Abstract: Comparative advertising is a novel yet controversial form of advertising. Researchers have reached a consensus on the comparative advertising’s concept and its communication effects, the emphases of their recent studies are the functional mechanism of comparative advertising and the relevant factors that influence its communication effects. When the comparative advertising’s communication effects, transmission mechanism and its influencing factors were systematically investigated, some of the existing problems such as its mechanism and the control of influencing factors, which existed in the recent research were pointed out, and the prospect that comparative advertising should be further studied in the subculture was proposed

Key words: comparative advertising, imagery and analytical information processing, comparison advertising intensity, market position