Elina Tikkanen 

Cultural Integration or Appropriation: How Do 
Consumers Respond to the Usage of Symbols from 

Foreign Different Cultures? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
  

Vaasa 2021 

School of Marketing and Com-
munications 

Master’s thesis in International 
Business 

International Business 



2 

VAASAN YLIOPISTO 

School of Marketing and Communications 

Author: Elina Tikkanen 

Title of the Thesis: Cultural Integration or Appropriation: How Do Consumers Respond 
to the Usage of Symbols from Foreign Different Cultures?  

Degree: Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration 

Programme: Master’s Programme in International Business 

Supervisor: Peter Gabrielsson 

Year: 2021             Pages: 83 

ABSTRACT: 

Attitudes and culture have been a popular research topic in marketing studies. Ad attitude, es-
pecially, has been a focus of many studies. Research on cultural symbols in ads is not, however 
up to date. Previous research suggests that individuals with strong ethnic identification may re-
act to the usage of symbols of their culture and using symbols in ads can lead to either positive 
or negative ad and brand evaluations. Companies face the dilemma of whether to standardize 
or localize their advertising campaigns and they must take into consideration how target market 
could react to foreign cultural symbols in the ads. The purpose of this study is to analyze how 
the usage of foreign cultural symbols can affect consumers ad and brand attitudes in two coun-
tries: Finland and Germany. The research question is: Do foreign cultural symbols in advertising 
affect the attitude of consumers toward a brand in different countries? The Hofstede model was 
used to study the cultural similarities and differences of the countries. The research method 
used in the study was quantitative analysis of responds from an online survey. The study in-
cluded a pretest, and its results were used to choose the two ads for the experiment. The ex-
periment tested respondents’ ad and brand attitude as well as attitude toward cultural appro-
priation after being exposed either to an ad with cultural symbol or an ad without. The pretest 
received 32 answers and the experiment 153 answers which were analyzed with SPSS Statistics. 
Findings of the research suggest that using foreign cultural symbols does not affect the ad and 
brand attitudes of consumers, however the experiment did not test attitudes toward offensive 
symbols. Thus, companies could, with caution, use foreign cultural symbols in their advertising 
campaigns. This study adds to cross-cultural consumer behavior, international marketing litera-
ture and cultural research. There have been no previous cross-cultural studies regarding cultural 
appropriation and usage of foreign cultural symbols not belonging to either studied culture. 

 

 

KEYWORDS: culture, advertisements, advertising, brands, consumers, attitudes, 

 



3 

VAASAN YLIOPISTO 

School of Marketing and Communications 

Tekijä: Elina Tikkanen 

Tutkielman nimi: Cultural Integration or Appropriation: How Do Consumers Respond 
to the Usage of Symbols from Foreign Different Cultures?  

Tutkinto: Kauppatieteiden maisteri 

Oppiaine: International Business 

Työn ohjaaja: Peter Gabrielsson 

Valmistumisvuosi: 2021 Sivumäärä: 83 

TIIVISTELMÄ: 

Asenteet ja kulttuuri ovat olleet suosittuja tutkimusaiheita markkinoinnin tutkielmissa. Varsinkin 
asenne mainoksia kohtaan on ollut monen tutkimuksen kohteena. Tutkimus mainoksissa käy-
tettäviä kulttuurisia symboleita kohtaan ei kuitenkaan ole ajan tasalla. Aikaisemmat tutkimukset 
ehdottavat, että yksilöt, jotka samaistuvat voimakkaasti etniseen identiteettiinsä saattavat rea-
goida kulttuurinsa symbolien käyttöön mainoksissa ja symbolien käyttö mainoksissa voi johtaa 
joko positiiviseen tai negatiiviseen arvioon mainoksesta sekä brändistä. Yritykset joutuvat päät-
tämään, yhtenäistävätkö vai lokalisoivatko ne mainoskampanjansa, ja niiden täytyy ottaa huo-
mioon, miten kohdemarkkina voi reagoida vierasperäisiin kulttuurisiin symboleihin mainoksissa. 
Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoitus oli tutkia, miten vierasperäisten kulttuuristen symbolien käyttö voi 
vaikuttaa kuluttajien asenteisiin mainoksia ja brändiä kohtaan kahdessa maassa, Suomessa ja 
Saksassa. Tutkimuskysymys on: Vaikuttavatko vierasperäiset kulttuuriset symbolit mainonnassa 
kuluttajien asenteeseen brändiä kohtaan eri maissa? Tutkimus käytti Hofsteden kulttuurimallia 
tutkiakseen kulttuurien eroja tai yhtäläisyyksiä. Tutkimusmetodi oli kvantitatiivinen analyysi, 
joka analysoi verkkokyselyn vastauksia. Tutkimukseen kuului esitesti, jonka tulosten perusteilla 
valittiin kaksi mainosta varsinaiseen tutkimukseen. Varsinainen tutkimus testasi vastaajien asen-
teita mainosta ja brändiä sekä kulttuurista omimista kohtaan vastaajien nähtyä joko mainoksen, 
jossa oli kulttuurinen symboli tai mainoksen, jossa ei ollut. Esitesti sai 32 vastausta ja varsinainen 
tutkimus 153 vastausta, jotka analysoitiin SPSS Statistics -ohjelmalla. Tutkimustulokset vihjaa-
vat, että vierasperäisten kulttuuristen symbolien käyttö ei vaikuta kuluttajien asenteisiin. Tutki-
mus ei kuitenkaan testannut asenteita loukkaavia symboleita kohtaan. Täten yritykset voisivat 
varoen käyttää vierasperäisiä kulttuurisia symboleita mainoskampanjoissaan. Tutkimus edistää 
monikulttuurisen kuluttajakäyttäytymisen, kulttuurien sekä kansainvälisen markkinoinnin tutki-
muksia. Aikaisemmat monikulttuuriset tutkimukset eivät ole tutkineet kulttuurista omimista ja 
vierasperäisten kulttuuristen symbolien käyttöä, kun symbolit eivät ole kuuluneet kumpaankaan 
tutkittuun kulttuuriin. 

 

AVAINSANAT: culture, advertisements, advertising, brands, consumers, attitudes 

 



4 

Table of Contents 

1 Introduction 7 

1.1 Research questions, objectives, and delimitations 11 

1.2 Terminology 12 

1.3 Structure of the study 13 

2 Literature Review and Theoretical Framework 15 

2.1 Advertising Effects/Effectiveness 15 

2.2 Brand Attitude and Advertising Attitude 18 

2.3 Culture in Advertising 23 

2.3.1 Effects of Culture 25 

2.3.2 Cultural Symbols 26 

2.3.3 Cultural Appropriation and Integration 28 

2.4 Country of Origin 31 

2.5 Cross-Cultural Differences 33 

2.6 Theoretical Framework 38 

3 Methodology 40 

3.1 Method 40 

3.2 Analysis and Results 46 

3.3 Discussion 51 

4 Conclusion 56 



5 

4.1 Summary 56 

4.2 Managerial Implications 58 

4.3 Theoretical Implications 58 

4.4 Limitations and Future Research 59 

References 64 

Appendix 79 

Appendix 1. The Questionnaire of the Experiment 79 

  



6 

Figures 

 

Figure 1. Proposed model for the theoretical framework. 39 

Figure 2. The process of research. 42 

Figure 3. The summarized results. 55 

 

 

Tables 

 

Table 1. Hofstede’s Dimensions. 38 

Table 2. Means and standard deviations of the ads in the pretest. 43 

Table 3. Groups of the experiment. 44 

Table 4. The means of the ads of the groups. 46 

Table 5. Cronbach’s Alpha. 47 

Table 6. Mann-Whitney between groups within the countries. 48 

Table 7. Mann-Whitney between countries. 49 

Table 8. Correlations of the attitudes. 49 

Table 9. Significant variables for ad attitude. 51 

Table 10. Significant variables for brand attitude. 51 

 

  



7 

1 Introduction 

Douglas and Craig (1992: 306) note that out of the elements of the marketing mix, the 

element the most attention has been directed to is international advertising. They con-

tinue arguing that previous studies have examined issues between standardization and 

adaptation, analyzed the content of advertisements in TV and magazines and used con-

tent analysis for deriving cultural values. The fundamental function of advertising is to 

assist in generating sales for companies (Lavidge & Steiner 1961: 59), and the purpose 

of promotional communication is to have successful communication and getting ac-

cepted by the audience the communication is directed to (Holland & Gentry 1999: 68). 

However, advertisers must also be aware that consumers could create different mean-

ings from the advertisements than what the advertisers expected (Grier & Brumbaugh 

1999: 80). This communication process can lead to misperceptions with consumers be-

cause consumers can reflect on brand messages in their own ways, which is dependent 

on their experiences, background, and cultural context (Aguirre-Rodriguez 2014: 72).  

Attitudes have been an essential part of marketing research as noted by Mitchell and 

Olson (1981). Brown and Stayman (1992: 34) came to the same conclusion a decade later: 

academics and practitioners share a growing interest on consumers’ responses toward 

advertisements, and especially interesting is how ad attitude can affect brand attitude. 

Marketing and advertising literature has concentrated heavily on researching attitude 

toward the ad according to Muehling and McCann (1993) and Friestad and Wright (1994: 

15) specify this interest to be about how consumers think or feel about an ad and how 

their brand attitudes toward the advertised brand might be affected through these feel-

ings. 

When researching attitudes, there are definite aspects of attitudes a researcher can fo-

cus and limit the research on, such as: consumers and their attitudes toward brands (e.g., 

Gardner 1985), how advertising type and brand cultural symbolism can affect brand lik-

ing (see, Kubat & Swaminathan 2015), what variables can have an impact on advertising 

attitude (see, Bush et al. 1999) and how consumers perceive advertising (e.g., Coulter et 



8 

al. 2001). In addition, Jin and Lutz (2013) studied whether consumers think about televi-

sion advertising when talking about attitude toward advertising, Poels et al. (2013) re-

searched attitudes toward in-game advertising, whereas Dens and De Pelsmacker (2010) 

studied attitudes toward brand extensions and new lines of familiar brands and how ad-

vertisement extensions can influence them. Zhou and Whitla (2013) studied consumer 

attitudes toward negative celebrity publicity. As can be seen, attitudes have been studied 

broadly in the past. 

