In many Asian countries adopting global look in advertising has become a common practice. This global look is usually associated with Caucasian appearance. The current study examined if this trend is working efficiently in ethnically homogeneous Asian society from consumers’ perspective. The study was performed in Taiwan via consumer research survey. Data showed that overall preference of our respondents is strongly slanted towards Asian models (66%). However, there are certain variations in model preferences when offered a brand of local origin and one of foreign origin. Consistent with the Social Identity Theory, this study demonstrated that as consumers’ ethnic identity increases they tend to display a stronger preference for a model of the same ethnicity. The longer Taiwanese stay abroad the more they tend to assimilate into the foreign culture, thus it weakens their ethnic identity and changes their preference from Asian to Caucasian models.

In many Asian countries adopting global look in advertising has become a common practice. This global look is usually associated with Caucasian appearance. The current study examined if this trend is working efficiently in ethnically homogeneous Asian society from consumers’ perspective. The study was performed in Taiwan via consumer research survey. Data showed that overall preference of our respondents is strongly slanted towards Asian models (66%). However, there are certain variations in model preferences when offered a brand of local origin and one of foreign origin. Consistent with the Social Identity Theory, this study demonstrated that as consumers’ ethnic identity increases they tend to display a stronger preference for a model of the same ethnicity. The longer Taiwanese stay abroad the more they tend to assimilate into the foreign culture, thus it weakens their ethnic identity and changes their preference from Asian to Caucasian models.

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