Author(s): Najah Shahin, Morris Kalliny and Sami Shahin
The current research examined differences and similarities in content and appeal of magazine advertisements in the Arab world and the United States. The motivation behind this research resides in the fact that the Arab culture is going through increasing change that affects consumers’ perception and behavior (Kalliny & Gentry, 2007). The change may create confusion and ambiguity in the international marketing environment of this region. This raises two main research concerns: first, previous research findings will have to go through a rigorous review to account for the changes that are sweeping the Arab region. Second, future research must capture those changes and assess their impact on the Arab society and culture. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the current cultural values used in magazine advertisements in the Arab region and compare them to those used in magazine advertisements in the United States. The results of this study should be interpreted with caution due to the limitation of the sample and the dependency on coders’ accuracy. Future research should focus on expanding the sample and investigate these cultural values in other advertising medium such as digital and TV advertisements.