Advertising in China: An Analysis of Ads During the COVID-19 Period

Introduction

One of the oldest civilizations in the world, China is one of the fastest-growing and promising markets across the world. China is expected to generate approximately 10.3 billion U.S. dollars of ad spending between 2019 and 2022 as the second largest market in the advertising sector after the United States. (Thomola, 2021). In that regard, it is argued that the advertising industry in China is a dynamic industry that is closely related to China’s economic development (Li, 2017:5).

On January 4, 1979, some local ads appeared on Chinese newspaper Tianjin Daily. An image of a woman and an informational toothpaste ad are among those examples. Considering the attractive and colorful ads of today, it can be said that the ads of that period did not have the same impact. It was the first commercial ad to appear in the country following the process of reform and opening up initiated by Deng Xiaoping at the Third Plenum of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), held on December 18–22,1978. However, this is not the first example of advertising in China. The origins of advertising are commonly dated back to ancient times. Nonetheless, it can be said that the history of advertising in China starts with primitive societies in university coursebooks. In connection with that, in his study, Zhao Chen refers to the clan and tribal totems as the first ads while Ni Ningîn states that these ads dated back to 3000 BCE during the period of slaves and clans. These ads were quite different from the modern ads. Therefore, it has been expressed that the ads as we know today began to appear in the second half of the 19th century in China (Puppin, 2014:178-179).

It is recorded that in the development of advertising, the foreigners who came to the country for spreading these elements for commercial or religious purposes and who employed convincing advertising techniques while doing so had a significant role. However, it was not easy to sell foreign products to Chinese customers during these centuries. The foreign sellers bumped against nationalist boycotts (Puppin, 2014:179). 1920s and 1930s allowed China to live its golden age of advertising prior to the revolution. During this period, the first advertising agencies of the country Carl Crow Inc., Millington’s Advertising Co., China Commercial Advertising Agency, and Consolidated National Advertising Co. were born and developed. As a medium, advertising thereby began to appear extensively in various mediums such as newspapers and outdoor spaces. Shanghai became the city where advertising activities were carried out and beautiful Chinese women were put on modern and Western calendar posters. However, this era would not last long due to the outbreak of anti-Japanese resistance (1937–45) and the civil war waged between the nationalists and communists (1945–1949), during which advertising continued to exist even though it gradually lost the crucial role it had played in the previous year (Puppin, 2014:180). When People’s Republic of China was founded on October 1, 1949 on the basis of traditional Marxist thought, it led to the decline of advertising, which represented contrary views. It is no coincidence that the advertising agencies, influenced by the socialist movement, merged and founded Shanghai Advertising Corporation (SAC) in 1956 (Hong, 1996:77-78). It is even stated that the advertisements in communist China tried to disseminate their messages through unusual mediums such as railways, lunch boxes, travel magazines, and poker card boxes until 1958 (Jing, 2008: 7).