Magazine online advertising in France and the United States

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the online fashion sponsorship, shedding light on the content and appeal of online fashion magazine advertising. Heeding the call of researchers for cross-cultural advertising investigations, this research offers a comparison of online fashion magazine advertisements in France and the USA in terms of needs appeals, emotional appeals, and sex appeals. Design/methodology/approach – Elle and Vogue were identified as prominent fashion magazines with an online presence in France and the USA After pretesting to identify appeals that appeared most frequently in online fashion advertisements, a content analysis of website advertisements was conducted with the full population of online advertisements in the US and French Elle and Vogue at the time of the study. Findings – The research found that need appeals conform primarily to national character and that emotional advertising is more preponderant in French advertisements, whereas sexual advertising is more preponderant in US advertisements. For needs appeals, the need for affiliation was higher for US advertisements, whereas online French magazines advertisements were more likely to use guidance and safety appeals. The need for prominence, attention, and autonomy were higher for online US magazine advertisements, whereas French advertisements were more likely to use escape and aggression appeals. Originality/value – As fashion magazines develop an online presence that is well coordinated with their print fashion pages, it is important to understand how advertising sponsors on the magazines’ webpages target consumers. This study is a first step in providing cross-cultural comparative insights into advertising appeals in relation to national character and preferences.