When cultural differences operate in a similar manner: an analysis of cultural reflection in advertisements in Britain and Iran during periods of cultural upheaval

This paper aims to study the role of socio-cultural elements in shaping advertisements in Britain and Iran as both developed and developing countries. This research endeavour stems from two grounding evidences; one is the importance of cultural aspect in shaping marketing practices (see Layton 2007) while most of the extant studies are done in western contexts and the second is the importance of creativity in advertising (El-Murad and West 2004). Hence, in this research by using archival data before and after two formative events in the aforementioned countries (i.e. 1939 World War II in Britain and 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran), and adopting Glavenau (2010) framework regarding creativity as cultural participation, and Moeran’s work (2011) regarding the role of socio-cultural conditions on creativity in cultural production sites like advertising, the aim is to show the manifestation of socio-cultural elements on ads and claiming that ads can shape and being shaped by the culture (i.e. ads as cultural artefacts). The findings also can provide a good standpoint to consider how advertising practitioners can use cultural elements as a source for crafting new ideas that can be introduced to the culture.