First, the emergence and development of advertising theory

(A) the origin of advertising research

Throughout human history, it can be said that advertising has a long history. Human ancestors began to use gestures (such as dancing), sounds (such as selling) and firelight (such as bonfires) to spread advertisements, and later invented and used languages and characters, which expanded the depth and breadth of advertising communication. (Note: He Meng, editor. Modern Advertising, Fudan University Press, 1996, p. 2. The emergence of mass media such as radio and television has brought about a qualitative change in human advertising communication again. With the continuous development of advertising media, the formation, popularization and development of professional advertising companies since19th century have accelerated the process of advertising research. 18 12, the world's first advertising professional company opened in London; 1869, Al&Son Advertising Company was established in Philadelphia, USA. (Note: edited by Zhao Yuji. Modern Advertising, China Commercial Press, 1987, p. 6. All these show that advertising has developed from static words and patterns to dynamic advertising activities, which has contributed to the emergence of advertising.

Advertising practice and advertising theory are interactive. Advertising is an operational social practice, and advertising is a scientific theoretical system about advertising, a special social phenomenon and its movement law. Advertising originated in the economically developed United States. 190 1 year, American psychologist Walter? Dill? At a rally in Chicago, Scott first proposed to develop the practice of modern advertising activities and advertising work into science. 1903 edited the book advertising principles, and discussed advertising as an academic theory for the first time. "Any important practical undertaking needs a theoretical basis" (Note: Modern Advertising, edited by Zhao Yuji, China Commercial Press, 1987, p. 7. )。 From 65438 to 0908, Scott wrote the book Advertising Psychology. He used psychological principles to analyze consumers' acceptance psychology and began a systematic exploration of advertising theory. In addition, during the period of 1902- 1905, the economics departments of the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California, and the University of Michigan all started to offer advertising courses. The above research and theoretical discussion can be said to be the beginning of world advertising research, which laid the foundation for the formation of advertising theory.

(B) the start of advertising research in China

The earliest published monograph on advertising research in China is "Advertising Description" edited by Gan Yonglong. (Noe: Chen Peiai: A History of Chinese and Foreign Advertising, China Price Publishing House, 1997, p. 53. ) This book was first published by the Commercial Press in June 19 18, the seventh edition in June/925, 1 1. It is translated from the book How to Advertise in America. This book is not long. Among them, Chapter 14, Manuscripts are the Soul of Advertising, holds that advertising is: "Announce the facts about selling products to the public and announce their prices."

The earliest advertising research group in China is the Journalism Research Association of Peking University, which was founded in 19 18. It believes that advertising is an integral part of news research and teaching. 19 19 12, one of the tutors hired by Peking University Institute of Journalism, published the first systematic and comprehensive journalism book in China, with a total of 14 chapters, in which the advertisement of newsprint is listed as 10 chapter, which is discussed in a special chapter. (Note: Deng Baiyun, editor-in-chief: China Advertising Practical Manual, Shanghai World Book Publishing Company, 1994 edition, p. 23. The author believes that "to develop a newspaper advertisement, we must first seek to improve its sales volume." From 1920 to 1925, some colleges and universities have opened advertising courses, such as Shanghai St. John's University, Xiamen University, Beijing Civilian University, Beijing International University, yenching university, Shanghai Southern University and so on. At that time, the advertising course was only an integral part of journalism research and teaching, which was limited to the study of newspaper advertisements.

Ge Gongzhen, a famous journalist, also contributed to the study of advertising in his early days. In "The History of China" published by 1927, he systematically expounded the theories and viewpoints about advertising, and emphasized the political thought and cultural value of advertising. He believes that "advertising is a historical opportunity for commercial development, that is, a record of cultural progress" and "it is not only a means for the industrial and commercial circles to promote products, but also a mission to publicize culture and educate the masses". He also pointed out: "human life has become richer and happier because of scientific inventions, and advertising has the function of promoting and guiding life." The author deeply realizes that advertising not only has the function of selling goods, but also has the function of spreading culture, guiding life and educating the masses. This view is far-sighted. He also strongly criticized "immoral and dishonest advertising", which "is not only a big worry for China's industry, but also a great shame for the advertising industry". Later published monographs on advertising include: Kuai Shixun's Advertising ABC published by 1929, Liu Baoru's Advertising Science published by 1930, Sun Xiaojun's Advertising Economics published by193/kloc-0, 1933. However, in the 1920s and 1930s, the influence of advertisements on social and economic activities was very limited.

