a study on
politeness strategies, advertising appeals, as well as the realization of politeness
strategies in advertising appeals in American and Vietnamese commercial
magazine advertisements.
In order to achieve this aim, the objectives set out for the study are:
 to find out what politeness strategies and advertising appeals are used in
American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements;
 to examine how politeness strategies are realized in advertising appeals in
American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements;
 to discuss the similarities and differences in the use of politeness
strategies, advertising appeals, and the realization of politeness strategies
in advertising appeals in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine
advertisements from cross-cultural pragmatic perspective.
3. Research questions
In consideration of the aforementioned aim and objectives, the following
research questions were posed:
1. What are politeness strategies employed in American and Vietnamese
commercial magazine advertisements?
2. What are advertising appeals employed in American and Vietnamese
commercial magazine advertisements?
3. How are politeness strategies realized in advertising appeals in
American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements?
4. Scope of the study
The aim of this study is to examine politeness strategies and advertising
appeals used in American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements.
It attempts to investigate the similarities and differences between American and
Vietnamese magazine advertisements’ preference of politeness strategies and
advertising appeals, which reflects the influence of American and Vietnamese

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cultures on advertisers’ choices for such phenomena. According to Trehan
(2006: 120), an advertisement consists of headlines, subheads, illustrations,
slogans, text or body-copy, blurbs, boxes or panels, identification marks, and
closing ideas. However, since it is impossible to cover every single aspect of an
advertisement, this study focuses on intra-linguistic factors only. Consequently,
paralinguistic and extra-linguistic factors are out of the scope of this study.
Another noteworthy point is that many other issues related to commercial
advertisements such as the rhetorical features of advertising language or the
advertising strategies also fall out of the scope of the research.
5. Significance of the study
This work is important for different reasons. Theoretically, the study
contributes to an investigation into some research areas in Vietnam on linguistic
politeness and advertising appeals. Additionally, the study’s findings are
expected to reinforce or deny existing hypotheses in the fields and to bring about
a better insight into the issues of linguistic politeness and advertising appeals in
advertising.
From a practical perspective, this research work is expected to contribute
to an enhanced understanding of how advertisers from the two cultures employ
politeness strategies and advertising appeals in magazine advertisements. More
importantly, it is hoped that as a cross-cultural pragmatic study, the research can
provide advertisers and practitioners sufficient details and specific examples to
help them appropriately use politeness strategies and advertising appeals in
different cultures.
From a methodological point of view, this study seeks to explore the
extent to which Brown and Levinson’s (1978, 1987) theory of politeness
strategies and Pollay’s (1983) advertising appeal framework are applicable to
other languages and cultures.
From a pedagogical perspective, the findings of the study can serve as a
valuable reference for schools and other educational institutions in establishing

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their educational programs about advertising, politeness strategies and
advertising appeals. It is also important that the study contributes to raising
faculty and students’ awareness and appreciation of cultural differences.
6. Methodology
To answer the three research questions mentioned, the present study
looked at both quantitative and qualitative dimensions of data, but focused
mainly on qualitative from a cross-cultural pragmatic approach. Specifically, 310
advertisements taken from six different American and Vietnamese magazines are
analyzed based on two research frameworks, Brown and Levinson’s (1987)
politeness theory and Pollay’s (1983) advertising appeals. Additionally, content
analysis is employed as a research technique for the study. Owing to these
methods and techniques, American and Vietnamese advertisements taken from
American and Vietnamese commercial magazines within a period of six months
at the end of 2014 were analyzed to figure out the similarities and differences in
the use of politeness strategies and advertising appeals as well as the realization
of politeness strategies in advertising appeals. The methodology is presented at
length in Chapter 2 of the thesis.
7. Structure of the study
The present study is divided into three main parts, as follows:
The first part, Introduction, gives the reader an overview of the study
through the rationale for the study. Other issues clarified in this section are
research aim and objectives, research questions, scope, significance, and
methodology. A summary of all the parts and chapters is also presented in the
structure of the study to help the audience have an overall idea of the study.
The second part of the study consists of five chapters which present the
major issues of the thesis.
Chapter 1 presents a theoretical background and literature review in the light
of cross-cultural pragmatics. It begins with an introduction to basic terminologies,
concepts, and approaches which are used in the two research frameworks of the

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research. Then, up-to-date relevant studies of advertising from cross-cultural
pragmatic perspective and studies on advertising appeals are discussed.
Chapter 2 addresses the methodology of the present study. In this chapter,
samples of the study, data collection procedures, research frameworks and data
analysis instruments are presented.
Chapter 3, 4, and 5 present and discuss the research results in response to
the three research questions posed in the study, including the analyses of
politeness strategies, advertising appeals, and how politeness strategies are
realized in advertising appeals. In particular, chapter 3 presents and discusses the
findings on the frequency and linguistic manifestation of politeness strategies in
American and Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements. It then
compares and contrasts the use of politeness strategies in American and
Vietnamese commercial magazine advertisements. Chapter 4 discusses the
findings on the frequency, linguistic manifestation, as well as similarities and
differences of advertising appeals in American and Vietnamese advertising.
Chapter 5 focuses on the way that politeness strategies are realized in advertising
appeals and the similarities and differences in the realization of politeness
strategies in advertising appeals in American and Vietnamese advertising. The
findings and discussions in these three chapters are based on cross-cultural
pragmatic perspective.
Finally, the part of Conclusion summarizes the major findings and the
research work performed. It also provides recommendations as to how this study
can contribute to the current literature on advertising research, to cross-cultural
pragmatic analysis, as well as to education. Finally, limitations of the study and
suggestions for further studies are also presented.

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CHAPTER 1
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Chapter 1 aims at establishing the theoretical framework underlying the
present study and locating the present study within linguistic research in general.
The chapter firstly gives an account of the basic concepts and major approaches
in politeness and advertising appeal theories. It then reviews the previous studies
of cross-cultural pragmatics and advertising appeals which are relevant to the
current research. Finally, a brief summary of the fundamental literature locating
the gap to be filled by the present study is provided.
1.1. Advertising
1.1.1. Definitions
“Advertere,” a Latin word meaning to warn or to call attention to, is the
root of the word “advertise.” There are a variety of definitions of advertising.
Dyer (1982) defines advertising as a means of “drawing attention to
something, notifying or informing somebody of something. This act can be done
by words of mouth to an individual or to a group of people.” However, if there
are a large number of people to be introduced about something, advertisement –
public announcement – might be used.
According to Bovee & Arens (1992), advertising is “the non-personal
communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature
about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media."
From Dyan (1995)’s point of view, advertising is the paid, impersonal,
one-way marketing of persuasive information from an identified sponsor
disseminated through channels of mass communication to promote the adoption
of goods, services or ideas.
Based on the above definitions and from the author’s perspective,
advertising is informing a large group of people about a product or service via

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different advertisements in order to attract their attention and then encourage them
to do some actions like buying a product, using the service, or doing charity.
1.1.2. Classification
Advertising can be classified based on different criteria. The following
classification is based on Bovee & Arens (1992)’s as their typology is exhaustive
and comprehensible.
In terms of media, advertising includes print advertising (newspapers and
magazines), broadcast advertising (radio and television), out-of-home
advertising (outdoor and transit advertising), and direct-mail advertising.
With regard to geographic area, it consists of international advertising,
which aims at foreign market; national advertising targeting at customers in
several regions of the country; regional advertising used for advertising products
which are sold in one area or region and local advertising which is directed at
customers from only one city or local trading area.
As far as target audience is concerned, consumer advertising and business
advertising can be named. The classification of advertisements by target
audience is strongly tied to the purpose of the advertisements as the purpose of
the advertisement determines its target audience. The manufacturer of any
product usually determines the purpose of the products. The position of the
product in the product life circle also determines the purpose of the
advertisement. Therefore, different forms of advertisement suit the different
stages of the product life circle.
Action advertising and awareness advertising are two kinds of
advertising based on consumer response. Action advertising is often used in
newspapers or magazines in order to provoke an immediate action on the part of
the reader. Such advertisements contain telephone numbers and/or links to
websites where the customer can get additional information or order the
advertised product. Awareness advertising, on the other hand, attempts to build