In addition to attitudes, culture, especially national culture, has been a popular topic of 

research. Culture (e.g., Hofstede 2001), cultural values (see, Okazaki & Mueller 2007) 

and cultural differences (see, Kaasa et al. 2014) have been studied in marketing and ad-

vertising research. According to Lenartowicz and Roth (2004: 24) for international busi-

ness literature national culture is a central concept and nearly ten percent of the articles 

that were published in thirteen major business journals during 1996-2000 had used cul-

ture as their descriptive variable and of these journals the ones using national culture 

the most were international business journals. Also, cultural differences have been a key 

variable in various studies: they can influence attitudes toward assertive messages in 

advertising (see, Kim et al. 2017), advertising expressions and content in different cul-

tures (e.g., Hong et al. 1987), as well as advertising appeals in different countries (see, 

Shavitt et al. 2011), and can influence new advertising forms (see, Zorn et al. 2016). In 

addition, Kastanakis and Voyer (2014) studied how culture influences perception and 

cognition. Furthermore, there are also differences within countries and not only be-

tween countries (see Kaasa et al. 2014).  

According to Okazaki and Mueller (2007) in cross-cultural advertising research cultural 

values were the topic that was studied the most during the period of 1995-2006. They 

note that the most popular methodology was content analysis while surveys were the 

second most popular. They state that the most studied countries were North America 

and the original member states of European Union (EU) while research on newer EU 

member states, Latin American, Middle Eastern, and African countries is scarce. Engelen 

and Brettel (2011) also note the growth of cross-cultural studies (particularly in 



9 

consumer behavior, attitudes, and promotion) during 1990-2008, and Hofstede’s cultural 

dimensions were the most popular frame of reference. The Hofstede model has been an 

important corner stone in cross-cultural marketing and advertising research (Okazaki & 

Mueller 2007: 504). 

RESEARCH GAP 

While advertisements have become more global, different cultural elements have been 

embedded into ads. According to Gertner (2019) using elements that are part of cultural 

groups without proper respect or an understanding of their meaning by outsiders has 

been growingly questioned and seen as cultural appropriation instead of appreciation. 

Given the amount of research done on consumers’ attitudes toward advertisements and 

brands, their reactions to cultural symbolism in advertisements has been left for lesser 

attention, especially regarding cultural appropriation. However, different symbols have 

been touched upon in consumer research, such as Christian symbols in advertising (Tay-

lor et al. 2010). 

Nevertheless, only few studies have researched about cultural appropriation in advertis-

ing. The previous studies have focused on how cultural appropriation by a consumer can 

impact country-of-origin effects (Suh et al. 2016), in which case the cultural appropria-

tion is not done by the advertising company or brand but the consumer. In addition, 

ethnic groups’ reactions to the usage of their own cultural symbols (Holland & Gentry 

1997) or ethnic cues, whether visual or textual, (Khan et al. 2015) have been studied 

before. However, none of these studies examine how people outside of these groups 

would react to brands or companies using cultural symbols of a group the company is 

not part of. Instead, they focus on how ethnic groups react to being targeted by the ad-

vertisements (Holland & Gentry 1999, Brumbaugh & Grier 2006, Massey et al. 2013) or 

consider how viewers react to a stereotypical portrayal of an out-group (Johnson & Grier 

2012). La Ferle and Lee (2005) point out that advertisers must find correct representa-

tions of ethnic groups and use them to communicate the advertising message. 



10 

How ad attitude affects the attitude toward the advertiser, how the ad attitude is af-

fected and how it can influence other cognitive, affective, and behavioral response vari-

ables should be studied (Muehling & MacCann 1993: 51, 53). None of the previous stud-

ies have researched how a consumer would react to a foreign company appropriating a 

different foreign culture that is not the consumer’s or the company’s own. According to 

Green (1999: 49) plenty of studies have concentrated on the majority population and 

how the member of the majority feel about advertisements with models of ethnic mi-

norities in media for general public. 

According to Hoeken et al. (2003) former research about cultural differences in value 

appeals and how they influence has only researched individualism-collectivism and the 

compared countries have been the United States and Asian countries. Engelen and Bret-

tel (2011) demonstrate in their study that the dimension of individualism was most used 

in the studies they analyzed. Shavitt et al. (2011) also studied vertical and horizontal (in-

dividual and collectivism) differences of advertising appeals, however their study in-

cluded European countries (Denmark, Korea, Poland, Russia, the USA). Hoeken et al. 

(2007) also note that most studies have examined the differences between respondents 

from the US and Asia (individualistic and collectivistic), however, in their study they in-

cluded only Western European countries to study advertising appeals. This shows that 

more countries have been included in the present studies and not necessarily only in the 

range of individualism-collectivism, though it has been the most popular dimension. 

 As, according to Okazaki and Mueller (2007) the original states of the EU have been 

under more scrutiny along with the United States in cross-cultural studies, in this study 

the countries that are researched are Germany and Finland, neither a collectivistic coun-

try as noted by Hofstede Insights (2021). While Germany does belong to the original EU 

membership states, Finland joined later. Samiee and Jeong (1994: 205) note that studies 

including only one culture cannot be generalized in a cross-cultural environment as easily, 

and it does not provide enough information if one wants to understand international 

advertising better. Thus, this study aims to fill the research gap of how consumers react 



11 

to foreign cultural symbols and cultural appropriation and this is studied through a cross-

cultural study.  

1.1 Research questions, objectives, and delimitations 

The purpose of this study is to analyze if consumers will have a more negative attitude 

toward a brand and the advertisement if confronted with an ad that includes foreign 

symbols of a different culture, in other words, cultural appropriation. Since the 1980s, 

cross-cultural studies researching advertising have become more popular (Samiee & 

Jeong 1994: 205), and this study aims to add on the growing literature of cross-cultural 

studies of international advertising. The focus of this study is on two countries, Finland 

and Germany, to see if consumers will have differing opinions between the countries or 

if their attitudes will be the same. The respondents are shown either an ad without for-

eign cultural symbols or an ad with a foreign cultural symbol that is not from either coun-

try. As the two countries are similar in cultures (Hofstede 2021) and both are developed 

Western countries their attitudes might not differ significantly. Finland was chosen as 

the other country since according to Okazaki and Mueller (2007) the countries that 

joined the EU later have been left to lesser attention than the original member states in 

which Germany belongs to.   

This study tries to find out if brand attitudes of consumers are affected when they are 

exposed to ads that have potential elements of cultural appropriation of foreign cultures. 

Therefore, the research question of the study is: Do foreign cultural symbols in advertis-

ing affect the attitude of consumers toward a brand in different countries? Sub-research 

questions are also presented to get a more comprehensive view of the main research 

question: Does national culture have an impact on consumer attitudes? and Does ad 

attitude affect brand attitude? To support the questions, several hypotheses are devel-

oped based on the existing literature. The experiment is conducted through an online 

survey where the respondents of the experiment group are shown an advertisement 

with potential cultural appropriation and the control group one without appropriation. 

This procedure will be explained in more detail in chapter three. 



12 

To set the boundaries for this study the whole scale of attitude formation process is not 

researched. Purchase intention is not included in this study as the example product in 

the ad might have affected purchase intention. The objective of the study is to see if 

foreign cultural symbols influence consumers attitude toward the advertisement and the 

brand positively or negatively and if their attitude toward cultural appropriation will in-

fluence ad attitude. To get a more comprehensive view, two cultures were included in 

the cross-cultural study to see if the attitudes vary among different cultures. Even though 

country-of-origin -effect is included in theory, the study itself does not research how the 

respondents might have felt about the countries used for the experiment as it is not the 

objective of the study. However, it will be discussed about since the example company 

was made to believe to be French and the symbol Japanese, and it is possible that coun-

try of origin does have an impact on consumers’ attitudes. 

1.2  Terminology 

Attitude: “an individual’s internal evaluation of an object such as a branded product” 

(Mitchell & Olson 1981: 318) 

Attitude toward advertising: a common predisposition in how to deal with messages of 

advertising (Boush et al. 1994: 168), a learned tendency to react in a consistent (either 

positive or negative) way to advertising (MacKenzie & Lutz 1989: 53-54). 

Brand information: an executed cue that was created to convey the advertised message, 

such as brand name (MacInnis et al. 1991: 33.) 

Culture: “customary beliefs and values that ethnic, religious, and social groups transmit 

fairly unchanged from generation to generation” (Guiso et al. 2006: 23), Culture can also 

be a system of common meaning that affects the construction of social perception, from 

the way people perceive commercial symbols to how human personality is expressed 

and experienced (Aaker et al. 2001: 506). For the sake of clarity, this study will address 

national culture, meaning the culture of a nation as opposed to, for example, a culture 

within a religion.  



13 

Cultural appropriation: an individual using cultural symbols, artifacts, genres, rituals, or 

technologies of a different and foreign culture other than their own (Rogers 2006: 474). 

Foreign cultural appropriation: To add to cultural appropriation, foreign cultural appro-

priation happens every time a member of a foreign culture borrows or uses symbols or 

artifacts of a different foreign national culture (Rogers 2006: 474) when they are not 

members of this foreign society or group. 

1.3 Structure of the study 

The first chapter of the study introduces the topic to the reader by giving a general ex-

planation of the theme of the study. The first chapter identifies the gap in the current 

research and provides reasons for the necessity of the study. The research question, the 

aim and methodology as well as important terminology of the study are presented to 

the reader. The chapter finishes with the structure of the study. 

The second chapter covers the theoretical framework and introduces the topic to the 

reader in more detail. The research hypotheses are included in this chapter as they are 

based on the existing theories. First, the chapter explains how advertising attitude and 

brand attitude are formed and how they might affect consumers’ attitudes toward the 

advertiser and the brand. The following subchapter covers how culture can affect adver-

tising attitudes of consumers and how culture can be represented in advertising. This is 

followed by defining and explaining how cultural appropriation could work in advertising. 

