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Societal and cultural examination of public service advertisements of a society in transition
Journal of Marketing Communications
Abstract
Although public service advertisements (PSAs) can be viewed as either change agents or reflections of concerns about societal needs, there is little research on this topic. Rapid changes in newly industrializing countries have apparently brought about several negative consequences. In this study, we used multiple methods for exploring PSAs in Thailand to identify important societal needs. Furthermore, we examined variations in attitudes towards specific public service advertising themes using demographic and cultural variables. Through both naturalistic inquiry and a large-scale survey of 1756 respondents, we found that the priority placed on safety and social needs in the Thai culture was clearly reflected in PSA themes and messages. In addition, attitudes towards PSA themes were found to vary by education, age and traditional values, but not by religion. Propositions and suggestions for future research are also provided in the final section.
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Responding to Holbrook's questioning of "what's unfair" in "The Distorted Mirror," the author extends the discussion of advertising's cultural impact on values. He examines the validity of the model Holbrook assumes to be implicit and provides a more explicit statement of the essential argument. He accepts some but refutes many aspects of the critique and suggests a research agenda.
In the past, research has found that the portrayal of sex roles in advertising has not reflected equality or reality. Further, studies typically have examined only U. S. advertising, leaving open the question of cultural influence on advertising's sex role portrayals. The author offers a new analysis of sex roles in advertising and compares content analysis findings for U. S., Australian, and Mexican television advertisements. Results reveal differences in the portrayal of the sexes in U. S. advertisements. Australian advertisements show somewhat fewer sex role differences and Mexican advertisements show slightly more sex role differences than U. S. advertisements. Stereotypes are found in the advertising of all three countries, but are manifested in different ways.
Prior research suggests that young adolescents' perceptions of smokers are strongly associated with smoking initiation. Thus, we experimentally investigated the effects of antismoking and cigarette advertising on nonsmoking youths' perceptions (evaluative judgments) of a peer who smokes. Results suggest that exposure to the antismoking ads made salience our seventh-grade subjects' pre-existing beliefs that smokers foolishly endanger their health, which resulted in even less favorable evaluations of the smoker's common sense and personal appeal. Further, unlike subjects who saw unrelated (control) ads, those who saw the antismoking ads judge the smoker to be relatively immature and unglamorous. Exposure to the cigarette ads did not significantly affect scale ratings of, but resulted in more favorable thoughts about, the smoker. Copyright 1994 by the University of Chicago.
This article offers a new approach to celebrity endorsement. Previous explanations, especially the source credibility and source attractiveness models are criticized, and an alternative meaning transfer model is proposed. According to this model, celebrities' effectiveness as endorsers stems from the cultural meanings with which they are endowed. The model shows how meanings pass from celebrity to product and from product to consumer. The implications of this model for our understanding of the consumer society are considered. Research avenues suggested by the model are also discussed. Copyright 1989 by the University of Chicago.
The standard model for the diffusion of innovations in consumer behavior does not adequately account for the incorporation of novel items of non-local origin into the material culture inventory of Hausa-speaking peasants in Niger. A synthetic, culturally relative model composed of elements drawn from the standard diffusion paradigm, from world-systems theory, and from economic and symbolic anthropology provides a more satisfactory account of these processes. Analysis shows that novel goods provide a medium through which alternative paradigms of consumer behavior and reality contend. Among the Hausa, a premarket model, a Western market-mediated model, and an Islamic ethnonationalist model compete for consumer affiliation.
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Results of a longitudinal study of ads from Hong Kong, the People's Republic of China (PRC), and Taiwan depict distinctive consumer cultures. PRC ads emphasize utilitarian appeals, promise a better life, and focus on states of being as a consumption theme. Hong Kong ads stress hedonistic values, promise easier and American lifestyles, and focus on doing. Taiwan ads fall between these two extremes, but are converging toward Hong Kong ads in consumption appeals over time. PRC ads, presumably anchored by remnants of an anti-materialistic political ideology, seem to chart a different trend.
The importance of signs and symbols has been widely recognized, but only a handful of consumer researchers have developed theory and research programs based on semiotics, the doctrine of signs. This article outlines the emergence and principal perspectives of semiotics and then discusses its applications and implications for consumer research. Among its strengths, semiotics positions meaning at the nucleus of consumer behavior, provides a rich metalanguage for semiotic consumer research, and recommends a multi-paradigm philosophy of science.