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the image of a given product, to create interest in the product and to influence
people to choose and become loyal towards a certain brand.
Product advertising and non-product advertising are two advertising types
when considering the advertising objects. Product advertising is aimed at promoting
goods or services whereas non-product advertising aims at selling ideas to affect
people's awareness of and attitudes to organizations and their activities. This
category includes advertisements for charities and political parties.
In terms of purposes, commercial advertising and non-commercial
advertising can be classified. In this way of classification, commercial
advertising promotes goods, services, or ideas of a business with the expectation
of making a profit. So as to achieve the commercial purposes, ad-writers have to
make great efforts in attracting consumers. On the other hand, non-commercial
advertising has such functions as recruitment, promotion of public health or
encouraging charity donations. The focus of this study is on commercial
advertising in the print medium namely magazines.
1.1.3. Significance
Advertising is firstly a marketing norm. According to marketing theory,
there are four significant factors that a company or a business should and must
control, including product, price, place, and promotion (The four Ps). These four
factors together create the so-called marketing mix. Among these four elements,
promotion consists of advertising, personal selling, publicity and sales
promotion. According to Pride (1990), advertising is the most important tool in
improving sales and interest. Figures 1.1 and 1.2 can illustrate the position and
role of advertising in marketing. (Pride, 1990)

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Figure 1.1. Marketing mix, Pride (1990) Figure 1.2. Promotion mix, Pride (1990)
Additionally, advertising is acknowledged as the engine that drives
consumers purchase and therefore, it “keeps the wheels of the economy turning”
(Rodgers & Thorson, 2012). The most outstanding function of adverting is to
introduce a wide range of goods to the public and thus to support the
development of the market economy. All in all, advertising plays an important
role in the modern society.
1.1.4. Characteristics of advertising language
In order to attract the audience, advertising language should be in
accordance with the criteria of an effective act of verbal communication which
includes six language roles stated by Jakobson (1960, cited in Sebeok, 1960:
350- 377) as follows:
 Referential function: describes a situation, an object, or a mental state
and is oriented toward the context.
 Emotive function: adds the information about the internal state of the
speaker and orientates toward the addresser.
 Conative function: engages the addressee directly and is represented in
imperatives and vocatives.
 Phatic function: establishes, discontinues, or prolongs the communication.
 Meta-lingual function: describes and discusses the language itself.
 Poetic function: focuses on the message for its own sake.
Personal selling
Advertising
Sales promotion
Publicity
Product
Place
Promotion
Price

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Among the six roles mentioned, the conative and referential functions are
of great importance in advertising as they are intended to get people to act in a
way the advertiser desires. These roles are also in line with Pollay’s (1983)
advertising appeals which are discussed in detail in the following part.
1.2. Advertising appeals
1.2.1. Advertising appeals
Appeals can be understood in different ways. According to Wells,
Burnetts and Moritaty (1995), appeals are something that makes the product
particularly attractive or interesting to the consumer. Appeals are closely related
to products’ attributes in the way that they are created to represent the supposed
values of the advertised products.
Appeals are classified in different ways. Kotler (1997) differentiates three
types of appeals; namely, rational appeals, emotional appeals and moral appeals.
In this way of classification, Rational appeals are the ones which appeal to the
audience’s self-interest. Consequently, they are involved in quality, value or
performance of the product. Emotional appeals attempt to stir up negative or
positive emotions and include fear, guilty and joy. The last type of appeals
named Moral appeals refers to the audience’s sense of what is right or proper.
Therefore, they include such appeals as ecological appeals or nationalism. This
way of classification is somewhat similar to advertising values which are
manifested in advertising messages.
Another way of classifying advertising appeals is based on the overall
level as either rational or emotional (Laskey, Fox, and Crask, 1995). The idea of
rational versus emotional appeals originally came from Copeland’s (1924, cited
in Albers-Miller, N. D., & Stafford, 1999) proposition that for either rational or
emotional reasons, individuals buy products. Rational advertising derives from
traditional information processing models of decision making in which the

12
consumer tried to make logical and rational decisions. Therefore, these
advertising appeals are related to the audience’s self-interest, and they show
product benefits such as product’s quality, economy, value or performance.
Meanwhile, emotional appeals are closely related to the emotional, experiential
side of consumption, i.e., ad-writers seek to make the consumers feel good about
the product, by creating a likeable or friendly brand, they rely on feelings for
effectiveness. The author of the study is in favor of this classification as it is
comprehensible and appropriate for the study.
1.2.2. Pollay’s appeal system and its application to the present study
Pollay (1983) proposes a framework of 42 advertising appeals drawn from
the review of a variety of related previous research to measure cultural values
embedded in advertising. He also shows that advertising reflects a somewhat
different set of values that can be found in the society in general. Therefore,
advertising may have only positive appeals related to products, but such negative
appeals like fear or guilty are depicted as safety appeals in Pollay’s framework.
Pollay’s framework is considered the most complete set of advertising
appeals with definition to many scholars (Dahl, 2002). It is also an exhaustive
category scheme of the entire advertising appeals and has been tested and
validated by several empirical studies like Albers (1994), Cheng (1997), and
Harwood & Roy (1999).
Conceptual definitions of Pollay’s appeals are described as in Table 1.1.

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Table 1.1. Pollay’s appeal system, 1983
No Categories Operational definition
1. Effectiveness
It relates to feasible, workable, useful, pragmatic, appropriate, functional,
consistent, efficient, helpful, comfortable/ tasty. A product if suggested to
be powerful and capable of achieving certain ends.
2. Durability
The emphasis is on the excellence and durability of a product, which is
usually claimed to be a winner of medals or certificates awarded by the
government department for its high grade or is demonstrated by the
product’s excellent performance.
3. Convenience
It stresses handy, time-saving, quick, easy, suitable, accessible, and
versatile. A product is suggested to be handy and easy to use.
4. Ornamental
It suggests beauty, ornateness, decorativeness, adornment, embellishment,
design and style.
5.
Cheap
(economy)
The inexpensive, affordable, and cost-saving nature of a product is
emphasized.
6. Dear
It means highly regarded, costly, extravagant, exorbitant, luxurious,
priceless
7.
Distinctive
(uniqueness)
The unrivaled, incomparable, and unparalleled nature of a product is
emphasized
8. Popularity
The focus is on the universal recognition and acceptable of a certain
product by consumers.
9. Traditional
The experience of the past, customs, and conventions are respected. The
qualities of being historical, time-honored, and legendary are venerated.
10. Modern
The notion of being contemporary, modern, new, improved, progressive,
advanced, up-to-date, and ahead of time is emphasized.
11. Natural
It suggests spiritual harmony between man and nature by making
references to the elements, animals, vegetable or mineral.
12. Technology
The advanced and sophisticated technical skills to engineer and
manufacture a particular product are emphasized.
13. Wisdom
It relates to knowledge, education, awareness, intelligence, curiosity,
satisfaction, comprehension, sagacity, expertise, judgment, experience.
14. Magic The emphasis is on the miraculous effect and nature of a product.
15. Productivity
It refers to achievement, accomplishment, ambition, success, careers, self-
development, being skilled, accomplished, proficient, pulling your weight,
contributing, doing your share.
16. Relaxation The use of the product will bring one comfort or relaxation.
17. Enjoyment
It relates to have fun, laugh, be happy, and celebrate, to enjoy games,
parties, feasts and festivities. A product will make its users wild with joy.
18. Maturity
It means being adult, grown-up, middle-aged, senior, elderly, having
associated insight, wisdom, mellowness, adjustment; refers to aging,
death, retirement, or age related disabilities or compensations.
19. Youth
The worship of the youngest generation is shown through the description
of younger models. The rejuvenating benefits of the products are stressed.
20. Safety
It refers to security (from external threat), carefulness, caution, stability,
absence of hazards, potential injury or other risks, guarantees, warranties,
manufacturers’ reassurances.
21. Tamed
It means docile, civilized, restrained, obedient, compliant, faithful,
reliable, responsible, domesticated, sacrificing, self-denying.
22. Morality
It means humane, just, fair, honest, ethical, reputation, principled,
religious, devoted, and spiritual.

