Discussion On Design Ethics In Cross-cultural Advertising Communication

In the21st century, with intensified global market integration and constantly updated information andcommunication technology, human beings need to promote the mutual communication. The spreading ofcross-cultural exchanges thus become increasingly important. Cross-cultural communication refers to theactivities spreading of two or more different cultural information from different ethnic groups and differentgeographical areas. As a form of cultural transmission, advertising also needs to be spread over two or moredifferent cultural groups. When multinational enterprise conducts cross-cultural advertising communication,they are faced with a huge cultural differences which are completely different from their own culture. Suchpeople from different cultural backgrounds, due to their different cultures, value systems, ways of thinkingand codes of conduct, etc., are often unable to correctly understand the information content of the foreignadvertising. And sometimes they can not accept the way of its dissemination, with conflicting, resentingand even resisting feeling. Ethics is a complex system. During the cross-cultural advertisingcommunication process, design ethical issues have emerged, causing widespread concern. How to bridgethe gap among different cultures? How to effectively deal with cultural differences? How to avoid moreadvertising ethical problems? This is the major concern for the study and main problem to be solved.The source of conflict and even resisting is the cultural binary opposition, different values orientation,interferences on advertising from religions and customs due to geographical differences, and differences inlaws and regulations to restrict advertising. We must seek effective communication strategies and respectcultural differences in other countries as a precondition to meet the target audience’s value systems andrespect their customs and religion, abide by their laws and regulations, hence to eliminate differences andbarriers and avoid design ethical problems. More than that, designers should establish a correct concept ofintercultural communication when they are designing the creative advertisement, spare no efforts todiscover the commonalities of different cultures, handle the relationship well between internationalizationand localization, and comply with the design principles. In the meanwhile, we should learn to reject "baddesign" and learn the idea of "no harm is beauty."...