Role portrayal in advertising and editorial content,and eating disorders: an Asian perspective

Researchers have postulated that exposure to images of thin ‘ideal body’ women portrayed in advertising and editorial content on television and in magazines contributes to eating disorders among female college students in Western countries. The central aim of this study is to examine the relationship between such advertising and editorial, and self- reports of eating disorder and body image dissatisfaction among Hong Kong females. The Eating Attitude Test (EAT) and Body Dissatisfaction subscale in the Eating Disorder Inventory are employed in a survey of females in Hong Kong. The analysis indicates that overall media consumption is a positive predictor of eating disorder and body image dissatisfaction. Several policy recommendations and suggestions for future research are made.     

Music format effects in radio advertising

Radio advertising performance was experimentally investigated to determine whether music format can moderate the persuasive effect of ads for low involvement type products. Recall, attitude toward the product, attitude toward the advertisement, and behavioral intention scores each provide support for the research hypothesis. As predicted, a highly involving music format produced the most consistently favorable effects for the products tested.     

Information content in advertising

This paper reports on an investigation of the information content of printed advertising in all media and for all kinds of products. The conclusion is that even in a country like Denmark with strict rules for marketing and a very active consumer movement, printed advertising in general contains little information and is of little use to the consumer. The paper also discusses the implications of the findings for consumer policy.

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Informationsgehalt der Werbung

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag berichtet über eine Untersuchung über den Informationsgehalt von gedruckter Werbung in allen Medien und für alle Produkte, die sich auf eine repräsentative Stichprobe (2203 Zeitschriften- und 2035 Zeitungsanzeigen) aller dänischen Anzeigen stützt, die von Februar 1977 bis Februar 1978 erschienen sind.Die Ergebnisse zeigen, daß auch in einem Land mit strengen Marketing-Regeln und einer sehr aktiven Konsumentenbewegung wie Dänemark die gedruckte Werbung im allgemeinen sehr wenig Informationen enthält. Zwar informieren alle Anzeigen über die Existenz des beworbenen Produktes und 66% der Anzeigen zeigen, wie das Produkt aussieht. Darüber hinaus jedoch waren von insgesamt 18 untersuchten Informationsdimensionen (aufgeführt im Anhang) nur 4 in nennenswertem Umfang von Bedeutung, nämlich Informationen über den Preis (bei 48% der Anzeigen), über den Firmennamen (bei 44%), über Produktvarianten (bei 42%) und über Menge bzw. Größe (bei 33%).Die Schlußfolgerungen des Autors richten sich darauf, wie die Informationshaltigkeit durch Informationsauflagen erhöht werden kann, ohne daß die Form dieser minimalen Informationsanforderungen festgelegt werden müßte.

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Preben Sepstrup is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Marketing, Aarhus School of Economics and Business Administration, Ryhavevej 8, DK-8210 Aarhus V, Denmark. The study has had financial support from the Danish Social Science Research Council.     

Assessing advertising content in a hospital advertising campaign: An application of Puto and Wells (1984) measure of informational and transformational advertising content

The following is a report of a study designed to measure advertising content based on the cognitive and affective elements of informational (i.e., information processing) and transformational (i.e., experiential) content using the measure of advertising informational and transformational content developed by Puto and Wells (1984). A university hospital advertising campaign designed to be high in transformational content did not appear to affect perceived quality of local university hospitals relative to private hospitals or increase the likelihood of choosing a university hospital in the future. Further, experiences with university hospitals that seemed to be in direct contrast to the content of the advertisements based on subject perceptions affected how university hospital advertisements were perceived in terms of content. Conclusions and implications for hospital advertising campaigns are discussed.     

Effects of violent television programmes on advertising effectiveness among young children

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of violent TV programmes on the effectiveness of advertising aimed at children. Using an experimental method, this study found that violent programmes elicit a high level of excitation among kindergarten attendees, which substantially enhances their advertising effectiveness. When advertising was viewed within a violent programme, children showed better ad recall and more favourable attitudes towards the ad than when advertising was viewed in a non-violent programme. Higher purchase intention and brand preference were also found among subjects who viewed the ad embedded in a violent programme.     

The effects of imagery-evoking radio advertising strategies on affective responses

A debate in the marketing literature concerning the relative effectiveness of various imagery-evoking strategies in influencing consumer responses to advertising has been unresolved. This study examined the effects of three imagery-evoking strategies commonly used in radio advertising—sound effects, vivid verbal messages, and instructions to imagine—in influencing mental imagery, ad-evoked feelings, and attitude toward the ad. The theoretical basis for the study is an imagery model based on propositional representations theory. Consistent with the implications of the theory, of the three strategies, sound effects had the greatest impact on imagery and affective responses. Compared with sound effects, a vivid verbal message had a slightly weaker influence. Instructions to imagine, however, had a very weak impact on imagery and no significant influence on affect. Finally, the results indicated that the three strategies interacted with one another. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The role of medium content and ad format congruity in influencing advertising outcomes

This study examines how (in)congruence regarding the format of the ad and the context in which the ad is placed influences ad recognition, perceived advertiser sensitivity, ad comprehension, and persuasion. Highly visual or informational ads were placed congruently or incongruently within a(n) highly visual or informational surrounding context. There was some positive support for mismatching the format of the ad and surrounding context in terms of ad recognition. Specifically, a highly visual ad placed within a highly informational setting resulted in the greatest ad recognition. However, in terms of the audience's perceptions of advertiser sensitivity, subjective ad comprehension, and ad persuasion, there was more positive support for matching the format of the ad with that of the surrounding context. In this regard, it is better to place visual ads congruently within visual contexts. Theories from information processing and hemispheric lateralization are drawn on to support this research.     