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The influence of advertising on primary demand for cigarettes is investigated. By employing annual, bimonthly, and monthly observations, the consequences of temporal aggregation can be studied. Independent of the level of temporal aggregation, advertising was found to have a statistically significant impact on industry sales, although the influence diminished over time. This contradicts the findings of a well-known study by Lambin (1976), which lends support to the assumption of reciprocal cancellation of brand advertising in saturated markets. With respect to the problem of temporal aggregation, the results confirm the empirical and theoretical findings of Clarke (1976), and Bass and Leone (1983).
Examining the cross-national applicability of consumer behavior constructs and models is becoming increasingly more important. In this study, procedures for testing the cross-national applicability of models are illustrated. Specifically, the authors specify a model of attitude toward advertising in general and test its cross-national applicability with data from the United States, New Zealand, Denmark, Greece, and India. The results suggest that the relationships proposed in the model are applicable and similar in strength across the five countries.
A study of the information content of U. S. and U. K. advertising was developed in the context of the Foote, Cone and Belding (FCB) planning matrix. A 1985 sample shows that U. S. television ads in that year have more information content than those in 1977 and more than a sample of 1985 U. K. television ads. Despite an increase in informativeness, more than 34% of the U. S. ads still had no information content. The study illustrates that the amount of information content in ads is related closely to the decision-making situation defined by dimensions of the FCB matrix. Specifically, significant main effects are found but no interactions for degree of involvement (high vs. low) or type of involvement (rational vs. emotional). Overall, ads for high involvement and rational products have the most information, with generally higher levels in the U. S. than in the U. K.
La nécessité se fait sentir, pour les psychologizes qui travaillent dans une perspective interculturelle, d'expliciter leurs méthodes et de parvenir à un certain consensus qui permette de juger et de comparer les résultats. L'auteur propose ici un cadre de travail méthodologique pour la recherche interculturelle, qui s'inspire des discussions passées de certains anthropologues. Trois conditions s'avèrent nécessaires si l'on veut donner quelque validité aux comparaisons interculturelles des comportements: 1° Il faut d'abord démontrer qu'il y a équivalence fonctionnelle des comportements dans l'une et l'autre des cultures considérées; c'est-à-dire que seul, un comportement qui cst une réponse à un problème identique peut ětre comparé. 2° On peut, à titre d'essai, partir d'une conception du comportement observe qui est indépendante des cultures considérées (généralité hypothétique) à condition que ce soit seulement comme point de départ et que ce comportement soit ensuite conçu dans les termes měmes de chaque culture (particularité). Les aspects communs peuvent alors ětre utilisés pour construire un cadre de comparaison valide pour les deux cultures (généralité dérivée) et měme pour toutes les autres cultures (universalité). 3° Des instruments et des techniques de mesure peuvent alors ětre inventés, qui seront basés sur ce cadre de comparaison, pour autant qu'on puisse atteindre une équivalence conceptuclle. A titre d'exemple, les notions d'intelligence et de dépendance du champ sont discutées dans cette perspective méthodologique. L'auteur invite les lecteurs à commenter et à discuter le cadre de travail qu'il propose.
Do consumers in countries that differ widely in cultural values and
in economic development also differ in their resistance to innovations?
And, if so, why? Addressing these questions will help international
marketing managers formulate an appropriate strategy for a successful
product introduction in diverse foreign markets. In this five-country
study, the cultural values of fatalism, traditionalism, and religious
commitment were found to explain cross-cultural variation in innovation
resistance in Senegal and in the United States, but not in India, South
Korea, or Thailand. Even though the results were different for every
country, fatalism was generally associated with less willingness to try
new non-technical products and with higher levels of perceived product
risk. Differences were found to be related to entertainment and media
innovations as opposed to technical or fashion-oriented innovations. The
results do not support the contention that a global, standardised
marketing strategy may be appropriate for the introduction of new
products in foreign markets.
Administered open-ended questionnaires to 88 business undergraduates to determine their impressions of advertising in general. Ss were asked to indicate all thoughts that came to mind when they thought of the word "advertising" and, subsequently, to evaluate the positive or negative nature of each thought. The remainder of the questionnaire included items dealing with attitudes toward advertising, belief statements, and demographic items. Results indicate that attitudes toward advertising are multidimensional, consisting of attitudes toward the institution as well as toward the instruments used by advertisers. The use of valenced thought indices provided an additional explanation of global attitudes. Although some beliefs were found to influence attitudes, several often-cited beliefs about advertising were not influential. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This article challenges the widely held assumption that the United States of America possesses a society characterized by modern values and a secular consumption ethic. Drawing upon concepts and techniques utilized by cultural anthropologists in the study of nonindustrialized societies, evidence is presented to support a view of U.S. consumption as an outlet for spiritual expression and the preservation of ethnic heritage. Humanistic research approaches such as participant observation are advocated.