Cultural Similarities and Differences in Advertising between Western and Eastern Consumers

Abstract

Advertisings related to the fruition of carbonated beverages are intensively presented on the usual TV programs worldwide. Such as advertisements are also present on journals, street posters, fast foods and supermarkets in a pervasive way and could have a deep impact on human behavior. Recent functional neuroimaging studies have begun to investigate how commercial brand information is processed in the brain (Frank, 2003; McClure et al., 2004; Deppe et al., 2005). Although the experimental designs vary, each of these studies report activity in ventral and/or medial prefrontal cortex during the contemplation or consumption of familiar brand-name products. Since lesion studies indicate ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC) is critically involved in emotion, emotional regulation and decision-making (Koenigs et al., 2007), ventromedial prefrontal activations can be interpreted as evidence for emotion playing a pivotal role in brand preference (Frank, 2003; Deppe et al., 2005).