14
23. Modesty
It means being modest, naïve, demure, innocent, inhibited, bashful,
reserved, timid, coy, virtuous, pure, shy, virginal.
24. Humility
It means unaffected, unassuming, unobtrusive, patient, fate-accepting,
resigned, meek, plain-folk, down-to-earth
25. Plain
It means unaffected, natural, prosaic, homespun, simple, artless,
unpretentious
26. Frail
It means delicate, frail, dainty, sensitive, tender, susceptible, vulnerable,
soft, genteel
27. Adventure
It suggests boldness, daring, bravery, courage, seeking adventure, thrills,
or excitement.
28. Untamed
It means primitive, untamed, fierce, course, rowdy, ribald, obscene,
voracious, gluttonous, frenzied, uncontrolled, unreliable, corrupt, obscene,
deceitful, savage
29. Freedom It suggests spontaneity, carefree, liberty and indulgence.
30. Casual
It means unkempt, disheveled, messy, disordered, untidy, rugged,
rumpled, sloppy, casual, irregular, noncompulsive, imperfect.
31. Vain
It means having a socially desirable appearance, being beautiful, pretty,
handsome, being fashionable, well groomed, tailored, graceful, glamorous
32. Sexuality
The commercial uses glamorous and sensual models or has a background
of lovers holding hands, embracing, or kissing to promote a product.
33. Independence
The emphasis is on self-sufficiency and self-reliance of an individual or
on the individual as being distinct and unlike others.
34. Security
It means confident, secure, possessing dignity, self-worth, self-esteem,
self-respect, peace of mind.
35. Status
The use of the product is claimed to be able to elevate the position or rank
of the user in the eyes of others. The feeling of prestige, trendsetting, and
pride in the use of the product is conveyed. It suggests that a certain
product or service will make the user well-off.
36. Affiliation
It relates to be accepted, liked by peers, colleagues and community at
large, to associate or gather with, to be social, to join, unite or otherwise
bond in friendship, co-operation, reciprocity, to conform to social
customs, have manners, social graces and decorum.
37. Nurturance
It stresses giving charity, help love, protection, nursing, consolation, or
support, comfort, nursing, care or sympathy to the weak, disabled,
inexperienced, tried, young, elderly, etc.
38. Succorance
It means to receive expressions of love (all expressions except sexuality),
gratitude, pats on the back, to feel deserving
39. Family
The emphasis is on the family life and family members. The commercial
stresses family scenes: getting married, companionship of siblings,
kinship, being at home, and suggests that a certain product is good for the
whole family.
40. Community
It relates to community, state, national publics, public spiritedness, group
unity, national identity, society, patriotism, civic and community
organizations or other social organizations.
41.
Health This value commends that the use of a product will enhance or improve
the vitality, soundness, strength, and robust of the body.
42. Neat
It refers to orderly, neat, precise, tidy, clean, spotless, unsoiled, sweet-smelling,
bright, free from dirt, refuse, pests, vermin, stains and smells, sanitary

15
Pollay’s advertising appeals can be categorized on an overall level as
either rational or emotional as stated in Albers-Miller and Stafford (1999).
Table 1.2. Classification of advertising appeals
(Albers-Miller and Stafford, 1999)
Rational Emotional
Effectiveness Distinctive Modesty
Convenience Plain Magic
Cheap Untamed Vain
Technology Casual Relaxation
Productivity Popular Enjoyment
Durability Traditional Adventure
Natural Maturity Freedom
Modern Youth Security
Wisdom Morality Sexuality
Safety Affiliation Community
Health Family Nurturance
Tamed Status Ornamental
Independence Dear Humility
Neat Frail Succorance
Although Pollay’s (1983) advertising appeal system is considered to be
comprehensive and reliable, it has also been criticized. Because of the American
origin of Pollay’s appeals (1983), some scholars like Zhang (2014) or De Mooij
(2015) have questioned the applicability of Pollay’s 42 appeals in other cultural
contexts. Additionally, research of Albers-miller & Stafford (1999) and Albers-
Miller &Straughan (2000) reveals that in a service context, certain Pollay’s
advertising appeals are not meaningful. These researchers, therefore, clarify that
only 16 appeals in Pollay’s list are emotional and service related. The last
criticism on Pollay’s advertising appeal system relies on its excessive number of
value items (Zhang & Harwood, 2004). Consequently, many researchers have
testified Pollay’s taxonomy to select the most appropriate advertising appeals
(Cheng, 1997; Cheng & Schweitzer, 1996; Ji & McNeal, 2001; Lin, 2009).
The author of this study shares the ideas that Pollay’s framework is more
comprehensive than other schemes of the same category thanks to its
comprehensiveness, relevance, analytical ability, and also reliability.
Additionally, Pollay’s list of appeals is unique in the way that it derives from

16
previous studies and it has been successfully used in such cross-cultural studies
even outside the Western advertising culture (Dahl, 2002) like the present study.
1.3. Politeness
Politeness is a phenomenon that has been drawing a lot of attention in
recent years. Many researchers such as Lakoff (1973), Leech (1983), Brown and
Levinson (1978, 1987), Frasers (1990), Watts (1992) have postulated different
theories on politeness. Politeness is so popular that almost everyone perceives it
as natural when communicating. Thomas (1995) even states that it almost can be
considered a pragmatic discipline.
According to Nguyễn Quang (2011), as human beings, we are endowed
with double nature, the social being which helps interact with each other like
other species in the animal kingdom and the conscious being which allows us to
think. Thanks to social interaction and thinking, human beings develop self-
concept and other-concept. During the process of recognizing self-concept and
other-concept, individuals realize that they are not only specific individuals but
also members of different groups in society. In other words, each person has
double status, membership and individualship. Then in everyday life, people
carry out communicative acts, thus the demand to be polite in communication
appears. To satisfy their positive face, people employ positive politeness.
Similarly, negative politeness appears to ensure people’s negative face. At the
same time, positive politeness serves to satisfy people’s membership while
negative politeness is to enhance individualship. Moreover, politeness is there to
maintain social harmony. In other words, it can be said that politeness is the
product of social order and the precondition of human cooperation. The following
figure adapted from Nguyễn Quang (2011) will illustrate the point:

17
Figure 1.3. Why Politeness?, adapted from Nguyễn Quang (2011)
The following part discusses in detail various definitions, approaches to
politeness, general concepts in contemporary politeness theories and the
relationship between politeness and advertising.
Human beings
Social beings Conscious beings
Interacting Thinking
Self-concept and other-concept
Being members Being individuals
Positive face Negative face
Positive politeness Negative politeness
Satisfying membership Satisfying individualship
Social harmony

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1.3.1. Definition
Politeness is such a popular notion that it has been defined by a great
number of researchers all over the world. However, it is hard to find a uniform
definition for politeness as politeness differs from one culture to another.
Etymologically, politeness was described as:
“… derived from the Latin „politus‟, past participle of „polire‟ meaning „to
smooth.‟ Thus, „polite‟ original meant „smoothed,‟ „polished,‟ and subsequently
„refined,‟ „cultivated,‟ „well bred,‟ and so on when referring to people and
„courteous,‟ „urban‟ etc. when referring to manners.” (Sifianou, 1992: 81 cited
in Miriam A. Locher, 2004: 89)
As can be seen from the aforementioned definition, politeness is associated with
the behavior of the upper classes, the urban life and civilized manners as well as
forms of social behaviors.
From the normative perspective, Hill et al. (1986: 349) defines politeness
as “one of the constraints on human‟s interaction, whose purpose is to consider
others‟ feelings, establish levels of mutual comfort, and promote rapport.”
From the strategic point of view, it is defined as “the means employed to
show awareness of another person‟s face” (Yule, 1997: 60), or the strategies
used to minimize the face threat of the face-threatening act (Brown and
Levinson, 1987).
From the communicative approach, Nguyễn Quang (2004: 11) considers
politeness as “any communicative act (verbal and/or non-verbal) that is intentionally
and appropriately meant to make another/ others feel better or less bad.”
The author of this study is in favor of Nguyễn Quang (2004)’s
conceptualization and functionally take politeness as making people feel good.
1.3.2. Approaches to politeness
There are a variety of politeness theories proposed in the light of
pragmatics since the late 1970s. However, four current theories to the
phenomenon can be traced, namely the conversational-maxim view, the face-
saving view, the social-norm view, and conversational-contract view.

