A Comparative Study of the Cultural Values Reflected in Thai and Korean Magazine Ads from 2007 to 2017 : Ralston’s Crossvergence Theory Perspective

Abstract

Scholars have long debated about the changeability of cultural values of different countries over time. The ‘divergence’ school claims that cultural values are hard to change. The ‘convergence’ theorists, on the other hand, argue that with economic development the cultural values will become similar all over the world. Ralston (2008) claimed that the ‘socio-cultural dimensions’ of a country’s cultural values tend to remain unchanged over time while the ‘business ideology dimensions’ can change in a short period of time. This study examined the plausibility of this ‘crossvergence’ theory by comparing the cultural values reflected in Thai and Korean magazine ads from 2007 and 2017. We conducted a content analysis, using a coding scheme consisting of 6 socio-cultural and 4 business ideology dimensions on a total of 1,310 samples. In addition, this study examined the advertising executional elements in the ads of the two countries. The results regarding the socio-cultural dimensions are not entirely consistent with Ralston’s divergence argument. In the case of the Thai sample, one out of the six socio-cultural dimensions changed in the ten year period. The Korean sample showed that three out of the six dimensions have changed. These findings call for a close examination of Ralston’s argument about the socio-cultural dimensions not changing easily over time. In terms of the four business ideology dimensions we examined, two dimensions in the Thai and three dimensions in the Korean sample showed a significant increase between 2007 and 2017, thus somewhat supporting Ralston’s convergence theory. Finally, we found that the Korean ads employed significantly more celebrities than the Thai ads in both years. The ads from both countries employed more rational appeals than emotional appeals. And there was no significant difference in the use of rational appeal and emotional appeal between two countries for both time periods. Theoretical and practical implications are offered.