Advertising in Mainland China: A Preliminary Study

Advertising in mainland China is increasing rapidly, but there is little published information on who the major advertisers are. This study reports the results of an analysis of the advertising that appeared during a selected week in October 1985. TV commercials were video-taped, radio advertising recorded, billboards noted and newspaper advertisements in the two major dailies clipped. Little advertising by foreign companies was found and, of that, virtually all was by Japanese firms. For instance, 12 out of 14 of the foreign advertisements, amongst a total of 114 billboard advertisements checked, were Japanese. Industrial product advertising accounted for over a quarter of all the TV and radio advertisements analysed. There were, averaged over the week, about six to seven minutes of TV and 12 to 13 minutes of radio advertising each day, while advertising occupied about 20 per cent of the total space in the two major newspapers. The largest amount of consumer product advertising on China Central Television was for home appliances, followed by medicines.