(C) the development of advertising research in China

Due to the influence of social and economic development, advertising research and education in China has been limited and slow since the May 4th Movement. The research of advertising theory is still superficial and the system is not perfect. From the founding of New China to the reform and opening up, China's advertising theory research is almost blank. 1June, 983, the first advertising major in China was established in the Department of Journalism and Communication, Xiamen University (Note: Chen Peiai: History of Chinese and Foreign Advertising, China Price Publishing House, 1997, p. 16 1 page). It marks that the training of advertising professionals and the research of advertising theory in China have embarked on a formal development track. Subsequently, advertising became a hot subject, and many colleges and universities set up advertising majors or advertising departments. By the end of 1998, nearly 90 colleges and universities in China had set up advertising majors. The establishment of advertising specialty in colleges and universities has promoted the rapid development of theoretical research and discipline construction of advertising in China.

In the middle and late 1980s, driven by the vigorous development of advertising industry in China, the advertising theory circle passed the "take-away" days of relying only on translation and introduction of overseas advertising books, and began to enter the development period of advertising theory. During this period, a number of influential research works on advertising theory were published, such as Fu and Kuang Tiejun's Advertising Theory, Yang Ronggang's Modern Advertising Theory and Modern Advertising Theory ... The publication of these research works on advertising theory reflects to some extent that China's advertising theory research is developing from shallow to deep. They try to combine advertising theory with advertising education, advertising theory with advertising practice, and foreign advertising theory with domestic reality. Since 1990s, the establishment of market economy system in China has promoted the unprecedented prosperity of advertising industry, and the research on advertising theory has developed more scientifically, systematically and diversified, and a number of influential advertising series have appeared, which has made great contributions to the continuous improvement of the status of advertising as an independent discipline.

In the past 20 years of reform and opening up, China's advertising theory construction and discipline construction have made unprecedented achievements. However, in the face of the rapid development of advertising industry in China, advertising theorists are faced with more unavoidable new topics in advertising theory. For example, the study of advertising principles should not be confined to the narrow scope of economics, but should go deep into the broad fields of social science and natural science such as society, culture, politics, ethics, science and technology, education, etc. Advertising is not only a tool and means to sell goods, but also undertakes the extensive communication function of social production, life and all human social activities. After 1990s, the computer-based network has developed into the fifth largest advertising media after newspapers, magazines, radio and television. From the perspective of the history of advertising development, the emergence of new media has opened up a new world for the advertising industry, and at the same time brought new topics for the research of advertising theory.

Looking forward to the research trend of advertising theory, we will focus more on more macroscopic fields and comprehensive categories such as advertising culturology, advertising communication, advertising informatics, advertising sociology and advertising aesthetics. The research focus has also changed, from theoretical research to behavioral research; From research separation to research synthesis and intersection; From static research to dynamic research. Its core is from work-centered research to people-centered research. In a word, it is necessary to explore and construct an advertising theory that is not only suitable for China's national conditions, but also has independent academic significance, so as to make the theoretical research of advertising more realistic and appropriate.

Second, the exploration of several problems in the research of advertising theory

Advertising is a discipline that studies the laws of advertising activities. Through the accumulation of a large number of practical experience in advertising, it is gradually sublimated and abstracted, and under the guidance of scientific world outlook and methodology, a theoretical system is formed, which constitutes advertising. Advertising activity is an information dissemination activity, but its focus is to spread market economy information. Therefore, advertising essentially belongs to the category of information communication discipline, which is closely related to many disciplines. Of course, the academic understanding of some theoretical problems in the development of advertising is not completely consistent. Since 1980s, China's advertising theory has experienced many important theoretical issues, which are relatively concentrated on several key issues. For example, the dispute between science and art in advertising discipline, the theoretical basis of advertising research, and sociological thinking about advertising. The discussion of these theoretical problems not only clarifies the development direction of advertising theory, but also has a strong guiding role in practice.