Country-of-origin and its influence and cross-cultural differences as well as reasoning for 

the use of the Hofstede model follow the subchapter of culture. The most important 

definitions are also presented in this chapter. The chapter finishes with the proposed 

theoretical framework of the study. 

The third chapter explains the methodology and arguments for the selection of the re-

search approach. The pretest, the experiment, and the design are introduced in detail to 

give a clear picture how the experiment was conducted. The chapter includes the results 

of the empirical research and the discussion based on the results. The hypotheses are 

also either rejected or accepted based on the results of the experiment.  



14 

The fourth and final chapter includes a summary of the study. The research question is 

answered, and conclusions are drawn based on the experiment and its results. Manage-

rial and theoretical implications are presented at the end as well as future study recom-

mendations and limitations of the study. 



15 

2 Literature Review and Theoretical Framework 

This chapter covers the theoretical framework of the study. First, the most important 

terms of advertising related to the topic are explained in detail to give the reader a com-

prehensive understanding of the topic and how advertising works. The aim of the chap-

ter is to explain how culture in advertising has been studied before and to give a base 

for the theoretical framework as well as to the hypotheses. At the end of the chapter the 

theoretical framework is created based on the presented literature. 

2.1 Advertising Effects/Effectiveness 

According to Friestad and Wright (1994: 1) it is crucial for consumers to understand how 

to deal with advertising. The authors continue that consumers can keep improving their 

knowledge of how persuasion attempts work and thus, they can better recognize and 

adapt to the influence efforts of marketers. Van den Putte (2009: 673) states that 

thoughts, feelings, and knowledge of the commercial are called advertisement effects as 

opposed to brand effects that are the same but about the advertised brand. However, 

according to De Mooij and Hofstede (2010: 97) there is no general advertising model. 

Vakratsas and Ambler (1999) demonstrate in their study that there are different models 

of advertising effects: models of market response, cognitive information, pure affect, 

persuasive hierarchy, low-involvement hierarchy, integrative, and hierarchy-free models. 

Nevertheless, the authors argue that while models of advertising effects with persuasive 

hierarchy category have been in use for 100 years, they have two problems: the idea of 

hierarchy does not have sufficient empirical support and the effects of consumers’ expe-

riences are not included in the models.  

A popular topic of research for marketing researchers has been to examine how con-

sumer behavior is affected by advertising or other methods of marketing communica-

tions (MacKenzie et al. 1986: 130). Mitchell and Olson (1981) propose that attitude to-

ward the advertisement mediates both brand attitude and purchase intention. Shimp 

(1981) arrived at the same conclusion: attitude toward the advertisement functions as a 

significant mediator of consumers’ brand choices. However, Van den Putte (2009) 



16 

suggests that former purchase behavior mostly accounts for purchase intention: adver-

tising campaigns might not have considerable changing impact in purchasing behavior 

because consumers have their own routine shopping manners. Still, according to the au-

thor, even a small effect could have bigger results since if 1% of consumers are influenced 

by an advertising campaign it will have a positive impact on sales. 

As Vakratsas and Ambler (1999) noted many theories about advertising effects on con-

sumers have been developed. One of the better-known theories is the elaboration like-

lihood model (ELM) by Petty and Cacioppo (1981) which demonstrates one possible 

route for advertising effects. Petty et al. (1983: 135) explain that in ELM there are two 

routes for the consumer, central and peripheral, that lead toward attitude change. They 

continue that in the central route, a change in an attitude occurs when a person thinks 

information received feels valuable to a specific attitude as opposed to the peripheral 

route where the good and the bad points of the issue are not considered. Instead, the 

authors note, the specific attitude is connected to negative or positive cues of the issue, 

or different persuasion cues affect the conclusion the person makes about the quality of 

the proposed promise.  

Petty et al. (1983: 138) also argue that different audiences may be influenced through 

different appeals as suggested by ELM. They mention that if a person is thinking about 

buying a specific product (high involvement) the person might pay closer attention to 

product’s information and if he or she deems the information as persuasive, the person 

will form favorable attitudes and vice versa, negative attitudes if the information is not 

so strong (central route). Also, according to the authors, if the consumer is currently not 

thinking of buying the product (low involvement) the person will not consider the argu-

ments for the product in the ad too deeply, but rather might concentrate more on other 

cues, such as the attractiveness or credibility of the promoter (peripheral route). Accord-

ing to Greenwald and Leavitt (1984: 583) the general agreement is that high involvement 

represents significant importance to the person. They note that communication does 

not influence low involvement the same as high involvement, but it can also affect low 

involvement individuals.  



17 

Baker and Lutz (2000: 4) note that when the information in the advertising message 

complements the information consumers are looking for while choosing between brands, 

the advertising is more likely to be effective. According to the authors, this information 

should also correlate with an information type that is more probably to leave a lasting 

mark in consumers’ memory at the time the consumer is exposed to the ad. In their 

study Grier and Brumbaugh (1999) suggest that targeted and nontargeted consumers 

create different meanings from targeted ads. They state that target market consumers 

are more inclined to form meanings that connects the ad to themselves in a positive way 

which is contrasted by nontarget market consumers who are inclined to create meanings 

that relate negatively to themselves when examining an ad that was meant for a differ-

ent group. Thus, according to the authors, there is a possibility of consumers creating 

different meanings from identical ads and, in addition, these meanings created from tar-

geted ads could produce social debates or prevent cross-cultural understanding.  

Lord et al. (1995) suggest that when attitude toward advertisement is constructed the 

responses and evaluations of message arguments of consumers affect this attitude di-

rectly, and it has a notable direct effect as well as an indirect effect mediated through 

brand attitude on purchase intention. The authors note that when consumers have more 

chances to process the advertising message its main content has a bigger effect on ad 

attitude compared to peripheral cues much the same way as in the Elaboration Likeli-

hood Model. According to Ruiz and Sicilia (2004) ads that are consistent with the pro-

cessing styles of consumers (affect or cognition) have a better chance to increase the 

advertising effect. They conclude that a more positive brand attitude and an increased 

purchased intention can be achieved by associating consumers’ processing styles (think-

ing or thinking-feeling) to informational or informational-emotional advertising appeal.  

Nevertheless, consumers might not always be entirely trusting toward advertisements. 

According to Obermiller and Spangenberg (1998: 160) skepticism toward advertising is 

defined as a disposition to be less trustful of arguments made by advertising. Obermiller 

et al. (2005) suggest that consumers who are skeptic toward advertising also do not be-

lieve advertising to be trustworthy and thus do not care to process it. They add that this 



18 

is different from advertising cynics who are cynical of advertising because of its manipu-

lative characteristics but might still prefer ads with information. In short, not every con-

sumer will be trustful toward advertising and instead might not process it or are critical 

toward its claims. 

2.2 Brand Attitude and Advertising Attitude 

According to Mitchell and Olson (1981: 318) attitudes have been a popular research 

topic because they are thought to be comparably consistent, and they can be used to 

predict how consumers react toward products or services. They define attitude as “an 

individual’s internal evaluation of an object such as a branded product”. Attitude toward 

advertising is defined by Boush et al. (1994: 168) as a common predisposition in how to 

deal with messages of advertising, and by MacKenzie and Lutz (1989: 53-54) as a learned 

tendency to react in a consistent (either positive or negative) way to advertising. How-

ever, Muehling and MacCann (1993: 51) note that there is no common definition for 

attitude toward the ad. Nevertheless, Maldonado (2011: 87) defines ad attitude as an 

inclination to react either negatively or positively toward the ad after encountering it, 

and this is also the definition this study uses.  

One important definition is also attitude toward the advertiser, which MacKenzie and 

Lutz (1989: 53) define as “a learned disposition to respond in a consistently favorable or 

unfavorable manner toward the sponsoring organization”. They explain further that at-

titude toward the advertiser is thought to be more permanent because it depicts how 

information and experiences of it are gathered gradually. The authors also add that atti-

tude toward the advertiser might influence cognitive and affective reactions of consum-

ers toward the advertiser’s ads. Shimp (1981: 9-10) notes that there are two different 

approaches in advertising: attitude toward the advertisement and attitude toward the 

brand. He explains that in attitude toward the brand approach advertisers try to create 

positive attitudes toward the advertised brand to affect consumers’ brand choices. He 

notes that this is possible through advertisements that make consumers believe con-

suming the product would bring them good results and if the advertisers are successful 

in stressing product benefits and attributes there is a better possibility for brand 



19 

repurchases and improvement of attitudes. This, he contrasts with attitude toward the 

advertisement approach where advertisers pursue positive attitudes toward the ad so 

that after ad exposure consumers have favorable feelings. He states that the assumption 

is that what motivates consumers is to feel good. 

Affect, such as emotional responses, attitude, and cognition are all important parts of 

advertising (Homer 2006: 35). Bagozzi et al. (1999: 184) consider affect a common cate-

gory for mental feeling processes that contains emotions, moods, and potentially atti-

tudes. Feelings should be taken into consideration when measuring how effective adver-

tising has been as they have an impact on beliefs about the brand, ad attitude and brand 

attitude (Edell & Burke 1987). According to Burke and Edell (1989) feelings (part of affect) 

consumer has formed from being exposed to the ad influence evaluations of the charac-

teristics of the ad, the brand attributes of the advertised brand, brand attitude, and 

judgements of the ad. They add that feelings have both direct and indirect impacts on 

cognitive and affective systems, and they can operate through either element. Batra and 

Ray (1986: 235) argue that affective ads can create for example feelings of happiness, 

sadness, fear, and warmth in us. They state that affective responses are not judgements 

of ads, instead they describe how the ad made an individual feel. Affective system can 

also influence the cognitive system, instead of the two systems working independently 

(Edell & Burke 1987).  

Brand familiarity can also play its part in advertising attitudes. According to Campbell 

and Keller (2003: 293) consumers are likely to have differing types of impression of 

brands they are familiar with since they might have used it before, heard about it, seen 

it in an advertisement or learned about it in a press. However, they continue that for 

unfamiliar brands consumers might not have these types of associations since they have 

not previously interacted with the brand. Homer (2006) illustrates in her study that 

brand familiarity has an impact on cognition’s role as a mediator of the affect-attitude 

relationship and it is different for negative and positive affect forms. She suggests that 

affect has a bigger role when consumers are forming attitudes toward brands they are 

not familiar with and with familiar brands it is more similar to keeping their information 



20 

up to date. The results of her study indicate that for positive affect cognition acted as a 

mediator for known brands while negative affect had a direct negative effect on brand 

attitudes. Campbell and Keller (2003: 293) suggest that consumers might think unfamil-

iar brands and ads about them as more interesting because the brand and the ad are 

new. Their results indicate that ad attitude has a smaller effect on brand attitude for 

familiar brands than for unfamiliar brands.  

