Abstract

The recent opening up of the Chinese economy has seen a rapid growth in the advertising industry, which has also lead to the exposure of advertising for socially sensitive, or controversial, products to the Chinese community. Another Asian country, Malaysia, is an Islamic country that also has problems related to the exposure to controversial advertising. This paper surveys 238 Chinese and 379 Malaysians to determine their level of offence towards various gender-related products and the main reasons for offence towards advertising.