Bong-chul Kim

The Portrayal of Older People in Television Advertisements: A Cross-Cultural Content Analysis of the United States and South Korea

A cross-cultural content analysis of 2,295 prime-time television ads-859 ads from the United States and 1,436 ads from South Korea–was conducted to examine the differences in the portrayal of older people between U.S. and Korean ads. In two countries, the underrepresentation of older people in ads was found in terms of proportions of the actual population. The findings also showed that older people are more likely to play major roles in Korean television ads than in U.S. ads. In terms of the attributes of older people depicted in ads, differences between U.S. and Korean ads were also found. The results showed that Korean television ads are likely to more positively depict older people than American television ads are. These findings supported the basic assumption of cross-cultural advertising, in which the differences in cultural values between the two cultures are related to the differences in the contents of their advertisements. However, the problems of underrepresentation and stereotypes in the portrayal of older people were still identified both in Korean and U.S. prime-time television ads.

Personality structure of brands on social networking sites and its effects on brand affect and trust: evidence of brand anthropomorphization

ABSTRACT The current study explored the personality dimensions of brands on Social Networking Sites (SNSs) using a South Korean sample. Through a series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, six dimensions (i.e. Openness, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Extraversion, Warmth, and Contentiousness) were yielded for brands with SNS presence. The data also produced six dimensions (i.e. Openness, Sincerity, Extraversion, Competence, Agreeableness, and Ruggedness) for brands without SNS presence. The results show that brands with which consumers interact on SNSs have more human-like personalities than brands absent from SNSs, and the personality dimensions affected brand affect and trust to varying degrees.

Practitioners’ celebrity endorser selection criteria in South Korea: an empirical analysis using the Analytic Hierarchy Process

ABSTRACT This study investigated how clients and advertising agencies in Korea prioritized celebrity selection criteria differently. Responses from 50 client-side and 50 agency-side executives in Korea were analyzed using the Analytic Hierarchy Process. Results show that the brand-centered factor ‘Match-up’ was considered most important by both clients and agencies but that the celebrity-centered factor ‘Popularity’ was ranked quite differently (i.e. second by agencies and fourth by clients, out of five factors). Other factors (i.e. Availability and Potential Risk) were ranked similarly. The main finding of the study is that Korean ad agencies and clients placed different weight on celebrity endorser selection criteria. This finding is particularly valuable to national and international advertisers who are deliberating about celebrity endorsement for the Korean market.