The language brands choose to use in their name can also affect consumers’ evaluation 

of the brand. Salciuviene et al. (2010) studied how the language which brands used af-

fected consumers perceptions about the brand. Their study suggests that consumers 

prefer some languages over others; French language was preferred (compared to Ger-

man and English), and when France was the country-of-origin the services were seen as 

more hedonic. They add that brands with French names also led to more hedonic per-

ceptions of utilitarian services. In their study Pagani et al. (2015) showed that European 

viewers from Germany, Italy, and Spain had a less favorable attitude toward television 

ads in English (compared to ads subbed or dubbed in the local language) and appeared 

to also have a less favorable attitude toward the brand when shown linguistically stand-

ardized commercials. Their results demonstrate that also the language choice and how 

it is adapted to ads have an influence on consumers’ ad and brand attitudes.  

As stated by Calfee and Ringold (1994) six decades of survey data imply that about 70% 

of consumers do not believe that advertising is truthful and instead believe its goal is to 

influence consumers to purchase things they have no need for, it should have stricter 

regulations, but it still presents important information. However, the authors mention 

that consumers usually think that advertising has more benefits than faults and these 

findings have been consistent over time. According to the study by James and Kover 

(1992: 81) people who already think that advertising is a reliable alternative for acquiring 

information about products have a more positive view of advertising as a way for getting 

useful information. Instead, the authors add that people who get upset by advertising 

might be examining it for a longer time to look for mistakes and lies.  



21 

In a study by Yoo and MacInnis (2005) the authors discovered that the ad execution for-

mat (emotional or informational) could influence the formation of brand attitudes. They 

add that if an emotional format is used in the ad, the feelings prompt brand attitudes: 

most negative feelings are followed by negative evaluations of the ad and the brand, 

while positive feelings improve the evaluations of the credibility of the ad. In addition, 

Pham et al. (2013) found that the feelings aroused by ads have indirect and direct effects 

on how a brand is evaluated, but bigger changes in ad attitude came from the indirect 

effects. In addition, their results indicate that the effects of feelings aroused by ads seem 

to be stronger for hedonic products compared to utilitarian products. Thus, according to 

previous studies ads and feelings evoked by them can influence the attitudes of consum-

ers toward both the ad and the brand. Ad attitude was defined to be either a positive or 

negative reaction to an ad (Maldonado 2011: 87) and since in the experiment the re-

spondents will either see an ad with a cultural symbol or an ad without a symbol, it is 

hypothesized that these two groups will have different feelings evoked by the ads as the 

ads are not the same. Therefore, it is proposed: 

H1. There will be a significant difference in the ad and brand attitudes between the ex-

periment and control groups. 

MacKenzie and Lutz (1989: 53-54) suggest that consumers’ affective reactions to the ad-

vertised brand are predicted in some level to influence how ad attitude is developed. 

They mention that in addition how consumers usually respond to advertising can influ-

ence their attitude toward a certain ad. According to the study by Massey et al. (2013) 

consumers’ attitude toward the advertiser and the brand also affects purchase inten-

tions; when consumers appreciate the ad their attitude toward the advertiser will be 

improved, and this will then enhance their brand attitude. They add that brand attitude 

is, in addition, powerful in predicting purchase intentions. The authors state that con-

sumers’ attitude toward the advertiser has a strong impact in their brand attitude. In 

addition, they mention that ethicality of the ad has a strong impact on attitude toward 

the advertiser (by affecting the likeability of the ad), and through that, the brand attitude. 



22 

According to the literature it seems that consumers’ attitude toward the ad influences 

brand attitude. Therefore, it is proposed: 

H2. There will be a significant relationship between ad and brand attitudes.  

Massey et al. (2013) point out that if a consumer has positive feelings toward the ad, it 

will transfer to more positive feelings toward the advertiser, and through it toward the 

brand. Yoo and MacInnis (2005) also suggest that often negative feelings create negative 

ad and brand evaluations. In their study, also Holland and Gentry (1997) demonstrate 

that negative cultural images in ads can create negative brand evaluations, but positive 

images create positive brand evaluations. Khan et al. (2015) also suggest that advertise-

ment likeability could improve brand likeability, while Yoo and MacInnis (2005) state that 

brand attitudes are also powerfully predicted through ad attitudes. According to the re-

sults of previous studies it seems that positive evaluations of ads lead to positive brand 

evaluations and other way around with negative evaluations of ads. Therefore, it is pro-

posed:  

H3. A positive(negative) evaluation of the ad will lead to a positive(negative) attitude 

toward the brand. 

Still, some negative feelings could also have a positive impact on ad evaluations in some 

situations (MacInnis & Jaworski 1989, Yoo & MacInnis 2005). Yoo and MacInnis (2005) 

found out in their study that the ad is more attractive when it evokes both positive and 

relevant negative feelings and thus, ad attitude is affected positively since evaluative 

thought moderate the influence of these feelings. According to MacInnis and Jaworski 

(1989) sometimes emotions could have a reversed effect on attitudes: in particular, neg-

ative ad attitudes do not necessarily convert into negative attitudes toward the brand. 

Edell and Burke (1987: 423) agree with the notion that positive and negative feelings can 

occur at the same time, for example an ad can provoke both happy and sad feelings, but 

the feelings are provoked by different parts of the ad. In their experiment Yoo and Mac-

Innis (2005) used an ad that could evoke feelings of sorrow or sadness, generally thought 

as negative feelings. Their results suggest that if the negative feelings from the ad are 



23 

matching to the purpose of the ad, then the negative feelings can have a positive influ-

ence on both ad attitude and brand attitude.  

2.3 Culture in Advertising 

Culture as defined by Hofstede (2001: 9) is “the collective programming of the mind that 

distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another”. Guiso et 

al. (2006: 23) define culture as “customary beliefs and values that ethnic, religious, and 

social groups transmit fairly unchanged from generation to generation”. Culture can also 

be a system of common meaning that affects the construction of social perception, from 

the way people perceive commercial symbols to expressions and experiences of human 

personality (Aaker et al. 2001: 506). According to Markus and Kitayama (1991: 246) how 

people understand their identity affects how they explain the world, but this awareness 

is restricted by social interactions which are features of their own culture. As noted by 

Maldonado (2011: 83) elements related to culture, such as the flags of countries, tradi-

tions, and cultural practices, have been popular in television advertising. According to 

Hofstede (2001: 10) culture, as a word, is usually used for societies such as nations, eth-

nic, or regional groups within or across nations. He notes that foreigners can identify 

members of a society since the groups usually share specific cultural traits even if there 

are various cultural groups within a society, like Asians, Hispanics, and other groups in 

the US. This study examines the national culture meaning the culture of a nation and its 

people instead of sub-groups within a nation such as immigrants or their descendants.  

Kastanakis and Voyer (2014: 426) suggest that perception and cognition are affected by 

culture in both individual and societal levels. The authors note our views on life, thoughts, 

and reactions are molded by culture. They demonstrate this with an example: people in 

Western cultures have different reactions to an ad with a woman in a white dress (white 

color meaning purity) compared to Eastern cultures (white color associated with death). 

A culturally embedded ad is an ad with numerous cultural cues (for example, images or 

symbols) of one culture (Appiah 2001: 9, Johnson & Grier 2011: 238), like a black char-

acter ad including multiple black cultural cues (Appiah 2001: 9).  



24 

Holland and Gentry (1999: 69) state that many marketing messages are left unrecognized 

because there is too much information and consumers filter their senses. The authors 

note that even if consumers become aware of the message, they might not realize that 

they were the targets of the communication. The authors add that also cultural cues in 

the marketing message might go unnoticed and thus, consumers might not notice the 

ad was trying to accommodate them. However, the authors mention, if the consumers 

do recognize the message and/or realize the ad was trying to accommodate them, then 

their responses need to be determined and the responses will assumably be comprised 

of a cognitive and an affective element. According to Burke and Edell (1989: 70) cognitive 

elements are evaluations of the characteristics of the ad and the brand attribute while 

affective elements are feelings, ad attitude, and brand attitude.  

Holland and Gentry (1999: 69) argue that if the consumers notice the symbols of their 

culture are used in marketing communication, they might try to find why the marketer 

has used them. The authors note that consumers’ reaction to the accommodation at-

tempt is then likely to be influenced by the motives of the marketers. However, in her 

study Maldonado (2011) discovered that both American and Mexican participants did 

not evaluate ads with their own cultural elements more positively which could mean 

that cultural elements do not have a large influence on the evaluation of television ad-

vertisements. According to her, only Mexican-American participants reacted more posi-

tively to Mexican cultural elements.  

Kates and Goh (2003) note that when targeting foreign markets cultural meanings gen-

erally must be considered in advertising. Advertisers need to be careful when they are 

targeting culturally conservative groups because if these groups find the ad unethical, 

they most likely will dislike the ad (Massey et al. 2013). In the study by Zhou et al. (2015) 

the authors demonstrate that the attitudes of consumers toward ads are more negative 

when the culture of origin of product category and cultural identities of advertising ap-

peals (for example, ethnicity of the model) are conflicting. Zhang and Gelb (1996) sug-

gest that fitting the advertising appeals to the culture would form more positive atti-

tudes. 



25 

Zhang and Gelb (1996: 31) argue that there are times when culture and advertising ap-

peals are not a good fit to each other such as when an advertiser is using a standardized 

advertising approach with a collectivistic appeal for an individualistic culture. The au-

thors state that in this case the appeal would not match the cultural values of the target 

country. Zhou et al. (2015) propose that it is crucial for advertisers to create harmony 

between global and local advertising appeals. Teng et al. (2014: 289) note that consum-

ers compare ads so they can find an ad which is a best fit for them and cultural, verbal, 

as well as visual elements might affect their decisions. They add that this is especially 

important in international marketing: if the company has a global or domestic advertis-

ing strategy that is a suitable match to local or foreign culture the strategy can improve 

the ad and brand attitudes of consumers.  

