• The Content Construction Analysis of Comparative Advertising Cases

Abstract

This study combined the principle of Competition Law and a managerial concept to investigate the content construction of comparative advertising cases by a content analysis. It is a cross-field research and meets future research trends. Different from previous researches on comparative advertising that focus on advertising marketing or the domain of Competitive Law. It first constructs the categories using a content analysis, types of comparative advertising, comparative principle, comparative content, legal effect and the units of analysis of the categories, and then collects comparative advertising cases of Taiwan Fair Trade Commission to employ samples, from 1992 to 2011. The statistics validating results indicate that most of advertising is direct comparison; as to comparative approach, ‘objectivity’ is adopted the most and ‘relationship’ is adopted the least; and most of advertising is the non-price comparison; as to legal effects, false or misleading violation is the most common and violation of business reputation is rarely used. The finds can serve as a reference for the authority of Competition Law and businesses when dealing with comparative advertising related cases.

Keywords: Comparative Advertising, Content Construction Analysis, Fair Trade Law, Content Analysis