Public service advertisements are a measure of judging whether a country’s advertising industry is mature, symbolizing a society’s developmental level of material culture and spiritual culture。 The core of public service advertisements is to create social benefits, which can promote social mobilization。

     In the United States, public service advertisement is the advertising campaign which is aimed at promoting public awareness of prominent social issues, influencing their views and attitudes towards these issues, and changing their behavior and practices, in order to solve or mitigate social issues。 (Pan Gong 6) 

     Public service advertisements are the accumulation of excellent traditional cultures, and the reflection of those cultures。 Through public service advertisements, a better understanding of rich connotations of spiritual civilization and material civilization can be gained。 Public service advertisements and national culture are interdependent。 Public service advertising is a profound reflection of the cultural characteristics of the nation, but is inevitably influenced by the national culture。 

     Reviewing the studies of previous researchers, it turns out that many scholars home and abroad studied PSAs mostly from the perspectives of the language form, mode of operation, and theme, while there are limited studies on PSAs from the cultural perspective, with fewer studies on PSAs from the perspective of the high and low context theory。

     Therefore, this thesis compares and analyzes two Chinese and American non-smoking public service advertisements from the perspective of high and low context, intending to arouse more concern on the influence of cultural differences on public service advertisements, enhance better understanding of the public service advertisements from different cultures and promote further intercultural communications between China and America。 

2。 Literature Review

2。1 Previous studies on PSAs

2。1。1 Previous studies on PSAs at home

     In China, public service advertisements began after the reform and opening up in late 1970s, which is relatively late compared with American PSAs。 The public service advertising is generally defined as: “the so-called public service advertising provides services for public interest activities and public welfare undertakings。 It is an advertising campaign with the purpose of promoting ethics, behavioral norms and ideology which is beneficial to society”。 (Wang 243)

     Chinese scholars have also made significant achievements in PSA studies thereafter。 In 2001, Introduction to Public Service Advertising by Pan Zehong studied the basic theory of public service advertising。 Pan conducts a full scan of public service advertisements from the perspective of different disciplines, attempting to reveal the historical inevitability of public service advertisements, the unique personality of public service advertisements and their social and cultural functions。 (Pan Gong 1)论文网

     In 2004, Zhang Mingxin published a book called The Mystery of Public Service Advertising which discussed the history, connotation, characteristics and functions of public service advertisements, analyzed the content, creativity, performance, dissemination of public service advertisements, and evaluated PSAs cases。 (Zhang 2)

     In Public Service Advertising Theory, Song Yushu studied public service advertising campaign mechanism and management, public service advertising and image shaping, public service advertising topic choice and themes, etc。 (Song 2)

2。1。2 Previous studies on PSAs abroad

     Public service advertisement first emerged in the United States in 1940s, as the inevitable result of the rapid developments of the industrial revolution。 Due to the economic crisis of the 1940s, the harsh commodity depressions made the US economy difficult, leading to increasing criticisms on advertising。 Then American public service advertisements consequently arose。 In 1941, J。 W。 Young put forward that advertising can help people rebuild respect for American business and economic system of survival。 He also stressed that advertising should also play a greater role in changing society。 (Wang 264)