2.3.1 Effects of Culture 

Armstrong (1999: 267-268) states that the main point of advertising is communicating 

effectively with the market that is being targeted and this relies on shared values. The 

author continues that ads must take into consideration how culture affects effective 

communication with various ethnic groups because individuals are affected by their cul-

tures. Chan et al. (2007) propose that culture has an influence on how consumers re-

spond to advertising that is perceived as offensive. Thus, according to Armstrong (1999) 

ads should be culturally suitable, executed without exploitation and instead improve the 

relationship with consumers.  

According to Briley and Aaker (2006: 395) to create an effective message, the advertiser 

must know when and which kind of message they should match according to the values 

of the target group. In their study the authors found out that at times consumers’ judge-

ments and behaviors are directed by cultural forces but not necessarily all the times. 

They suggest that cultural knowledge can first take place in consumers’ minds when con-

sumers are unable to consider their judgement in detail. However, the authors add that 

when consumers think more deeply while developing their evaluations, knowledge that 

conflicts with their cultural norms becomes more apparent. Briley et al. (2000: 158) 



26 

suggest cultural knowledge is made of categories, beliefs, and decision principles that 

have an effect when an individual thinks about them.  

Different groups might also react differently to the use of their cultural symbols in ad-

vertising. According to the study by Holland and Gentry (1997) ethnic groups who iden-

tify strongly with their heritage are likely to have a more powerful emotional response 

compared to people who have a weaker identity with their heritage when they see ads 

with their cultural symbols. However, in the study by Lee et al. (2009) the authors dis-

covered that consumers who were more novelty-seeking and world-minded, as well as 

had better knowledge of other cultures had a bigger likelihood to have a better attitude 

toward products with foreign cultural aspects and a stronger intention of purchasing 

them.  

Culture can also affect how individuals react to different ad stimuli. Liang and Kale (2012) 

suggest that for example East Asians have a more concrete manner of thinking as op-

posed to Westerners who think in a more abstract way. The authors explain that East 

Asians create concrete images even from abstract stimuli because of their affinity for 

concrete thinking but both groups create concrete imagery from concrete stimuli. They 

state that there are differences of perception because socialization practices between 

societies are not the same. Brumbaugh and Grier (2006) also note that people from dif-

ferent cultures might react differently to targeted advertisements. They state that white 

people favor an ad targeting them through a process of targetedness, while black people 

favor an ad targeting them through similarity. The authors demonstrated that both Indi-

ans and Asians related more to sources in a multiethnic ad, than to an ad with white 

sources however, only Indians had a higher attitude toward the advertisement. They add 

that Asians, on the other hand processed the ad in a more similar way to white people 

even when they felt more alike to the cues in a multiethnic ad.  

2.3.2 Cultural Symbols 

According to Hofstede (2001: 10) symbols, heroes, and rituals are manifestations of cul-

ture and groups often copy symbols from other cultural groups. Hoeken et al. (2003: 197) 



27 

note that while creating advertisements, companies have the choice between standard-

izing their market operations (same visual and verbal messages but language can differ) 

or adapting them to local environments. The discussion of globalization and adaptation 

examines if consumers have same tastes and decision-making habits in across borders 

(Briley et al. 2000: 157). Lwin et al. (2010: 245, 247) add that the option between a local 

or a global market approach is an important decision for global marketing managers. 

They note that this contains the possibility of using symbols symbolizing either the target 

market or the origins of the brand. They continue that by using cultural symbols adver-

tisers try to get favorable responses from consumers, since effectiveness of the advertis-

ing message is improved through a positive consumer reaction.  

According to Grier and Brumbaugh (1999: 80) marketers use cues like preferred language 

and shared cultural symbols to target specific consumer segments. The authors state 

that these kinds of targeted ads are thought to be effective because the characteristics 

of the ads have been fitted to the characteristics of the target audience. The authors add 

that the goal of the marketers is to get the target segment to understand the cues and 

thus create positive opinions of the product and the company. Appiah (2001: 8) notes 

that cultural cues can be values, symbols, ethics, rituals, traditions, material objects, and 

services that are created or appreciated by members of a society and the cues encourage 

where, when and how the members will react.  

Standardized advertising can spare costs and be more efficient and by finding universal 

symbols advertisers who have various targets of different cultures can gain benefits, 

however with improper symbols miscommunications can happen and create negative 

results (Cohen 1996: 188). Nevertheless, inserting local symbols in the products (not just 

ads) could make locals think that the foreign global brand is respecting and understand-

ing their culture (Guo et al. 2019: 82) which would make it an attempt of intercultural 

accommodation (Holland & Gentry 1999). Holland and Gentry (1997) found out in their 

study that using cultural symbols in advertising affected the consumers’ evaluations of 

the ad and the brand. They suggest that cultural images that induce negative feelings 



28 

could lead to more negative brand evaluations and vice versa with cultural images that 

induce positive feelings.  

2.3.3 Cultural Appropriation and Integration 

Shugart (1997: 210-211) notes that appropriation happens every time instruments usu-

ally thought as belonging to another are used to the advantage of another. She continues 

that in addition, borrowing or imitating strategies of another can be appropriation even 

if the borrower does not want to dissemble or warp the meanings of the original. Cul-

tural appropriation is generally defined by Rogers (2006: 474) as an individual using cul-

tural symbols, artifacts, genres, rituals, or technologies of a different culture than their 

own. Suh et al. (2016: 2722) are among the same lines: cultural appropriation is an indi-

vidual taking as his/her own an element from a foreign culture. Rogers (2006: 474) notes 

that this usage of elements is unavoidable when cultures encounter each other. Accord-

ing to these definitions cultural appropriation happens every time an outsider (in this 

case a company) uses, for example, a symbol of a culture that the company is not a mem-

ber of. To take it further, foreign cultural appropriation happens every time an individual 

borrows or uses symbols or artifacts of a different foreign culture (culture of a foreign 

nation) in which they are not members of. This is to define the difference between cul-

tural appropriation (for example, of a religion or a company culture) and foreign cultural 

appropriation (of a foreign nation).  

Close to the definitions of appropriation are multicultural advertising and intercultural 

accommodation. Johnson et al. (2010: 191) define multicultural advertising as a type of 

advertising where the goal is to communicate with target audience of multiple cultural 

backgrounds by using symbols and values from various cultures (cultural representation). 

Likewise, in intercultural accommodation, as defined by Holland and Gentry (1999: 68-

69), the ones communicating use cultural symbols of a different group to improve their 

communication and so that they would be favorably regarded by the group they are 

communicating with. The authors note that companies who are targeting an ethnic mar-

ket use both native language and cultural symbols (such as artwork, ethnic music, or 

actors) when advertising. However, according to Gertner (2019) the misuse and 



29 

exploitation of values, customs, and religious objects (cultural appropriation) has been 

increasingly questioned. 

Cultural integration, on the other hand, is broadly defined as immigrants adopting traits 

of the host country (Cameron et al. 2015: 39). According to Kuran and Sandholm (2008: 

201) cross-cultural interactions give birth to hybrid cultures, and the base for these cul-

tures are the norms and customs that were parts of different cultures before. The au-

thors note that this kind of cultural integration can however also create social pressure, 

for example movements defending the cultures already in existence. They state that this 

segment of cultural protectionism is usually driven by the idea that one culture is pre-

ferred by cross-cultural influences while other cultures are sacrificed. In this case, cul-

tural integration would mean cultures combining when they are interacting with each 

other. A similar concept to cultural integration is consumer acculturation which is de-

fined as “a general process of movement and adaptation to the consumer cultural envi-

ronment in one country by persons from another country” (Peñaloza 1994: 33). In sum, 

in cultural integration the individuals are taking on characteristics of other cultures, 

which can also create hybrid cultures. 

According to Green (1999) how strong an individual’s ethnic identification with the indi-

vidual’s ethnic group is can affect purchase decisions and ad attitude. The author states 

that that the product type also influences individual’s evaluation of the advertisement 

as well as purchase intention. The findings of the author indicate that for racially neutral 

products (such as perfume) the race of the model in the ad might not be so significant 

when making a purchase decision. However, the author continues, for race-based prod-

ucts (such as foundation) the model’s race and role in an integrated background are im-

portant for strong ethnic identifiers. The results of the study by Khan et al. (2015) show 

significant correlation between advertisement and brand likeability when ethnic cues 

are used. The authors’ results demonstrate that ethnic cues increase the likeability of 

the advertisement and brand likeability for ethnic consumers. However, the authors note 

that the use of ethnic cues in advertisements can vary in effectiveness: textual cues are 

not as effective as visual cues in improving advertisement likeability and brand likeability.  



30 

According to the findings by Green (1999) strong ethnic identifiers of black heritage usu-

ally have more favorable attitudes toward ads with black people as primary models and 

which are featured in racially targeted media. The author adds that as an opposite, weak 

ethnic identifiers in general have a more positive attitude toward ads with white models 

in leading role and that are placed in media for general audience. Thus, the author con-

cludes that weak identifiers seem to have a stronger identification toward the dominant 

culture. Torres and Briggs (2007) agree that ethnic identification has a part in the evalu-

ation of an ad. They studied Hispanics and found out that the ones with weak ethnic 

identification did not react as positively to low- and high-involvement product ads as 

Hispanics who had a stronger ethnic identification. The authors argue that ethnic iden-

tification affected the Hispanics’ reactions to targeted ads. As in the study by Green 

(1999) the results of Torres and Briggs’ (2007) study demonstrate that people with 

stronger ethnic identification favored Hispanic models (their ethnic group), especially if 

the ad was about a low-involvement product. The authors note that ethnicity is a signif-

icant cue for people with a strong ethnic identification and it acts as a peripheral cue for 

low-involvement products. This is in line with the ELM where for low involvement prod-

ucts peripheral cues are more important for the consumer (Petty et al. 1983). 

