The reflection of cultural imperialism in advertising: A research on the home life category

Thanks to the rapidly spreading mass media around the world, the ideological values of one country can be integrated into another country very easily. The USA and some Western countries, which use the media effectively, in the modernization theory they developed; He argues that underdeveloped countries should be stripped of their traditional values in order to develop and modernize. In particular, advertisements contain cultural messages and cause cultural imperialism. In this context, the aim of the study is to reveal the indicators through which cultural elements are conveyed to the consumer through advertisements and how they create attitudes on the consumer; The aim is to raise awareness about preserving the national culture among the Turkish society and especially the university students who constitute the study sample group. In addition, the fact that the study based on literature review is the first to be carried out to determine attitudes and advertising indicators of cultural values is important in terms of guiding other studies. A total of 10 commercials, selected by purposive sampling method from the official YouTube accounts of Karaca Home and English Home companies, which are in the home life category determined within the scope of the study, were examined with the semiotic analysis approach of Ferdinand de Saussure and Roland Barthes. A survey was conducted with 255 people within the sample of Sakarya University Kyk Girls' Dormitory to determine what kind of attitude the cultural indicators conveyed through the advertising messages analyzed immediately afterwards create in the consumer. It was concluded that the obtained advertising analyzes and survey results support each other. The advertisements within the scope of the study do not reflect Turkish culture, but rather contain messages aimed at cultural imperialism and have a cultural impact on the consumer.