Though preliminary evidence suggests that humorous
advertising can be effective in foreign markets
(cf. Weinberger and Spotts 1989), few studies have
focused on ways in which humorous content varies
across national cultures. Because information is limited,
it is unclear which aspects of humorous television
advertising, if any, can be globally standardized
and which should be adapted to match local expectations.
Seeking commonalities as well as differences,
we attempt to identify dimensions in humorous television
advertising that could be global as well as those
that are likely to vary across nations by examining
advertising from (former West) Germany, Thailand,
South Korea (hereafter referred to as Korea), a