Do you see what I see? A cross-cultural analysis of the social identity metaphor in visual print advertisements

Previous studies in cross-cultural print advertising have neglected culture's impact on the consumer's metaphorical processing of visual messages. This dissertation addressed the issue by examining the role of the audience's culturally-determined social identity and contextual communication style in the interpretation and evaluation of visual print advertisements. Specifically, hypotheses were developed to examine the relationship between consumers' social identity and their appraisal of visual print advertisements depicting independent and interdependent appeals. Additionally, the research examined the effect of high-context and low-context communication styles on the interpretation and evaluation of simple versus complex visual messages. The hypotheses were tested using a quasi-experimental design conducted on subjects from America, Spain, and the Philippines. The data was analyzed using MANOVA and ANOVA. There was strong statistical support for the proposed relationship between contextual communication styles and the preference for developing metaphorical meaning for both complex and simple visual images. There was moderate statistical support for the hypothesized relationship between consumers' social identity and the evaluation of independent versus interdependent visual appeals.; These findings provide significant insights that should appeal to academics and practitioners alike. The research contributes to the academic field by applying the theory of visual rhetoric to a cross-cultural setting, thus extending the current framework. The findings also suggest that practitioners should consider both the contextual communication style of their target audience and the level of congruency between the pictorial image and the audience's frame of mind when developing global advertising strategies.