Individualism and collectivism in advertising – An overview

Advertising is increasingly important in every corner of the world.  It has become an indispensable part for both producers and consumers in modern society to boost the production and consumption of the products. To succeed in advertising, one component advertisers cannot ignore is cultural values because they are one of the determinants of customers’ behavior. Of the cultural dimensions, individualism and collectivism are considered the most important one. This study, therefore, sets the light on an overview of how individualism and collectivism is manifested in advertising in term of advertising themes, advertising creative tactics and linguistic advertising features in empirical studies. It then specifies what have and has not been done on the topic alike so that anyone interested in the field will find the gaps for their future research.