I. INTRODUCTIONAdvertising is part of the increased globalization of mass media rapidly evolving into a truly global media village. Nowadays, thousands of firms are spending millions of dollars to influence people all around the world. The growth and expansion of firms operating internationally have led to the rise of the growth in international advertising. However, how to define a successful advertisement? It is generally agreed that an advertisement, if aiming to be successful, should be informative, impressive, and persuasive. Then, how to completely achieve these effects? The answer is: to know consumers wants. And how to know consumers wants? The answer is that the advertisements should aim to the cultures of target consumers.In most circumstances, we are relatively unaware of the tremendous impact our culture has on us. We automatically drive on the right-hand side of the road, try to arrive on time for appointments, and shake hands when we first meet someone. Without thought we react to our environment in a manner that is socially acceptable because that is how we have been socialized. Edward T. Hall points out, “No matter how hard man tries, it is impossible for him to divest himself of his own culture, for it has penetrated to the roots of his nervous system and determines how he perceives the world people cannot act or interact in any meaningful way expect through the medium of culture”(Hall,1966: 177). When we move into another culture, we carry our culture with us, responding to the foreign environment in ways that would be acceptable in our own culture but that may or may not be acceptable in different surroundings.If one wants to understand and communicate with a culture, investigation of the values of people in that culture provides a promising starting point. Personal values are values that individuals believe that they hold as motivating factors in their life. Individuals often conceptualize these values as basic principles in their life and may indeed use the term “value” to describe these basic motivators. Although cultural value orientations are not necessarily salient to an individual as a guiding belief, these orientations do have influences on individual behavior and these influences may be strong and pervasive. A value is a belief that is held very centrally and shapes a persons attitudes and behaviors. In fact, a value is a standard to guide actions, attitudes, comparisons, evaluations, and justifications to self and others. Values play a key role when advertising. In this case, cultural values are of primary importance in international advertising, so knowledge and understanding of cultural values are essential to successful advertising. Failure to understand the cultural environment can lead to misunderstandings, miscommunications, and marketing failures. And trying ones best to understand the cultural values better can lead him to be a successful businessman. Although there have been a great deal of interests in recent years in the relationship of consumer values to consumption, most of situations have dealt with personal values consumer characteristics.With what stated above, we can easily summarize that cultural value influences advertising, and meanwhile, advertisements reflects the values of people in that culture. Many researchers have said that advertising shapes the way people live. Since we have contiguity with many products that were made in America, and American advertisements are widely known throughout the world, this thesis, therefore, would show how American advertisements reflect the American peoples characteristics or values.Chapter two will simply introduce the characters or values of the people in the United States, namely, pioneering spirit, materialism, individualism, asking questions, informality, less social distinction, honesty, frankness, and directness. And chapter three, with concrete examples of American advertisements from a variety of sources, discusses in details the reflection of the values of American people in the advertisements. Chapter four concludes the paper.II. AMERICAN CHARACTERS AND VALUESA GENERAL REVIEWHistorically, because American people have come from so many nationalities, people of different races and of different sections in the United States have their own customs and attitudes. For example, the New Englander is described as stern and self-reliant, the Southerner as gracious and leisurely, and the Westerner as casual and friendly, most regional distinctions, however, have been gradually erased by modern transportation, communication, and mass production. The following part will summarize some of the main characters and values of the American people:The pioneering spirit of the immigrant is an important part of the American character. Most immigrants came to America voluntarily, and eagerly, in search of greater fortune and freedom. So the desire to become rich and undisciplined is espec