Visuals in ads influence both directly and indirectly (Bulmer & Buchanan-Oliver 2006: 54) 

and in the study by Mitchell and Olson (1981) the authors conclude that visual infor-

mation (without brand information) can affect individuals’ brand attitudes. MacInnis et 

al. (1991: 33) define brand information as any cue that was created to convey the mes-

sage to be advertised such as name of the brand, how to use it, where to use it, cognitive 

or affective cue, or verbal or visual cue. Mitchell (1986) suggests that visual elements in 

ads could affect brand attitudes and had two ways of doing it: individuals can make con-

clusions about the brand based on the visual information they saw in the ad, and this 

can affect their beliefs about the advertised brand (forming or changing it); and, if the 

visual element gets a negative or positive evaluation, the evaluation can have an impact 

on ad and brand attitudes. 



31 

The results of the study by Johnson and Grier (2012) indicate that if an individual is ex-

posed to an ad racially stereotyping his or her social group the individual has less positive 

affective reactions toward the ad and their ad attitude is affected negatively both directly 

and indirectly. In addition, the authors add that nonstereotyped viewers are also af-

fected by stereotyped representation in ads. However, according to the authors, the non-

stereotyped feel more hesitation and are not entertained by the ad while the stereo-

typed viewers are insulted and process the ad negatively. Chan et al. (2007) note that 

the more negatively an individual sees the ad the bigger the chances that the individual 

will not accept the advertised brand or product. Holland and Gentry (1997) also suggest 

that using cultural cues that provoke negative feelings affect brand evaluations nega-

tively. Thus, if a respondent has a more negative attitude toward a company borrowing 

and using symbols from a foreign culture (cultural appropriation) similar to how stereo-

typed viewers have negative reactions to racially stereotypical ads (Johnson & Grier 

2012), it follows that the respondent has a more negative response toward the ad too. 

This is because they might perceive the advertisement as offensive. Therefore, it is pro-

posed: 

H5. Consumers who have a negative attitude toward cultural appropriation will have a 

negative attitude toward ads with foreign cultural symbols not belonging to their culture.   

2.4 Country of Origin  

Moon (1996: 438) argues that attitudes toward a foreign culture are created from per-

sonal experiences like travel and education. The author suggests that attitudes toward a 

foreign culture can influence attitude toward an ad of the country meaning that a con-

sumer with a favorable attitude toward the country might have a more positive attitude 

toward an ad with cultural framework of the country in question or a negative attitude 

if the attitude toward the country is negative. According to the findings of Maheswaran 

(1994) country of origin stereotypes give a chance to anticipate what kind of features a 

product produced in a specific country will contain. In their research Septianto et al. 

(2020) demonstrate that fitting positive emotions linked to a country with a less appeal-

ing country of origin image and the emotional appeal of the advertisement from that 



32 

country together creates a better ad processing and this improves the possibility of pur-

chase. However, they note that for an ad featuring a country with a more positive coun-

try-of-origin image the effects are not as strong. 

Chen et al. (2014) note that people’s personal experiences with the country like traveling 

can be used to create more positive feelings toward the country same as with advertising 

campaigns with the same goal. According to Moon and Jain (2001: 123) consumers have 

specific attitudes and stereotypes, either positive or negative, about foreign countries 

and cultures. They argue that cultural content is always present in advertising, and con-

sumers’ country attitudes affect how they respond toward foreign advertisements. They 

add that the country attitudes (an inclination to judge a country positively or negatively) 

of consumers influence mostly how they react to the cultural aspects in foreign ads, such 

as foreign models, customs, and moral values. Moon (1996: 439) states that consumer 

attitude toward a foreign culture or a country is a tendency shown by judging values, 

customs, and lifestyles of a certain foreign country or culture.  

Moon (1996: 436) notes that a strategy where brands use the same advertising, packag-

ing, and manufacturing despite of the country they are sold seems cost effective since it 

does not require adaptations. However, according to the author it is not clear if this is 

the best way to interact with consumers of different countries. Ahmed et al. (2004: 102) 

note that consumers’ product evaluations and purchase intentions are affected by brand 

name and price. However, they add that since companies relocate their production 

abroad and their goods are marketed throughout the world, country of origin has been 

added to factors affecting purchase intentions and product evaluations. The authors re-

mark that the new factor can be a valuable sign for international consumers when they 

are able to choose from foreign and domestic products. Harris et al. (1994: 129) suggest 

that a product’s origin is also one feature that consumers notice when examining adver-

tising and choosing between products. Wu et al. (2016) confirm that consumers notice 

information of country of origin when it is included in the ads.  

Hornikx and van Meurs (2017: 61) note that using a foreign language is thought to imply 

the country of origin where the language is used, and this should then improve how the 



33 

advertised product is assessed. The authors argue that without a product context, lan-

guages are connected to typical countries (such as German to Germany), however if the 

product advertisement uses a language to advertise it this language is connected to the 

country of origin that the consumer thinks the product is from (German could be Ger-

many or Austria). In short, according to the authors consumers need to be familiar with 

the country of origin and the typical products of the country to be able to notice the 

foreign languages. Verlegh et al. (2005) suggest that country of origin can be an infor-

mation and a source variable. They continue that it has a strong impact on how consum-

ers evaluate products even if advertisement claims provide more information, and if the 

consumers do not observe the ad in detail, they are more dependent of country of origin. 

The study by Halkias et al. (2016) demonstrates that how a country is perceived has an 

important part in brand attitude formation and country stereotypes can positively en-

force reactions toward the brand. Moon (1996) adds that consumers’ attitudes toward 

a culture or a country might also have a direct effect on brand attitude. Thus, it seems 

that the attitudes consumers have towards the country of origin can influence product 

and ad evaluations.  

2.5 Cross-Cultural Differences 

According to De Mooij and Hofstede (2010) during the recent years, the interest in the 

effects of culture for global marketing and advertising as well as cross-cultural studies 

studying consumer behavior has been growing. De Mooij and Hofstede (2010: 85) state 

that the global-local dilemma creates the need to study cultures so global advertising 

can be understood. The authors add that during the past decades, different models have 

been created to understand culture, but the Hofstede model has been the most used in 

global marketing and advertising. Brumbaugh and Grier (2006: 35) note that in almost 

every part of the world there is one group that is in a position that dominates numerically, 

socially or in both ways. The authors argue that this group also dominates the knowledge 

of advertising effects, most advertising is targeted toward the members of this group, 

and this dominating group is the one that is most often compared against in research.  



34 

When studying cultures societies are compared to each other (Hofstede 2001: 15). De 

Mooij and Hofstede (2010: 86-88) argue that the Hofstede model has been applied to 

analyze variations of the self and personality (defined by cultural values), which explain 

why branding strategies and communications are different. They note that cultural mod-

els in general can aid a researcher to examine effects of culture on self, personality, and 

mental and social processes and how these elements affect global advertising strategy. 

In addition, mental and societal processes affect communications, and these have an 

impact on advertising appeals and styles. Nevertheless, they add that cultural models 

were initially not created to analyze how consumers behave. However, according to 

Beugelsdijk et al. (2015: 224) because Hofstede’s cultural model has been extensively 

used and since the survey data the model is based on is decades old there are worries 

whether the model is stable. In addition, the authors question whether the scores still 

mirror the present globalized societies.  

With as much as Hofstede model has been used in previous studies it also has some 

problems. Steenkamp (2001: 32) points that the definitions of the dimensions and the 

items they were measured with do not correspond sufficiently. He adds to the concerns 

that the items might not signify same things in other countries, samples of company’s 

employees do not automatically portray the country in question, and because the items 

were originally about the employees’ values related to work which might not be entirely 

same with their values in different roles. Others have found concerns in the Hofstede 

model as well. Kaasa et al. (2014: 831) also note that the items were concerned about 

work-related values of the employees. They add as a criticism that the analysis was 

mostly done in country level (not in regional level for example).  

Baskerville (2003: 1) also counts some concerns with the Hofstede model: regarding na-

tion and culture as the same, the problems of measuring a culture that is depicted 

through cultural dimensions, and the consistency of cultural differences as the data used 

in Hofstede’s model was published in 1980. In addition, Soares et al. (2007: 281) remark 

that the data collection happened 1967-1973 and therefore the results might not be up 

to date anymore. Nevertheless, they continue that Hofstede’s model is a useful 



35 

instrument for including cultures in research. Furthermore, De Mooij and Hofstede (2010) 

state that the Hofstede framework has been proven to be a convenient model to recog-

nize variations of consumer behavior in different cultures. 

De Mooij and Hofstede (2010: 101) argue that in cross-cultural research when countries 

are compared, variables of culture are collected from the characteristics of the individu-

als of the certain country, however culture does not assess individuals since within a 

society exists many types of people. Instead, the authors note that the cultural variables 

can help to explain differences of countries. However, regarding the comparisons of only 

two countries, according to Engelen and Brettel (2011) these comparisons do not enable 

to find differences between specific cultural dimensions of nations. They add that it is 

impossible to be completely sure that other factors (like system of law) do not affect the 

results, so the researcher is not able to see if the variations in results are because of 

certain cultural dimensions of nations.  

Regarding cross-cultural studies Douglas and Craig (1992: 299) note that there are issues 

with regarding a country as a unit of the analysis since consumers are more mobile across 

borders and because there is more international communication. Samiee and Jeong 

(1994: 208) rise some concerns about treating nations as cultures and using nation as 

the unit of an analysis. They note that country as the unit of an analysis can be suitable 

when the within-culture of the country is quite similar but not if there are apparent cul-

tural differences between large groups within the country. Otherwise, they state it is 

impossible to identify cross-cultural differences. Steenkamp (2001: 36) agrees that if 

there is enough similarity within the country and differences between the countries in 

culture, culture can be regarded as a nation. Brumbaugh and Grier (2006: 35) also argue 

that focusing on two groups in a study (especially when the other group is a dominating 

one) can reduce the possibilities for generalizations of ethnicity’s effect on responses to 

advertising. However, they add that with two groups in a focus in a study it is easier to 

manage the sizes of the samples and it is not so difficult to draw conclusions of the pos-

sible differences. 



