A cross‐cultural content analysis of restaurant ads in New Zealand

Unlike many other cross‐cultural advertising comparisons, this study compares two different cultures within the same country, and the topic of the content analysis is narrowed down to one particular type of product – restaurants. The content analysis is conducted on ads for Chinese restaurants and English restaurants in newspapers printed in New Zealand. The number of ads in different newspapers, themes of the ads and ads with and without relevant pictures are compared. The results of the study show that the number of ads for Chinese restaurants in English newspapers is significantly greater than the number of ads for English restaurants in Chinese newspapers; the number of ads for other restaurants in Chinese newspapers is significantly more than that in English newspapers; the number of ads for restaurants in holiday issues is significantly greater than that in non‐holiday issues; the themes of the ads for Chinese restaurants focus on basic functions, while the themes of the ads for English restaurants focus on dining atmosphere; and the non‐language speakers understand significantly better ads with relevant pictures than those without.