Advertising in transforming economies: evidence from early market reforms in China and Vietnam

Attitudes toward advertising as a research topic has been around for a long time. In the West, the heyday of research on such issues is past, although some work continues on specific issues and to update to new media channels, such as various online contexts. However, it is still an important topic in developing countries, including those transforming toward more open capitalist economies. We revisit old data to see attitudes toward advertising in China and Vietnam early in their transformation process. Generally, consumers in both countries recognized the positive macroeconomic role of advertising, but they were also becoming aware of problems, similar to common criticisms of advertising in the West. Some specific differences between responses in the two data sets may be useful for policy formation and advertising implementation currently in developing economies.