36 

Steenkamp (2001: 31) argues that international marketing researchers can use the cul-

tural models for designing studies and cross-national theories as the models help to un-

derstand various cultural levels and test if cultures stay consistent. Furthermore, Soares 

et al. (2007: 280) state that the Hofstede model is helpful for cross-cultural studies when 

creating hypotheses. Even with some concerns regarding the Hofstede model as noted 

by different authors, it has been the most popular model in global marketing and adver-

tising (De Mooij & Hofstede 2010: 85), and while acknowledging its problems this study 

will also use the Hofstede model for cross-cultural comparing. There are also some con-

cerns noted by Engelen and Brettel (2011) about two-country comparisons, mainly that 

they do not make it possible to separate other factors from cultural influences. However, 

as Brumbaugh and Grier (2006: 35) noted it is easier to interpret differences in studies 

of two groups. Therefore, this study will compare two countries and discuss the possible 

impacts of other factors in limitations. 

Next, Hofstede’s dimensions will be explained in more detail.  

Power Distance  

According to Hofstede (2001: 98) power distance explains how people with less power 

within a country accept and except the unequal power distribution.  

Uncertainty Avoidance 

Uncertainty avoidance shows how much uncertain or unknown situations intimidate 

members of the culture (Hofstede 2001: 161). 

Individualism and Collectivism 

Hofstede (2001: 225) defines an individualistic society a place where individuals are ex-

pected to take care of themselves and their closest family. In comparison, he notes that 

in a collectivist society, individuals are thought to belong to in-groups, and to get the 

protection of these groups the individuals are undoubtedly loyal to them.  

 



37 

Masculinity and Femininity 

According to Hofstede (2001: 297) in masculine societies gender roles are distinctive. He 

argues that men are tough and forceful and material success is important and women, 

on the other hand, are soft and modest and they are more interested in their life quality. 

However, he states that in a feminine society there are no clear differences between the 

roles: quality of life is important for both genders, and both men and women are as-

sumed to be soft and modest.  

Long Term Orientation and Short-Term Orientation 

Hofstede (2001: 359) states that long term orientation is about being focused on the 

rewards in the future. He continues that short-term orientation is about both past and 

present and supporting virtues regarding respect for tradition, saving face and taking 

care of social responsibilities. 

Indulgence 

Indulgence expresses how much people control their desires and impulses (Hofstede In-

sights 2021). 

As Table 1 demonstrates the two countries are similar, with notable differences in the 

last three dimensions: masculinity, long term orientation, and indulgence. De Mooij and 

Hofstede (2010: 93) suggest that for collectivistic cultures measuring of attitude toward 

the ad to understand advertising effectiveness will work differently as it does for individ-

ualistic cultures. However, both countries in the study are individualistic (Hofstede In-

sights 2021), so this does not apply here. According to Hofstede Insights (2021) the coun-

tries differ in the following way: Germany is more oriented toward success, it is not as 

indulgent as Finland, and status and performance are valued more. The data of Hofstede 

Insights (2021) shows that in Finland, on the other hand, wellbeing is more important, 

status is hidden, and leisure time is valued. There are some cultural differences between 

the countries, which is expected, however Germany and Finland seem to be rather close 

culturally especially in the first three dimensions and therefore, it is proposed: 



38 

H5. Finnish and German respondents will have similar attitudes toward the ad, brand, 

and cultural appropriation.  

Table 1. Hofstede’s Dimensions (Hofstede Insights 2021). 

 

2.6 Theoretical Framework 

According to the study by Mitchell (1986) brand attitudes could be affected through vis-

ual elements in ads; the visual elements can be a reason for consumers to form a con-

clusion about the brand, which in turn can affect their brand belief. The author notes 

that the visual elements can also get either a positive or negative evaluation which can 

then have an impact on brand attitude through consumer’s attitude toward the ad. Con-

sumers can form more negative brand evaluations when confronted with cultural images 

that provoke negative feelings in them and positive evaluations with cultural images that 

provoke positive feelings (Holland & Gentry 1997). Since foreign cultural appropriation 

means using or borrowing cultural symbols of foreign cultures (Rogers 2006, Suh et al. 

2016), this borrowing of foreign cultural symbols in the ads could affect consumers atti-

tudes toward the brand. In the study by Holland and Gentry (1997) ethnic consumers’ 

brand attitudes were affected when the brand was using cultural symbols of the con-

sumers’ culture. However, in this study the symbols used will be of an outside culture.  

The proposed theoretical framework of the thesis is illustrated in Figure 1. It follows the 

suggestion that cultural symbols in ads can affect consumers brand attitudes (Holland & 

Gentry 1997). The proposed model of the theoretical framework shows that consumers 

might create either negative or positive evaluations of the cultural symbols, which affect 

their ad attitude and through that their brand attitude (Massey et al. 2013). The 

Dimension Finland Germany

Power Distance 33 35

Uncertainty Avoidance 59 65

Individualism 63 67

Masculinity 26 66

Long Term Orientation 38 83

Indulgence 57 40



39 

hypotheses of the study will be tested through an empirical experiment. The hypotheses 

are examined through cultural appropriation; what the respondents think about cultural 

appropriation, how they react toward cultural symbols of a foreign country in an ad, and 

how and if their attitude affects their ad and brand attitudes. The cultural differences 

and/or similarities are examined through the Hofstede model and its cultural dimensions. 

It is assumed that as the two countries are similar in cultures, culture will affect the atti-

tudes of consumers in similar ways and thus the ad and brand attitudes would be similar 

in the same groups between the countries. 

 

Figure 1. Proposed model for the theoretical framework (adapted from Massey et al., 2013, p. 

11). 

Halkias et al. (2016) demonstrate that country perceptions have an important part in 

brand attitude formation. Consumers’ attitudes toward a culture or/and country can also 

have an impact on brand attitude directly (Moon 1996). Thus, it is possible that also 

country-of-origin could influence ad and brand attitudes of consumers. This has not been 

considered in the proposed model since the experiment did not study the country-of-

origin attitudes, instead it was studied if the respondents thought the brand to be French 

origin. Nevertheless, the study considers that the country of origin can influence the at-

titudes of the respondents and this is addressed in the limitations. 



40 

3 Methodology 

In this chapter, the methodology of the study is covered. The chapter will explain in detail 

how data was gathered and how the experiment was done. It provides information and 

argumentation on method selection as well as on how the research was conducted. It 

will move on to analysis of the data and at the end of the chapter the results of the 

empirical research are presented as well as discussed. 

3.1 Method 

According to Saunders et al. (2007: 3) method refers to how data is acquired and ana-

lyzed and thus questionnaires, observations, interviews, and both quantitative and qual-

itative techniques of analysis are included. Methodology, they add, instead addresses 

how research should be conducted. As noted by Saunders and Rojon (2014: 74) a clear 

method section is fundamental for research since studies and their settings can be hard 

to understand, which is why a researcher needs to be transparent of how data was col-

lected and how it was analyzed so the research findings can be deemed reliable. Bryman 

and Bell (2015: 26-27) note that an epistemological issue discusses whether the social 

world can be researched the same way as the natural sciences and a central issue is to 

define the accepted knowledge in a field. They explain that positivism is an epistemology 

of natural science that includes elements of deductive approach and inductive strategy 

and the goal of research is to verify new theories as well as create laws based on the 

data produced from the tests.  

According to Bryman and Bell (2015: 23) in a deductive approach, hypotheses are first 

formed based on existing knowledge of the subject and they are then empirically tested 

(confirmed or rejected) and the results can lead to modifications of theory. However, 

Bryman and Bell note (2015: 25) that some researchers prefer the inductive approach 

where research prevails theory and theory will be the result of research meaning that 

conclusions or theory come from observations or findings. Nonetheless, they add that 

both theories can include elements of each other. In the case of this study, the theory 

and the hypotheses are first formed based on former research and then tested with an 



41 

empirical test. Therefore, a deductive approach is better suited to describe the approach 

of the study.  

Creswell (2014: 4) explains that mainly three different research types are used: quanti-

tative research, qualitative research and mixed methods incorporating both research 

types together. To differentiate between the research types, he describes that in quanti-

tative research variables and their relationships to each other are analyzed. He adds that 

the variables can be measured with numerical data and analyzed with statistical proce-

dures. Bryman and Bell (2015: 37) note that the emphasis is on analysis of data and its 

quantification when it is collected. They add that a deductive approach is useful in quan-

titative research since it examines the relationship between theory and research and the 

importance of testing the theory is stressed.  

In contrast, Creswell (2014: 4) defines qualitative research as a type where a researcher 

is trying to understand the meanings given to social or human problems by individuals 

or groups and in the qualitative research questions and processes can emerge during the 

research. He notes that compared to quantitative research data is usually gathered in a 

setting with participants and analyzed inductively with the researcher making interpre-

tations of the data. Bryman and Bell (2015: 38) also note differences in qualitative re-

search compared to quantitative: in qualitative research quantification of the data and 

its analysis is not as important as words. They continue explaining that inductive ap-

proach is more dominant, the formation of theories is more important, and the re-

searcher tries to find out how individuals understand their social world.   

Bryman and Bell (2015: 38) summarize that the relevant differences between the two 

approaches is that quantitative research is more deductive where theories are tested 

and by contrast qualitative research is more inductive where theories are created. Lastly, 

in mixed methods both data types are collected, and the idea is that one can understand 

the issue more deeply by using both types instead of only one (Creswell 2014: 4). Be-

cause this study examines the relationships between ad attitudes, brand attitudes and 

attitude toward cultural appropriation (variables) and bases the theory and the 



42 

hypotheses on existing research, the study will be quantitative research with a deductive 

approach. It follows the process of quantitative research as illustrated in Figure 2. 

 

Figure 2. The process of research (Shortened from Bryman & Bell, 2015, p. 161). 

The data was gathered through an online survey which was send to Finnish and German 

respondents. A survey design was chosen as according to Creswell (2014: 155) with a 

survey it is possible to quantify trends, attitudes, or opinions of a population by taking a 

sample of the said population and examining it. He adds that from the results of the 

sample conclusions and generalizations of the whole population can be made. As the 

aim of the study is to examine attitudes and draw generalizations of the two nations, a 

survey design was chosen.  