19
1.3.2.1. The conversational-maxim approach
The conversational-maxim approach is influenced by Grice’s cooperative
principles (1975) which include four famous conversational maxims, namely
quantity (be informative), quality (be true), relation (be relevant) and manner (be
clear). According to Grice (1975), other maxims such as politeness maxim can
also be added to the cooperative principle. Basing on that, such authors as Lakoff
(1973) and Leech (1983) suggest two sets of politeness rules.
Lakoff (in Eelen, 2001: 2) defines politeness as “a system of interpersonal
relations designed to facilitate interaction by minimizing the potential for
conflict and confrontation inherent in all human interchange.” She, therefore,
suggests two sets of politeness rules named Be clear and Be polite. The first set
is similar to Grice’s cooperative principle while the second one has three rules:
(1) Don’t impose, (2) Offer optionality, and (3) Encourage feelings of
camaraderie. Her theory can be summarized as follows:
Pragmatic competence
Rules of politeness
Figure 1.4. Lakoff (1973)’s rules of pragmatic competence
However, Lakoff (1973)’s politeness theory has been criticized by such
researchers as Brown (1998) in that she does not offer a theory of politeness
within which her rules can be framed. This problem was more clearly stated by
Marquez (2000: 8) that “when it comes to reformulation of her (Lakoff‟s) rules of
politeness, she does not provide a definition of the terms she uses, instead, she
appears to equate formality with aloofness, camaradie with showing sympathy.”
Quantity Quality Relevance Manner Don’t impose Offer optionality Encourage feelings of
camaraderie
Be clear Be polite
Rules of conversation (Grice’s principles) Rules of politeness

20
Sharing the same point of view, Watts et al.(1992: 6) point out that “[w]e are
never told explicitly how these three levels of politeness are to be understood,
nor…what politeness itself is.”
Leech (1983) adopts Grice’s cooperative principles and constructs a
model including politeness maxims and a set of rules. He introduces the
politeness principle acting under the principle of minimizing the impolite
expressions and maximizing polite expressions. This politeness principle
consists of six maxims like tact maxim, generosity maxim, approbation maxim,
modesty maxim, agreement maxim and sympathy maxim. Leech recognizes that
some maxims tend to be more highly valued in certain societies over the others.
He points out, for example, that Chinese people tend to value Modesty more than
Britain do whereas Tact maxim is probably the most significant kind of
politeness in English-speaking countries. He additionally proposes a cost-benefit
scale to illustrate the relationship between and S and H when a speech act is
performed as in the following figure:
Cost to hearer
Benefit to hearer
Less polite
More polite
Figure 1.5. Leech cost-benefit scale (1983)
The scale shows that the greater the cost to the hearer, the greater impoliteness
of the act and the greater the benefit to the hearer, the greater the politeness of
the act.
Leech’s theory is criticized by certain scholars like Watts et al. (1992),
Turner (1996), or Marquer (2000). Watts et al. (1992: 6) and Turner (1996: 6)
criticize that Leech’s concept lack both an explicit definition and an indefinite

21
number of maxims. Marquer (2000) observed that the degree of importance
between one maxim proposed by Leech and another seems to be unclear.
Furthermore, he also argues that Leech doesn’t explain how the six maxims vary
cross-culturally.
1.3.2.2. The face- saving approach: Brown and Levinson’s theory
A major approach to politeness referenced by many previous studies is
undoubtedly Brown and Levinson’s theory (1978, 1987) which consists of three
notions: face, face-threatening act (FTA) and politeness strategy. In Brown and
Levinson’s (1987) point of view, face is “the public self-image that every
member wants to claim for himself.” In other words, face refers to a speaker’s
sense of linguistic and social identity. They assume that there are two types of
face, positive and negative face. Positive face refers to an individual’s desire to
be appreciated by others in order to have his/ her wants to be considered
desirable whereas negative face is one’s desire to be unimpeded in his/ her
actions.
Brown and Levinson assume that, during an interaction, certain kinds of
acts are threatening to the face and therefore, need softening. Consequently, they
propose the notion face-threatening act that threatens people’s face. So as to soften
these face-threatening acts, they introduce certain strategies as in Figure 1.6.
Figure 1.6. Possible strategies concerning the delivery
of an FTA (Brown and Levinson, 1987: 69)
lesser
1. Without redressive action
(Baldy)
With redressive action
2. Positive
strategies
(Baldy)
3. Negative
strategies
(Baldy)
On record
4.Off record
5. Don’t do the FTAs
Do the FTAs
Estimation
of
risk
of
face
lost
greater

22
According to Brown and Levinson (1987), a FTA can be performed either
on or off record.
The bald on-record strategy is the most direct strategy. It does nothing to
minimize threats to the hearer’s face. To perform the disagreement directly
without any softening devices, the speaker may use certain negation markers like
“no” accompanied by different paralinguistic features such as word stress, loud
volume or lengthened vowels. This strategy is preferred among people who
know each other very well in a very comfortable environment.
The positive politeness strategies are the ones that oriented towards the
positive face of the hearer by indicating or presupposing in some way that the
speaker wants what the hearer’s wants (Brown and Levinson, 1987). In order to
do so, the addressee should be treated as a member of an in-group, a friend, a
person whose personality trait is known; therefore, this involves the use of
expressions of solidarity, informality and familiarity. Fifteen positive politeness
strategies outlined by Brown and Levinson (1987) and examples of positive
politeness strategies cited from Watts (2003) and Nguyễn Quang (2003) are
presented as follows.
The first type of positive politeness strategy is Notice, attend to hearers
(H) (his interests, wants, needs, goods). This strategy shows awareness of and
concern for H’s wants as a way of indicating cooperation as in the following
example:
Wow, how smart you look today! What occasion? By the way, can I
borrow 50,000 VND if you have?
The second type is named Exaggerate (interest, approval, sympathy with
H). This strategy softens the impending FTA by creating a friendly environment,
specifically using emphatic expressions such as “really,” “absolutely,” or
“exactly.” For example:
Good old Jim. Just the man I wanted to see. I knew I‟d find you here.
Could you spare me a couple of minutes?

23
The third type is Intensity interest to H. This strategy draws H into the
narration, for example by using the “vivid present, directly quoted speech, tag
questions, or exaggerate facts.” (Brown and Levinson, 1987) as in:
You‟ll never guess what Fred told me last night. This is right up your street.
The forth type of positive politeness strategy is Use in-group identity
markers. In-group identity markers include address forms (generic names and
terms of address), in-group language or dialect, the use of jargon or slang, brand
name, or contradiction and ellipsis. For instance,
Here is my old mate, Fred. How are you doing today, mate? Could you
give us a hand to get this car to start?
Seek agreement is the fifth type of positive politeness strategy. In order to
seek agreement from the H, the S can repeat what have been said or use the safe
topic as in:
I agree, right. Manchester United played badly last night, didn‟t they.
D‟you reckon you could give me a cigarette?
The sixth type is Avoid disagreement. Seeking for common group upon
which the S can agree with the H is a way to avoid disagreement. Another way
of avoiding disagreement is to make one’s utterance safely vague by the use of
hedges as in the following example:
Well, in a way I suppose you‟re sort of right. But look at this. Why don‟t you?
The seventh type of positive politeness strategy is called Presuppose/
raise/ assert common ground. This strategy includes “point-of view” operation to
reduce the distance between S and H. This strategy also includes small talks or
gossiping before implementing the FTA. For example,
People like you and me, Bill, don‟t like being put around like that, do we?
Why don‟t we go and complain?