(A) about the science and art of advertising.

In the theoretical research of advertising, there is a long-standing debate about whether advertising is science or art. At present, there are three representative views.

First of all, I think advertising is an art, not a science. Most of those who hold this view are overseas advertising scholars, such as some advertising scholars in the United States, Britain and Australia. They think that advertising is an art, a product made by artists and an artistic way to shape the image of products. They also think that advertisements without artistry are advertisements without vitality. Some people in China's advertising industry also think that advertising involves many disciplines, with no rules to follow and no systematic theoretical basis. Its form of expression is mainly art, so it is an art science.

Second, I think advertising is a science, not an art. In the Introduction to Modern Advertising published by 1989, Mr. Yang Ronggang thinks that "advertising, as a science, must have its inherent characteristics. This feature is an objective existence outside people's subjective consciousness, not people's subjective imagination and assumption. Therefore, advertisements must be facts. " (Note: Yang Ronggang: An Introduction to Modern Advertising, China Machinery Industry Press, 1989, p. 35. ) Mr. Cheng Chun also pointed out that "advertising is science, not art" in the article 1994 "Preliminary Study on the Effect of TV Advertising" (Noe: Cheng Chun: Preliminary Study on the Effect of TV Advertising, China Advertising Yearbook' 94 edition, Xinhua Publishing House, 1995, p. 188. He believes that advertising is a science subordinate to the market economy, and art can only be a means to serve the purpose of advertising. The above viewpoint holds that science and art are both forms reflecting objective existence, but their concepts are different. Science is the knowledge of summing up the regularity of things, and art is the typical image of processing and refining things. Advertising is a science subordinate to the category of information dissemination, and art can only be a means to serve the purpose of advertising. Only by understanding the relationship between them in essence can we really understand the connotation of advertising.

Thirdly, advertising is both a science and an art. This view was first put forward by Mr. Xu Baiyi, a veteran of China advertising industry and former consultant of China Advertising Society. 1983 at the second national symposium held in August, he put forward the following viewpoint: "Advertising is the science and art of introducing goods and services to consumers through various media in a planned way." (Note: Chen Peiai: Principles and Methods of Advertising, Xiamen University Press, 1987, p. 3. Most researchers in China's advertising theory hold this view, believing that advertising is a science, because it not only has a specific research object, but also has its inherent objective laws and a complete knowledge system. Advertising is an art, because it involves a wide range, especially in advertising creativity and performance, which can not be separated from artistic processing. It is to express product or enterprise information through artistic means, thus arousing consumers' interest in advertising.

After reading the above formulation, we believe that advertising should be a science, not an art, nor a mixture of science and art. Advertising is a synthesis that organically combines various elements into a specific function and can achieve a specific purpose. In the long-term advertising activities, people constantly accumulate experience and sum up experience. Through scientific abstract generalization and logical reasoning, the objective laws of advertising activities and advertising career development are gradually raised to theoretical knowledge. Judging from the knowledge system of advertising, the basic principles and theories of advertising have formed a systematic structure, thus forming modern advertising. And art is just a means to express the scientific principles of advertising. Science and art are not mutually exclusive, but complement each other. It is necessary to overcome the tendency of unilaterally pursuing the "artistic effect" of advertising and ignoring the scientific concept of advertising.

(B) On the theoretical basis of advertising research

For a long time, academic circles have different views on the theoretical basis of advertising research. First, it is believed that its theoretical basis should be the market economy theory, because advertising is a means to promote products, and its application scope is mainly in the field of market economy. Second, advertising is an information dissemination activity, whose essential feature is information dissemination, and the market is only an important field in which advertising plays its role. We believe that the development of advertising should be based on communication theory. The study of advertising involves many disciplines, but as an independent discipline, advertising is not a hodgepodge, it has its own theoretical system. Obviously, the research object of advertising is information dissemination, and the practical problem it wants to solve is not from the viewpoint of economic priority, but from the standpoint of information dissemination. Advertising actually does three things: spread a message; Provide services; Promote a belief. The specific research object of communication is all means of mass communication, including advertising, and many theories of communication are fully applicable to the study of advertising.

