A conceptual framework for understanding the content of advertising: Its application to the specific case of Chinese television commercials

The conceptual framework for explaining advertising content formulated in this paper begins with environmental factors such as culture and economic system, and ends with the ads themselves—with advertising industry factors, such as practices and views/values of its actors, and consumer factors, such as experience making up the middle two layers. An empirical application of this model, through variables derived from it, to Chinese television commercials suggests post‐hoc substantiation for the most part. Future studies could pose and test a priori hypotheses (for other countries, media, and variables) leading to the refinement, clarification, and elaboration of the model.