The Rise of Communist China; The Fall of Traditional Advertising

Upon reading about the history of advertising in China I found  the development and extreme shifts in the role of advertising fascinating.  It seems that China has seen advertising bloom, have it completely taken away, and then have it reemerge in contemporary society.  One aspect of advertising in China that I found particularly fascinating occurred as the Communist regime rose to power in 1949.

With the advent of Communism in China came the complete removal of traditional Chinese advertising up until that point.  Traditional advertising was replaced with propaganda media with the ultimate goal of serving the Communist party.  This extreme and sudden repeal of advertising is hard to imagine.  This made me wonder how life in the United States would change if modern advertising as we know it was suddenly taken away?

So much of what we fill our time with throughout the day are supplemented by advertisements.  The TV we watch, the flyers and billboards in the city, the internet ads, etc.  Our whole environment would be transformed and seem boring compared to our normal visuals.  The numerous opportunities we are presented with on a daily basis would disappear and our knowledge of so many products would vanish.  Some might find this change pleasing and a refreshing change of pace, but I would think a majority of the population would begin to miss the normalcy it has come to claim in our lives.  It is a staple of the environment and is just part of our world in the United States.  This all is not to mention the economic benefits advertising has and the many forums it sustains merely with its presence.  All in all, the thought of having a world without advertising is like taking a piece out of a puzzle.  It would be incomplete and the picture that is our daily lives would become skewed and ambiguous.