Investigation study on design of Ford Motor advertisements from 1922 – 1936 —taking automobile advertisements on Shun Pao and Taiwan NichiNichi Shin Po as examples

In the 1920s and 1930s, the U.S. automobile enterprise Ford made its retail debut in Taiwan and mainland China markets. At that time, Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule and had went through a series of assimilation policy; while China was in the period of semi-feudalism and semi-colonialism, a stage in which all sectors of society, from politics to economy, were invaded and controlled by foreign colonialism. However, in the face of Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule and mainland China in gradual economic colonization, Ford discovered that due to cultural diversity between the two regions, product image and sales method used in one region differed greatly from the other. So how did these automobile adverting concepts and designs come into being? Were they closely related with local culture and life style? With Ford Motor advertisements in Taiwan Nichi Nichi Shin Po and Shun Pao from year 1922 to 1936 as study subject, this thesis expounds the visual symbolic meanings and their differentiations delivered in Ford advertisements by mean of document analysis and from the angle of advertising appeal, technique of expression, etc.