24
Using Joke is the eight kind of positive politeness strategy. Joke can be
used to minimize an FTA of requesting as in the following example:
- Great summer we‟re having. It‟s only rained five times a week on average.
- Yeah, terrible, isn‟t it?
- Could I ask you for a favor?
The next strategy is Assert or presuppose S‟s knowledge of and concern
for H‟s wants. This strategy is similar to the first strategy in the way that it
shows concern for H’s wants to indicate cooperation between S and H as in:
I know you like marshmallows, so I‟ve bought you home a whole box of
them. I wonder if I could ask you for a favor.
Offer/ promise is the 10th
positive politeness strategy proposed by Brown
and Levinson (1987). This strategy is used by S to distract the H from potential
face threats. First, the S may stress cooperation or future cooperation in various
areas by using offers, suggestions or promises. The following sentence is an
example of this strategy:
I‟ll take you out to dinner on Saturday if you cook the dinner this evening.
The 11th
strategy is Be optimistic. This strategy is aimed at minimizing the
FTA by presuming the H’s willingness to cooperate or to imply that the
imposition is minor. For example,
I know you are always glad to get a tip or two on gardening. Fred, so if I
were you, I wouldn‟t cut your lawn back so short.
Include both S and H in the activity is another positive politeness strategy.
This strategy uses the inclusive “we” instead of “I” or “you” as in:
I‟m feeling really hungry. Let‟s stop for a bite.
Strategy 13 is Give (or ask for) reasons. By using this strategy, the S
fosters cooperation by involving the H in his reasoning process so that the
suggestion will be seen as a mutual decision.

25
I think you‟ve had a bit too much to drink, Jim. Why not stay at our place
this evening?
The 14th
strategy is named Assume or assert reciprocity. In this strategy,
the S highlights an ongoing, mutually beneficial relationship as in the following
example:
Dad, if you help me with this math homework, I‟ll mow the lawn after
school tomorrow.
The last positive politeness strategy suggested by Brown and Levinson is
Give gifts to H (goods, sympathy, understanding, cooperation). By using this
strategy, the S anticipates H’s wants, tangible or intangible to show support
towards their fulfillment and make efforts to satisfy particularly the desire for
goodwill as in:
- Have a glass of malt whisky, Dick.
- Terrific, thanks.
- Not at all. I wonder if I could confide for a minute or two.
In addition, Nguyễn Quang (2003: 91-99) proposes two more positive
strategies. The first one is Console, encourage hearer as in “It‟s nothing, really.
Don‟t give up. You have my backing.” The other strategy is Ask personal
questions. For example, in communication, S can ask H such question as “How
many children have you got?” to show his concern towards H.
Negative politeness is addressed to the hearer’s desire to have his freedom
of action unhindered and his intention unimpeded. Negative politeness
“performs the functions of minimizing the particular imposition that the face
threatening acts unavoidable affects” (1987: 129). Briefly, negative politeness
strategies are addressed to H’s negative face and are characterized as expressions
of restraint, formality, and distancing. According to Brown and Levinson,
negative politeness strategies are furthermore viewed as more face redressive,
i.e. more polite, than positive strategies, a point that will be discussed later. As a
result, negative politeness strategies can be expressed in either saving the

26
interlocutor’s face by mitigating FTAs, or satisfying negative face by showing
respect for the addressee’s right not to be imposed on. Ten negative politeness
strategies and examples of theirs (cited from Watts, 2003) are as follows:
Negative strategy 1 is Be conventionally indirect. In this strategy, the S
uses mostly indirect speech acts which are often conventionalized as in:
Could you tell me the time please?
Negative strategy 2 is named Question, hedge. This strategy is used to
minimize the S’s imposition of his view on the H because many speech acts
contain the S’s opinions and assumptions about the H’s beliefs, wishes, and
abilities. Normally, the stronger the face threat is, the more hedging is used. The
following example will illustrate this strategy.
I wonder whether I could just sort of ask you a little question?
Be pessimistic about ability or willingness to comply by using subjunctive
is Negative strategy 3. This strategy is based on minimizing the imposition by
the implication that the S does not expect a positive outcome. For instance,
Ifyouhadalittletimetospareformethisafternoon,I‟dliketotalkaboutmypaper.
Minimize the imposition is the fourth negative politeness strategy in
Brown and Levinson (1987)’s theory. This strategy is based on utilizing
expressions that are to minimize the site of the FTA as in the following example:
Could I talk to you just for a minute?
Negative strategy 5 is named Give deference. This strategy is encoded in
the language structure as formal forms. It can be done by showing respect to H
and humbling the S. For example,
Excuse me, officer. I think I‟ve parked in the wrong place.
Another negative strategy is Apologize. This strategy is used to show
regret or reluctance to impose. This can be done through admitting the
impingement, begging for forgiveness or giving overwhelming.

27
Sorry to bother you, but…
The seventh negative strategy is Impersonalize S and H: avoid the
pronouns “I” and “you”. As its name denotes, in this strategy, the S avoids
using the pronouns “I” and “you” to seemingly less impose on the H.
Consequently, the imposition becomes agentless, and the H is not specified as
the object of the imposition. In the following example, the S avoids using
personal pronouns to show that he is not imposing on the H.
- This car is parked in no-parking area.
- It‟s mine, officer.
- Well, it will have to have a parking ticket.
Negative strategy 8 is State the FTA as a general rule. A way of
dissociating the S and H from the imposition is stating it as a general rule, as in:
Parking on the double yellow is illegal, so I‟m going to have to give you a fine.
Nominalize to distance the actor and add formality is another negative
politeness strategy proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987). This strategy is
used to distance the S and/ or the H from the FTA.
Participation in an illegal demonstration is punishable by law. Could I
have your name and address, madam?
The last negative politeness strategy in Brown and Levinson’s (1987)
theory is Go on record as incurring a debt, or as not indebting H. This strategy
uses explicit acknowledging indebtedness to the H together with disclaiming
indebtedness in offers as in:
If you could just sort out a problem I‟ve got with my formatting, I‟ll buy
you a beer at the lunch time.
Nguyễn Quang (2003) suggests one more strategy namely Avoid asking
personal questions. For example, such question as “How much do you earn a
month?” should be avoided, especially when S and H are not in a close
relationship.

28
Off-record indirect strategies are different from the direct strategies in the
way that they are indirectly realized. Off-record strategies include giving hints,
giving association clues, presupposing, understating, overstating, using
tautologies, etc. For examples,
It‟s cold in here. (So please shut the door)
I have to clean the house again today.
He fixed the car, but didn‟t fix it.
You are a real angel. (Thank you for your help)
The aforementioned politeness strategies can be used to minimize the
degree of offense to the speaker or the hearer in the reference to the face-
threatening act. Consequently, Brown and Levinson’s model has served as the
basis of analysis for a lot of previous studies on linguistic politeness.
Although Brown and Levinson’s theory has been considered as influential
and most valid, it has also been criticized for certain weaknesses by some
researchers. Firstly, Watts (2003: 88) argues that this model does not include the
potentiality of more than one strategy is chosen at the same time. He even further
argues that this possibility can happen and “…is particularly the case with
positive politeness strategies.” Additionally, there can also appear the case in
which one utterance can be interpreted as both positive and negative politeness
strategies or the case in which it is confusing in determining what kind of
politeness strategy it is. For example, in the following utterance, it is hard to
demarcate the type of politeness strategy used:
Stop whining!
The above utterance is firstly a directive, which is a non-redressive on-
record act. Therefore, it is not seen as a polite utterance. However, if it is added
with some redressive actor, such as the politeness marker “please”, it can
become less face threatening:
Stop whining, please!