Advertising should belong to the category of communication. With the in-depth discussion of theoretical issues, most people think that advertising is the essential feature of information dissemination, and that communication is the most important theoretical basis of advertising research, and advertising should be included in the research category of communication science. This understanding has also been recognized by the national education authorities. In the early 1990s, when the State Education Commission organized the revision of the catalogue of liberal arts majors, many experts demonstrated that the eight major disciplines in the draft were reduced by 1/3 majors, but the advertising major was added under the journalism major, and the "professional direction" originally set by individual schools was upgraded to "major", which was a correct and far-sighted decision. 1997, when the Ministry of Education cut down the professional catalogue again on a large scale, it separated journalism from literature and upgraded it to a first-class discipline in the name of "journalism and communication", while retaining the major of advertising. According to the survey of Academic Committee of China Advertising Association (1997), the major of advertising in China is not only distributed in comprehensive universities, business schools, journalism schools and radio and television colleges, but also in art colleges, normal colleges, printing colleges and ethnic colleges. Almost all types of colleges have great interest in advertising as a new major. Among them, journalism accounts for the highest proportion (44.8%). All these fully show that the understanding of bringing advertisements into the scope of communication studies is in the majority.

The comprehensive, marginal and cross characteristics of modern advertising give people a sense of disorder on the surface, but as an independent discipline, we can completely define the subject system of advertising: advertising is essentially an information dissemination activity, which belongs to the research category of communication, and its application focuses on the social practice of economic activities. Under this basic understanding, establish a complete and stable advertising system. After the accurate positioning of advertising, we should face the world, the market and the future. While exploring the integration with international advertising, we should pay attention to the current situation of advertising in China and build a style framework of modern advertising.

(C) Sociological thinking about advertising

Since 1990s, advertising research has started to develop in depth. Some theorists are not satisfied with the current research situation, and suggest that advertising should be considered in a broader social background. 1995, Chen Hongjun pointedly pointed out in "Sociological Thinking on Advertising": "The academic research on advertising is basically carried out from two aspects, one is to study the internal law of advertising activities from the information dissemination principle involved in advertising, and the other is to study the external factors of advertising from the relationship between advertising and market. No matter from which angle we study advertising, we should put advertising in the big system of the whole society for research and analysis, so as to conduct systematic research from a brand-new angle (people, society and advertising). " (Note: Chen Hongjun: Sociological Thinking on Advertising, China Advertising Yearbook' 95', Xinhua Publishing House, 1996, p. 27 1. Ouyang Kang also put forward the necessity of integrating sociology into advertising research in 1996. In his book Modern Advertising, he expounded the relationship between sociology and advertising: "Sociology always analyzes its research object as a whole, and it thinks that any individual who is divorced from the whole does not exist. The integrity principle of sociological research has guiding significance for the research of advertising activities. " (Noe: Ouyang Kang: Modern Advertising, China Social Publishing House, 1996, p. 38. )

Advertising activity is a comprehensive information dissemination activity, which not only conveys commodity information, but also conveys various political information, social life information and cultural information. Therefore, in a broad sense, advertising can be said to be a popular social information dissemination activity. From the narrow sense of advertising activities, commercial advertising or economic advertising activities must also be based on the broad social background and specific social system, social culture, living habits and national customs, so as to create advertising works that meet specific social conditions.

Advertising permeates all aspects of our social life, and it will inevitably interact with various social phenomena. In this process, advertising follows the principles and laws of both advertising and sociology. Only by using the whole principle of sociology to study advertising activities from the whole society can we find the inherent characteristics of advertising activities.

To sum up, the development of China's advertising theory in the 20th century was based on the introduction and reference of western advertising theory, and was promoted by the continuous development of China's advertising industry. After long-term exploration, accumulation and deepening, it has gradually formed its own theoretical system and developed into an independent discipline. Especially since the reform and opening up, the rise of advertising education in China has promoted the prosperity of advertising theory construction and improved the overall level of advertising industry in China, thus making advertising and advertising disciplines develop together.