Pretest 

Before the actual survey was distributed a pretest was conducted at the beginning of 

August in 2020. The experiment of the study was cross-sectional (data collected only at 

one point in time) (Creswell 2014: 157). The pretest got 32 respondents from Finland 

and the goal of the survey was to see if the respondents realized there were cultural 

symbols in the ads. For this reason, all seven ads (four without symbols and three with 

symbols) were shown to the respondents in a randomized order since the pretest was a 

within subjects test. The respondents were shown all seven ads and asked on a 7-point 

Likert scale if they saw any cultural elements in the ads (1 meaning there were no cultural 

symbols and 7 meaning there were very strong cultural symbols). This was done to find 

the ads with the most and the least cultural symbolism to be used in the actual experi-

ment. In addition, the respondents were asked if they thought the fictitious brand was a 

French brand and what was the country-of-origin of the brand based on the ad. At the 

end of the survey were the demographical questions as well as a chance to leave feed-

back. 



43 

The results of the pretest (see Table 2) show the ad number two (with a geisha and a 

perfume bottle) has the biggest mean (6,69) with a 99% confidence interval 6,43-6,95 

and 95% confidence interval 6,49-6,88. It also had a minimum of 5, meaning that options 

1-4 in the scale were not chosen for this ad. This ad was chosen to be the ad with cultural 

symbols in the actual experiment based on the results. The other ad without cultural 

symbols was chosen to be ad number six (with a perfume bottle and a splash of water) 

as it has the lowest mean score 1,84 with a 99% confidence interval 1,21-2,47 and a 95% 

confidence interval 1,38-2,31. The standard deviation of ad number six was higher (1,298) 

compared to ad number two (0.535) however it was the lowest of the other ads that got 

a low mean score. 

Table 2. Means and standard deviations of the ads in the pretest. 

 

It must be noted though that according to the feedback of the pretest not everyone 

might have understood the meaning of a cultural symbol, even when it was provided 

under every ad. This could have somewhat affected the results of the pretest. 

Design 

The real survey was conducted at the end of August and in the beginning of September 

in 2020 and it was also cross-sectional. The survey was an anonymous Internet survey 

powered by Webropol, and it was distributed through social media and social contacts. 

In the survey the respondents were shown ads by a fictitious French perfume company, 

both the company and ads made up for the survey. The company name was modified 

and “de France” was added at the end of the name in the actual survey to make it seem 

more French. The pictures used for the ads were created with pictures from Unsplash 

Ad N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

Ad1 32 1 7 5,47 1,502

Ad2 32 5 7 6,69 0,535

Ad3 32 1 6 3,63 1,827

Ad4 32 5 7 6,47 0,621

Ad5 32 1 7 2,63 1,699

Ad6 32 1 7 1,84 1,298

Ad7 32 1 6 2,59 1,898



44 

and Pixabay (free picture banks). According to the results of the pretest an ad with a 

Japanese geisha was chosen as the ad with cultural symbolism and an ad with a splash 

of water as the ad without cultural symbolism. The two countries chosen for the experi-

ment were Germany and Finland, both developed countries from Europe with similar 

cultures (Hofstede Insights 2021). The countries were chosen for the experiment to see 

if there were any differences between them even if their cultures are similar and to see 

how developed countries react to cultural appropriation when it is not their culture be-

ing appropriated. 

Subjects 

Subjects were both from Germany and Finland and their age groups ranged from 18-20 

to over 60 years old with five years interval between the groups except the first and last 

ones. There were altogether 153 answers, 77 from Finland and 76 from Germany. There 

were more females (92) than males (60), with one (1) specifying their gender as other. 

The age group 21-25 had most respondents (62) followed with the age group 26-30 with 

32 respondents. Other age groups were smaller. Most respondents were also employed 

(74) or students (51). There were some working students (26) and retired (2) respond-

ents. In education, most respondents had their master’s degree (54) with the groups of 

bachelor’s degree and high school diploma being equal size with 45 respondents. In ad-

dition, there were some with only a basic education and some with a Ph.D. or higher. All 

in all, the subjects were from varying age groups but most of them with high education 

making the sample a more educated one. 

There were two groups in both countries: ones who saw an ad with a cultural symbol 

and ones who saw an ad without a cultural symbol (see Table 3). 

Table 3. Groups of the experiment. 

 

Country Group N

Finland Without symbol 43

With symbol 34

Germany Without symbol 41

With symbol 35



45 

Table 3 illustrates that the groups were similar in sizes. Both countries had more partici-

pants in the group seeing the ad without a cultural symbol (control group). As the survey 

randomly chose the ad shown to the respondents, this was not a controllable factor in 

the survey. 

Procedure 

In the survey (see Appendix 1 for details) the respondents saw either an ad with cultural 

symbolism or without and this was randomized. After looking at the ad they were asked 

about their opinions of the ad and the brand (What is your opinion about the ad?; What 

is your opinion about the brand?). A semantic differential scale was also used to explore 

the respondents’ opinion about companies using/borrowing foreign cultural symbols in 

their ads (cultural appropriation). This was followed by questions about cultural symbols 

in the ad (whether there were any, if the symbols were from a country other than France, 

and from what country the symbols were from) and the brand origin which were slightly 

modified from the pretest to make them easier to understand. One choice was also 

added to the question asking if the cultural symbols were from a different country than 

France, enabling the respondents to choose that there were no cultural symbols in the 

ad to make the question clearer. However, some words were changed in the actual sur-

vey to make the scale more logical in both likert scale questions (Were there any cultural 

symbols in the ad and How French they thought the brand was based on the ad). In ad-

dition, one question was added based on the feedback from the pretest: the respond-

ents were asked what country they thought the cultural symbol was from if it was not 

from France. At the end of the questionnaire were the demographic questions (sex, age, 

occupation, education, and country). Lastly, the respondents were able to leave feed-

back about the survey. 

Measures 

Ad attitude (Aad) and brand attitude (Ab) were measured through a seven-point seman-

tic differential scale with four items t,he items created by Yoo and MacInnis (2005). As, 

to the knowledge of the author, there are no studies so far on how consumers feel about 



46 

brands using foreign cultural symbols there was no scale that could directly be used to 

measure consumers’ attitudes toward cultural appropriation. However, Mitchell et al. 

(1981) studied consumers’ attitudes toward graphic symbols and the measure of atti-

tude toward cultural appropriation was based on this and the items were by Yoo and 

MacInnis (2005). It was also a seven-point semantic differential scale with four items 

(see Appendix 1 for further details). Ad attitude and brand attitude used the same word 

pairs, while in the attitude toward cultural appropriation the last word pair was changed. 

3.2 Analysis and Results 

Manipulation check. To check if there were any changes in attitudes toward the brand 

when shown an ad with cultural symbols a control group was also included in the study. 

They were shown only an ad without any cultural symbols and afterwards also asked 

about their attitudes about the brand, the ad and possible cultural appropriation. As the 

brand used for the survey was fictitious the respondents could not have had any atti-

tudes toward it beforehand. As a manipulation check the respondents also answered the 

same questions about whether they saw cultural symbols in the ad as well as the origins 

of the brand as the respondents in the pretest. This was done to see if the two ads dif-

fered in the intended way. The results of the means of the ads of both tests are shown 

in Table 4. 

Table 4. The means of the ads of the groups. 

 

The mean differed somewhat between the pretest and the actual experiment, however, 

with ad with a cultural symbol the mean was still closer to six and without cultural sym-

bol closer to two. In general, in the actual survey respondents perceived the other ad to 

Group Mean Std. Deviation

Ad with cultural symbol

Pretest 6,69 0,535

Real experiment 5,67 1,184

Ad without cultural symbol

Pretest 1,84 1,298

Real experiment 2,44 1,547



47 

have more cultural symbolism than the control ad as was intended. France was chosen 

as the country of origin more than the other provided choices for both ads. For the ad 

with a geisha Japan was the second most popular country of origin after France.   

The internal reliability of the scales was tested through Cronbach’s Alpha (see Table 5). 

According to Bryman and Bell (2015: 168-169) internal reliability is usually tested when 

there are multiple items to measure for each question and the answers are rounded up 

for an overall score to see if the answers are coherent. They add that Cronbach’s Alpha 

is often used to check the internal reliability of the test and usually the figure 0.8 is used 

as a benchmark for accepted level of internal reliability. The results show that the scales’ 

internal consistency reliability was high enough (over .8) to use in the experiment. These 

are consistent with previous studies (Holland & Gentry 1997, Yoo & MacInnis 2005). 

Table 5. Cronbach’s Alpha. 

 

 

Validity expresses if the indicators of the study measure what they are supposed to 

measure (Bryman & Bell 2015: 170). To validate the scales used for the experiment, the 

scales were adopted from previous marketing studies of attitudes. As to the knowledge 

of the author there is no previous scale for attitude toward cultural appropriation a sim-

ilar scale was used as for ad attitude and brand attitude, except the last word pair was 

changed. This was based on the study by Mitchell et al. (1981) where they assume that 

a graphic symbol could communicate brand attributions and so it is assumed in this scale 

that cultural appropriation can be communicated though a foreign cultural symbol. The 

items were based on the items by Yoo and MacInnis (2005) since they had been used for 

previous attitudes. In addition, to measure the attitudes more correctly the questions 

were phrased as clearly as possible, and the words were explained to respondents to 

guarantee they understood what they were asked.  

Attitude Number of Items Cronbach's Alpha

Ad attitude 4 .917

Brand attitude 4 .947

Attitude toward cultural appropriation 4 .959



48 

At first, Mann-Whitney Test was conducted to see if there were any significant differ-

ences between the groups. Mann-Whitney was chosen as the variables are ordinal data 

and the design of the study was a between groups design (Morgan et al. 2004: 140). 

According to hypothesis H1 there should be a significant difference between the experi-

ment and control groups in their attitudes toward the ad and the brand. In addition, it 

was checked if there were differences between the countries. The only significant differ-

ence was between the control and experiment group in Finland and only in their ad at-

titude. There were no other significant differences and in Germany the differences were 

not significant between the two groups in any of the attitudes as can be seen in Table 6. 

There were no significant