29
Brown and Levinson seem to be aware of the above problem; therefore, in their
1987 version, they also mention the mixture of strategies – a kind of hybrid
strategy somewhere between negative and positive politeness.
Another severe criticism on Brown and Levinson’s model is that its
central notion of face is likely to be Western-biased. Therefore, it cannot reflect
other language and cultures, especially the Oriental ones like Chinese, Japanese
or Vietnamese.
Chinese researchers like Mao (1994) or Hu (1994) claim that Brown and
Levinson’s notion of face plays a much smaller and different role in their culture.
Similarly, face has been argued not to work effectively in the Japanese language
and culture (Matsuto, 1988; Ide, 1989; Gu, 1990). They point out that “the
Japanese politeness system places a higher value on recognition of the
interpersonal relation than on mitigating impositions of freedom of action.”
Last but not least, there has been a lot of criticism on Brown and
Levinson’s model’s reliance on the relation of politeness choice and the degree
of face loss. As can be seen in Figure 1.5, Brown and Levinson show the lesser-
to-greater estimation of face loss from (1) Bald on record, to (2) Positive
politeness to (3) Negative politeness to (4) Off record and to (5) Don’t do the
FTA. At the same time, they also argue that “the more an act threatens speaker‟s
or hearer‟s face, the more the speaker will want to choose a higher-numbered
strategy” (1987: 60). In other words, according to Brown and Levinson, the
greater the risk of the face threat is, the higher-numbered strategy should be
selected to soften that face threat. In short, higher-numbered strategies are closer
to politeness than the lower-numbered ones. However, this notion seems to be
bias. For example, negative politeness (number 3) in Brown and Levinson’s
perspective is implied to be more polite than positive politeness (number 2).
Nevertheless, while it appears to be true in individualism-cultures of Western
countries, it does not seem to be the case in collectivism-oriented cultures like

30
Vietnam where positive politeness is more appreciated. Additionally, there arises
the question of whether it is always appropriate to put Off-record in a higher level
of politeness than the on-record strategies. The problem here is that indirectness,
which is closely related to Off-record, does not always mean politeness, especially
in collectivism-oriented cultures. Therefore, a number of researchers (Blum-kulka,
1987; Upadhway, 2004) criticize the degree of face loss proposed by Brown and
Levinson.
1.3.2.3. The social- norm approach
In the normative approach or the social-norm view, politeness must be
practiced in accordance with social norms and conventions. Additionally,
politeness in such views is realized chiefly by formal linguistic forms such as
honorifics, pronouns, address terms, speech formula, etc.
The normative view is preferred by a lot of Asian researchers, specifically
Japanese and Chinese linguists. For example, such Japanese researchers as
Matsumoto (1988) or Fucada and Asato (2004) argue that Brown and Levinson’s
classification of individual face into positive and negative face is not appropriate
to collectivism-oriented culture because in this culture, social norm is much
more important than the individual face. Furthermore, Matsumoto (1988) also
argues that the concept of negative face in Brown and Levinson (1987)’s model
of politeness is not a helpful one in understanding Japanese culture. Sharing the
same point of view, Chinese researchers (Gu, 1990 and Mao, 1994) point out
that, despite the fact that politeness is a universal phenomenon, politeness
behavior is culture-specific and language-specific.
Apart from the aforementioned researchers, certain non-Anglophone
linguists are also in favor of the normative perspective. One example of such
studies is the one conducted by Nwoye’s (1992). In his research, Nwoye
investigates the notion of face of Nigerians. He concludes that Nigerian
people show their great concern to the collective self-image rather than the
individual one.

31
In Vietnamese context, certain scholars like Nguyễn Đức Hoạt (1995) and
Nguyễn Văn Độ (1999) also address this issue. For instance, in a study of
politeness markers in Vietnamese request, Nguyễn Đức Hoạt (1995) supports
the view that, in Brown and Levinson (1987)’s theory, the social constraints on
politeness output are not fully addressed.
1.3.2.4. The conversational-contract approach
The conversational-contract approach was derived from Fraser (1990)’s
politeness theory. In this approach, each party taking part in the conversation
will bring a set of rights and obligations that determine what the participant can
expect from each other in a “conversational contract” operating in Gricean terms.
This interpersonal contract can be revised in the course of the time. The rights
and obligations of each participant are established on four dimensions:
conventional, institutional, situational, and historical. As a result, politeness in
conversational-contract view is operating within the terms and conditions of the
conversational contract. This view is somewhat similar to social norm view in
that politeness involves conforming to socially agreed codes of good behavior.
However, it is different from social norm view because in this approach the
rights and obligations are negotiable.
The plus point of this approach comes from its universal applicability
whereas the lack of model details is one prominent minus point of the approach
(Thomas, 1995). Additionally, in the conversational-contract view, it is not clear
what social conditions may prepare the ground for the readjustment and
renegotiations of rights and terms as Watts (2003) points out. Furthermore,
further empirical application this approach in cross-cultural context to determine
the validity of conversational contract is called by Cesar (2008).
1.3.3. Concluding remarks
It can be seen clearly that most of the aforementioned theories are
partially based on a criticism of an earlier theory; however, they are not really in

32
conflict. Additionally, none of them is comprehensive enough to cover all
aspects of all languages and cultures. In their explanation of the politeness
phenomena, the various theories often approach from different angles,
emphasize different aspects as well as use different terminology, but most of
them share the following common ideas.
Firstly, politeness is a significant mechanism that helps to avoid conflict.
Lakoff (1973, cited in Eelen, 2001: 2) sees the main task of politeness in
minimizing the potential for conflict and confrontation inherent in all human
interchange while Leech (1983: 21) proposes politeness maxims towards
avoiding disruption and maintaining the social equilibrium and friendly relations.
Somewhat similarly, Brown and Levinson (1987) base their model on using
politeness to minimize fact threat whereas Ide connects politeness with smooth
communication. In brief, politeness helps to maintain harmonious social
dynamics.
Secondly, the existence of politeness is on one hand universal, but on the
other hand is culture-sensitive. As a result, linguists who emphasize universality
of politeness also acknowledge the cultural specific application and via-versa.
For example, Leech (1983: 80) recognizes that “different societies operate
maxims in different ways.” Ide likewise points out that his term “discernment” is
appropriate for Japanese but it also exists in all languages. Brown and Levinson
although introduces such universal as face, they acknowledge that the specifics
of face-wants and face-threat are subject to cultural specifications of many sorts.
Additionally, aspects of politeness like the existence of face or the desire to
avoid face-threats are valid across cultures, but cultures differ in their
understanding and manifestation.
Finally, some politeness means are required by the culture while some
are chosen by the speakers themselves. In other words, politeness is situational
and determined by the social rules that have been developed over time in a
particular culture.

33
1.4. Politeness and advertising
An important emphasis in advertising language according to Toolan
(1988: 54) is the appearance of an interaction or conversation between the
advertiser and target customers generated through the use of interrogative and
imperative moods of verbs, and politeness is given as the major interactive
component in advertising language. Politeness is relevant to advertising because
it helps to determine the type of relationship between the advertiser and the
prospective consumers. Advertiser, therefore, must exalt the benefits of the
product or service without causing offence in order to persuade the consumer to
purchase the product or use the service.
An example of how politeness operates in advertising can be found is
Mileva (1998)’s, which compares the communication strategies in advertising in
the US and Bulgaria. The results of the study indicate that Bulgarian adverts
have a very direct appeal such as “Buy our product” or “Become a shareholder
in our fund,” telling consumers directly to buy the product or to use the service,
and the advertisements are impersonal with few linguistic devices directly
acknowledge the presence of the consumer and establish a personal relationship.
In American advertisements, however, the imperative is used as an indirect
request or advice to tell the customers the benefits of the products, and positive
politeness strategies are the strategies used to maintain the rapport with
consumers. Some examples of this way are “Experience more. Find more” or
“You‟ve got senses. Use them.” As can be seen from these two examples,
imperative mode here is used to represent friendly piece of advice that flatter and
communicate rapport with the reader. Also according to this study, in view of
politeness, an advertisement can be categorized as a face-threatening act mainly
because advertisements act as directives, requests or offers that put pressure on
the consumer to buy a product or service. Assumed that the consumer’s possible
reaction to the FTA may be a rejection to the advertised message, ad-writers try
to mitigate the act with face-saving politeness strategies.

