The manifestation of individualism in American and Vietnamese advertisements through social-perception themes

Many scholars have been fascinated by the juxtaposition of individualism and collectivism in advertising concepts.Their investigation has yielded mixed and contradictory outcomes.The cultural congruence hypothesis is supported through comparative analysis of Eastern and Western advertising with mixed findings [4,11].Some studies have not found any difference between Eastern and Western advertising in the use of individualism and collectivism [3].Few studies comparing advertisements of different product origins (i.e., imported, joint venture, and domestic products) revealed a similar pattern of mixed, conflicting, and inconclusive findings.However, individualism-collectivism dimension (I-CD), especially regarding its manifestation in Vietnamese context, is still a fertilized land for any Vietnamese researchers to set their basis on. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Individualism and collectivism dimension (I-CD)Hofstede's [8, 9] Individualism-Collectivism (I-C) dimension explains variations in human psychology and behavior across cultures and individuals.Western cultures (e.g., the U.S., Australia,