In the information age, the influence of advertising is self-evidentwhich is a main medium for spreading or marketing something to the masses. Ingeneral, advertising is divided into two types，notfor-profit advertising and for-profit advertising. Literally the former is toachieve a certain kind of promotion, and the latter is for profit. In theinformation age, advertising is more than just a medium of communication, butalso conveys values and culture. Public service advertising, as a kind ofadvertising, involves every aspect of our social life including transportation,food, medical care and environmental protection, which aims at arousing socialresponsibility and sympathy to create a more harmonious society. Public serviceadvertisements can even be seen as a product of culture. For conveying theirown values and culture, the advertising designers are trying to design theadvertising in accordance with the values. By comparing the culture-orientedpublic service advertising between China and America supported by the culturaldimensions theory, the connection between culture and advertising can be found.

Thispaper will analyze the respective values reflected in the cases of publicservice advertising in China and the United States.

This paper isbased on Hofstra's theory of cultural dimension and carries out comparativeresearch from four aspects, power distance, uncertainty avoidance,individualism and collectivism and masculinity and femininity. According to research done by scholarsbefore, public service advertisements in China are more inclined to long-termorientation and high-contextual values while public service advertisements inthe United States tend to be more short-term and low-contextual values, and powerdistance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism and collectivism and masculinityand femininity do not show significant differences. Butwith the changes in society, the expression of culture and values in publicservice advertising is also changing, and it also reflects the changes ofculture between China and the United States.

Scholarshave long studied the relationship between advertising and culture. With the varietyof advertisements, the channels of communication are more diverse and theinfluence is getting bigger and bigger, the relationship between advertising andculture is also getting closer. Compared with the studies in advertisingdiscourse, the research on public service advertising has a shorter history,therefore there are still many connections in the field of culture and publicservice advertising waiting for people to discover. Based on the researchresults of predecessors, this paper will continue to explore the differencesbetween Chinese and American public service advertisings from the perspectiveof Hofstede's culturaldimensions theory, and continues to explore the relationship between publicservice advertising and social culture and its impact on it.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

1. The basic content

Thispaper basically focuses on the comparative study of the public serviceadvertising in China and the US. By comparing the differentcultural implication that reflects in China and America public serviceadvertising, this paper will explore this issue in accordance with Hofstede’stheory from the four aspects. The paper consists of six chapters. It beginswith the introduction and purpose of this research, then continues with givingthe definition of advertising and public service advertising which is anessential background. The following part is about the status quo of publicservice advertising in China and America. Then it comes to the theoreticalbackground which academically supports the study. Hofstede’s CulturalDimensions Theory and the relationship between Cultural Dimension Theory andpublic service advertising will be introduced. The core part of this paper isthe comparative study of Chinese and American public service advertising basedon four aspects.

2. The technical proposal

(1) Literatureresearch: Look up relevant papers, journals and dates from the internet such asCNKI and other academic websites, and collect the information and researchabout the state quo of Public Service Advertising both in China and America.

(2) Comparativeanalysis: Compare the differences between Chinese public service sdvertisingand American public service advertising from the perspective ofHofstede's Cultural Dimensions Theory which mainly consists of fouraspects including power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism andcollectivism and masculinity and femininity.

[1]ZhuJinlan. A Comparative Study on Culture Adaptation in Chinese and AmericanAdvertising Discourses[A]. 美国华人人文社科教授协会.Proceedings of The 22nd Association of Chinese Professors of SocialSciences in the United States (ACPSS) International Conference[C].美国华人人文社科教授协会:美国华人人文社科教授协会,2016:8.