34
Additionally, as advertising builds relationship between advertisers and
the consumers, politeness strategies provide useful tools for describing and
analyzing the language of advertising. Hardin (2001: 155) shows that positive
politeness contributes to the force of the advertising message because it allows
the advertiser and the consumer to share the same desire and by ways of friendly
appeals encourages the audience to participate in the message. Advertisements
with negative politeness, on the other hand, contribute to the force of message
through the formality and by not infringing on the reader’s face. In other words,
negative politeness would support the speaker’s authority as in the adverts the
announcer has useful medical and technical information to offer and the
advertiser’s wish not to offend the reader in providing straightforward
information that the reader can use to decide on his own about the usefulness of
the product of service.
As discussed in the previous section, politeness refers to an act that is
used to enhance the relationship between the speaker and the hearer in a social
interaction. Within politeness theory, face is the notion which indicates
individual’s feeling of self-worth and self-image. This image can be damaged,
maintained and enhanced through interaction with others. In different social
situations, people are obligated to adjust their use of words to fit the occasion to
gain their communicative purposes. In advertising, the importance of keeping
people’s face is much more important as the main aims of advertising are
drawing potential customers’ attention, arousing their interest, stimulating their
desire and most importantly creating conviction in order to urge them to buy the
product or use the service. As a result, ad-writers have to employ different
strategies to ensure that their customers’ face can be maintained.
At the same time, appeals can be defined as something that makes the
product particularly attractive or interesting to the consumer (Wells, Burnett, &

35
Moriarty, 1995). In other words, appeals are undoubtedly connected to products’
attributes, and they are designed to represent the supposed values of the products
advertised. For example, an advertising appeal, such as a claim that a product has
25% less sugar may evoke the belief in a consumer that the product will
bring them health benefits that can help them feel better and safer when
using the product. These appeals are, therefore, what reflect a set of values
found in a society as Pollay (1986) indicates. To put it another way,
advertising appeals are utilized to enhance customers’ face. Consequently,
there may exist the potential relationship between politeness strategies and
advertising appeals.
1.5. Review of previous studies
Advertising is such an interesting research topic that it has been studied in
many disciplines namely mass media communication, business-related
disciplines (i.e., economics, marketing, and management), and linguistics. In
terms of linguistics, different researchers explore advertising from different
perspectives such as discourse analysis, content analysis, visual analysis,
pragmatic analysis or multi-modal analysis. The following part reviews the
relevant previous studies conducted from the cross-cultural pragmatic view and
then addresses their significance to the current study.
1.5.1. Previous studies of advertising from cross-cultural pragmatic perspective
Most of the related studies fall under the umbrella of pragmatics
examining either the use of Grice (1975)’s maxims, speech act theory and such
factors as implicature, presupposition, entailment or politeness strategies used in
advertising. Certain research explores the non-verbal cues or uses the inferential
pragmatic approach to analyze advertising language.
Firstly, studies of Chiluwa (2007), Al-Azzawi (2010), or Lipping Ge
(2011) explore advertising language based on Grice’s maxims of cooperation in
communication.

36
Chiluwa (2007) uses the speech acts theory by Austin (1969) and Searle
(1969, 1976) to interpret the language of soft drink advertisement in the context
of Nigeria in terms of persuasive actions. The results of the study indicate that
the directive act and the representation act, which involve requesting, appealing,
claiming, reporting, asserting and suggesting, are more frequently demonstrated
in the advert. These, therefore, could be considered the best persuasive strategy
in the adverts as “they particularly appealed to the consumer‟s sense of ego, sex
class and self-worth.”
Al-Azzawi (2010) analyzes advertising language from the pragmatic
aspect, especially Grice’s cooperative principles. The results reveal that in
advertisement, implicature and entailment are made use of to serve the purposes of
the ad-writers “irrespective of whether the addressee‟s entailment is the same as
that of the advertiser or not.” However, there was no discussion on the use of
presupposition and other pragmatic aspects which may be used in the advertising.
Ge (2011) fills Al-Azzawi (2010)’s gap by conducting research on
pragmatic functions of presupposition in advertising English. The findings reveal
that presupposition is a linguistic device that can be used to imply that certain
conditions exist or that certain things have happened or have not happened.
Therefore, presupposition is an effective way of creating the biggest contextual
effect in recipients with the least processing effort to achieve the most
advertising effects.
Zhu Wenzhong and Li Jingyi (2013) examine the application of vague
language in the context of English commercial advertising from the data of
commercial advertisement in the newspapers in four English-speaking countries
namely USA, UK, Australia and Canada. Based on the pragmatic theory,
Cooperative Principle and Conversational Implicature, the study finds that vague
language plays both positive and negative roles in commercial advertising. Its
positive functions include improving the flexibility of communication by

37
displaying politeness and naturalness; enhancing the expressiveness of language;
enriching the message of idea as well as ensuring the accuracy of information.
However, if inappropriately exploited, vague language may mislead or cause the
readers to have false interpretations of the advertisements.
Secondly, a number of studies have been conducted to investigate
politeness strategies in advertising language or how politeness is expressed in
speech acts in advertising. These studies include ones conducted by Koga &
Pearson (1992), Hongfei Ke (2006), Wise (2011) or Pishghadam and Navari
(2012). While Hongfei Ke and Wise mainly employ Brown & Levinson’s
politeness model for analysis, Koga & Pearson’s and Pishghadam & Navari’s
research combine the theory of Brown & Levinson and other politeness theories
like Ting & Toomey’s (1988) or Leech’s (1983).
Based on cross-cultural pragmatic perspective, Koga & Pearson (1992)
combine Brown & Levinson’s (1978, 1987) and Ting & Toomey’s (1998) model
of politeness to measure politeness strategies of ads. The results of the study
reveal that Japanese advertisers use more social strategies correlating with
collectivistic, vertical and high-context culture in contrast with the use of more
individual strategies correlating with individualistic, horizontal and low-context
culture of American advertisers. However, the research only deals with female
readers, which may affect the objectivity of the results as gender is often found
to be an influencing variable. Additionally, a more precise approach in
categorizing face strategies should be utilized.
Hongfei Ke (2006) applies a model of politeness derived from the theory
of Brown and Levinson in order to compare Chinese and American
advertisements. The study utilizes negative versus positive face value, individual
versus social face value, and self versus other face value as well as their
combination to analyze 70 advertisements. It is found that Chinese advertisers
use more collective face and negative face strategies, which correlate with

38
collectivistic, vertical and high context culture of Chinese whereas American
advertising contains more individual, positive face strategies in correlation with
individualistic, horizontal and low context culture. Additionally, American ads
use more other face strategies while Chinese ones use more self-face strategies.
With regard to combined features, Chinese advertisements mainly employ
Association/ Collective/ Other face concern while Association/ Individual/ Other
face concern is the priority of American ads. The findings of the research are
meaningful and enlightening for Chinese and American corporations to do the
international product promotion. Furthermore, the analytical framework of the
study which combines pragmatic and advertising culture helps to enrich the
interdisciplinary research and the development of pragmatics and cross-cultural
communication studies. However, it would be better if the sample of the study
were larger and a more precise approach in categorizing face strategies could be
provided.
Wise (2011) does research on speech acts and politeness in Spanish and
English magazine advertising from cross-cultural pragmatic perspective. By
applying speech act theory and models of politeness of Brown and Levinson
(1987) and Leech (1983), Wise analyzes directives and commissives in
advertising. The researcher finds out that the speech acts in the Spanish and
English advertisements tend to orient towards positive politeness strategies.
Additionally, there are structural linguistic features specific to each language
within the speech acts that can support politeness strategies. Despite the in-depth
analysis, Wise’s corpus consists of advertisements from only two magazines,
one for each language. Therefore, the result of the study cannot be generalized.
Moreover, the study just focuses on two types of speech acts, so additional types
of speech acts should be added.
Pishghadam and Navari (2012) investigate the politeness strategies
adopted in English and Persian ads so as to compare and contrast their

39
persuasive factors. To this end, a corpus of 100 Persian and English ads is
analyzed based on Brown and Levinson’s (1987) taxonomy of politeness
functions. The study indicates that English advertisements made more use of
positive politeness strategies while in Persian adverts indirect off-record
strategies were more favored. Additionally, the findings also reveal that the
choices of psychological strategies made by ad-writers to persuade readers are
also in accordance with their intended culture, i.e. the individualistic nature of
culture for England and collectivist for Persian. However, this research only
discusses the availability of different politeness strategies used in English and
Persian advertisements. Therefore, this present study provides information not
only about the availability but also the proportionality and manifestability of
various politeness strategies utilized in American and Vietnamese advertising.
Another trend of exploiting politeness in advertising is to examine principles
of conversation which include both the cooperative principle and politeness
strategies. Such studies include research by Fang Liu (2012) or Abel (2014).
Fang Liu (2012) analyzes advertisements based on the cooperative
principle by Grice and the politeness principle by Leech. The findings indicate
that advertising could achieve special effects by applying the principle of
conversation. In the communication of advertisements, advertisers often impart
information in an indirect way by openly and intentionally flouting the maxims
of cooperative principles so as to allow readers of advertisements to infer the
conversational implicature from the literal meaning. Additionally, the study also
revealed that the tact maxim, generosity maxim and sympathy maxim of the
politeness principle proposed by Leech (1983) are often applied to
advertisements, especially in public service advertising because when using such
maxims, the ads can gain more attraction and fulfill the ultimate objective of
persuading consumers successfully. It would be better, however, if the study
could provide a deeper analysis.

40
Abel (2014) examines a variety of billboard adverts from different
industries using pragmatics theory of speech acts, presupposition, non-verbal
communication and cooperative principles and Leech’s (1983) politeness
principle. The research tried to figure out the relationship between the texts and
the structure, graphic symbols and meanings conveyed. The study observes that
illocutionary forces are intentionally direct towards the advertisers’
communicative intentions. Additionally, in commercial adverts, language is
mainly a persuasive instrument in which ad-writers rely on their mutual
knowledge with the audience. Last but not least, presuppositions are potent in
commercial bill-board advertising.
Thirdly, there exist certain studies investigating politeness in
advertisement based on non-verbal cues or using inferential pragmatic approach
to analyze advertising language. However, the methods used in these studies are
only suitable for certain cultures and it is hard to do the similar research in other
contexts.
Chuchu and Mahali (2014) conduct research on politeness in Brunei and
Malaysian TV advertisements based on non-verbal cues derived from al-Quran
and al-Hadith from Islamic perspective. The findings reveal that realization of
politeness in the form of non-verbal communication can be seen in facial
expression, eye communication, touch communication, clothing and voice
meanwhile realization of impoliteness can be seen from the physical
environment communication which is appearance or more specifically clothes.
Moreover, realization of politeness in TV Brunei and TV Malaysia does not have
much difference. The slight difference is that the realization of politeness
through clothing on TV ads in TV Brunei is more evident than on TV Malaysia.
Much more importantly, all factors that influence the realization of politeness are
basically a way of life; i.e. “Malay Islamic Monarchy” philosophy for Brunei
and “One Malaysia’ concept of Malaysia. Despite the fact that the analysis is

41
specifically detailed, the analytical framework may only work well for Islamic
people, and hence cannot be appropriate for the present study.
Using inferential pragmatic approach, Qadafi and Wahyudi (2014)
investigated the way cigarettes are promoted without explicitly exposing them in
the context of Indonesia. This research reveals that the language of
advertisements operated subtly at the level of cognition and comprehension to
persuade smokers. In persuading smokers, the cigarette companies first chose
inputs which have greater relevance and cognitive effects, then explicated the
messages; implicated assumptions and finally concluded the messages.
There are also a few studies conducted in Vietnamese context from
pragmatic perspective like Mai Xuân Huy (2005) or Nguyễn Thị Cẩm Hà (2011).
These studies focus on speech acts employed in only Vietnamese advertising or in
Vietnamese advertising in comparison with English advertising.
Mai Xuân Huy (2005) studies the language of advertising in light of
communicative approach. He explores advertising language basing on pragmatic
approach, or more specifically, speech acts in Vietnamese advertisements.
Nguyễn Thị Cẩm Hà (2011) investigates linguistic features of the
advertisements of food and drinks in English versus Vietnamese. The study
found that regarding the use of speech acts in the ads of food and drinks, both
English and Vietnamese are found to employ the major speech acts like
representatives, directives, commissives and questions for both informative and
persuasive functions. Moreover, as regards the stylistic devices, English and
Vietnamese have at disposal means to carry out the surface structure operations
that make sentences and their constituents more prominent and influence the
interpretation of text meaning in terms of stylistic values.
As can be seen, most of the studies under the light of pragmatic
perspective mentioned above investigated advertising in terms of speech acts,
politeness and other aspects related to cooperative principles. However, there has
been rarely any research examining politeness strategies in their full

42
manifestation which might lead to insufficient understanding of the language in
advertising industry. Additionally, in Vietnamese context, to the best of the
author’s knowledge, the number of studies on advertising is limited, especially
ones on the comparison between Vietnamese and American advertising. As a
result, the author attempts to do the research on cross-cultural pragmatic of
commercial advertisements in American and Vietnamese magazines.
1.5.2. Previous studies of advertising appeals
In this section, the related studies on advertising appeals are reviewed
according to research approach, their objects of study, their findings and their
limitations. These studies of advertising appeals often examine advertising
appeals by using appeals systems in relation with cultural values.
Cheng and Schweitzer (1996) compare television commercials in China
and the U.S. via the coding scheme developed from those of Pollay (1983) and
Mueller (1987). The results indicate that in Chinese commercials, “food and
drink” was more closely associated with “tradition” than the other categories
whereas in the U.S. commercials, it was more closely associated with
“enjoyment” than most of the other categories. Although the study provides
details on how cultural values varied by product category and country, it does
not find strong evidence to support the result.
Albers-Miller and Stafford (1999) examine advertising appeals across
cultural areas by adapting Pollay’s advertising appeal system. Their analysis
shows that U.S. advertisements used significantly more rational appeals than do
the Taiwan advertisements, with those of Mexico and Brazil falling between. On
the contrary, Taiwan advertisements use significantly more emotional appeals
than do the U. S. advertisements, again with those of Mexico and Brazil falling
between. Although this research helps establish an international advertising
appeals/cultural value framework that go beyond Hofstede’s work-related
cultural dimensions, it is limited to print advertisements and the comparisons are
made between broad categories such as services and goods.

43
Lin (2009) studies the role of western culture in reshaping Chinese
cultural values in terms of modernity, tradition, individualism, collectivism and
the use of western fashion models and language. The findings of the study show
no statistical difference in individualistic and modernity values between the US
and Chinese ads in women’s magazines. Additionally, western models are
employed in almost half of the Chinese advertisements and only 2 out of 226
Chinese ads are applying merely Chinese language to name the brand. However,
the study is limited in terms of the sample which contains only the
advertisements taken from women’s magazines. Furthermore, its analytical
framework is a bit simple with only comparison of the percentage of cultural
appeals between the two countries.
Shen (2013) uses content analysis to examine the use of appeals and
cultural values in Chinese television commercials. The results indicate the
preference of rational appeals over emotional appeals and the variety of using
these two kinds of appeals in different goods categories. Although the findings
of the study are significant for advertisers to select the right appeal for their
products, a deeper analysis of the study results and more discussion on the
cultural values embedded should be provided.
Sar and Rodriguez (2014) carry out a study on advertising appeals
employed in Cambodian and Vietnamese advertisements. Using content analysis,
the study’s results indicate the preference of individualistic appeals in
Cambodian ads in comparison to more collectivistic and functional appeals of
Vietnamese advertisements. Additionally, while Vietnamese audiences tend to
respond positively to more collectivistic and functional appeals, Cambodian
audiences prefer more individualistic and functional appeals. Despite its in-depth
analysis, the research cannot clearly explain the differences in the priority of
advertising appeals between two cultures. Additionally, other socioeconomic
variables should be taken into consideration when conducting the study.

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