Computer-aided content analysis: What do 240 advertising slogans have in common?

This paper uses the technique of computer-aided text analysis to evaluate the meanings of 240 advertising slogans. Content analysis performed by a computer is more reliable and less tedious than that performed by human coders. We analyze the content of the slogans and assume this reflects what the advertiser thinks that he or she said. One large group of equivocal slogans and four other more distinct groups are found.     

How advertising is covered in the Egyptian press: a longitudinal examination of content

The possibility of Egyptian attitudes towards advertising being affected by exposure to media portrayals of advertising is discussed in the context of cultivation effects. A census of all content related to advertising in Al-Ahram from 1978 through 1997 is conducted. Findings show that most columns, letters to the editor and editorials are negative in tone, and most news stories dealing with advertising are neutral. Domestic and international industry practices and social aspects of advertising are commonly covered. Outdoor and television advertising are most often criticised. The concerns expressed typically involve morality, culture and deception. Calls for increased government regulation and censorship of advertising are common. It appears that the coverage of advertising in Egypt is more negative than in the US. Future research examining links between media content and public attitudes towards advertising is suggested.     

Simultaneous exposure to a program and advertising content in an interactive context: Perceptual and semantic interference and reinforcement

New media, such as the Internet or interactive digital television (a merger of television and Internet technology), often combine different sensory inputs and different types of media content simultaneously. These combined information cues may interfere with each other or reinforce the processing of each other. Two experiments explore perceptual and semantic interference and reinforcement mechanisms and their impact on self-reported attention and clicking behavior. Experiment 1 shows that in the case of an interactive ad containing text and pictures, a simultaneous audiovisual program context leads to less attention and clicking than an auditory context. Experiment 2 indicates that in the case of goal-directed browsing, a congruent program context leads to more attention and clicking than an incongruent context.     

Visual and verbal rhetoric in advertising

There has been a growing stream of research focusing on the application of rhetorical figures in advertising. Resonance, a rhetorical figure based on a visual–verbal interaction, is the issue of interest in the present paper. Specifically, we conducted two experiments in order to explore consumers’ responses towards resonance as well as test its limits in terms of visual–verbal incongruity. According to our results, resonance influences consumers in a positive manner. However, care should be taken with regard to the extent of applied incongruity between the visual and verbal elements on which resonance is grounded. A higher degree of incongruity is most likely to generate negative results.     

Conceptual blending in advertising

Conceptual blending occurs at the moment of perception and creates new meanings out of existing ways of thinking. Analysis of data collected in phenomenological interviews reveals the blending processes consumers use to “make sense” of advertisements. We recognize subtle similarities and differences between metaphor and blending, and examine their occurrence in three types of blending networks in ads.     

Gender roles in advertising

This study discusses and provides a measure for the degree of stereotyping in advertisements. Applying this measure, the study shows to what degree gender stereotypes in advertising differ between public and private TV channels in Germany. The results show that gender stereotyping in advertising still prevails despite the change in the roles of men and women over the years. Contrary to their public mission, public TV channels do not show fewer gender stereotypes in advertisements compared to private TV channels. The degree of stereotyping as related to different stereotyping components differs significantly between these two types of channel. Gender stereotypes on private channels refer to role behaviour and physical characteristics and, thus, function as a means to sell a product. On the other hand, advertisements on public channels stereotype gender in terms of occupational status, and therefore interfere with the major goal of gender equality policy.     

Construct heterogeneity and proliferation in advertising research

Abstract

This paper presents results from a study of measurement practice in leading advertising journals. The focus is on heterogeneity in measurement operationalizations of the same construct and construct proliferation (i.e. when constructs have different names but overlapping content). These issues were addressed by analyzing the measurement operationalizations in all articles published in three leading advertising journals between 2012 and 2014. Results show considerable heterogeneity in the operationalizations of three common advertising constructs (ad credibility, ad irritation and perceived humour) for which almost every study used a unique operationalization. Results also show considerable construct proliferation as different names were used for the same constructs and there was overlap in the operationalizations of several advertising constructs. The paper offers a discussion of implications for advertising research and suggests steps that can be taken towards improving measurement practice.     

Bulemia and anorexia in an advertising context

This paper reports on a survey of college students which was designed to provide insights into associations of advertising with the eating disorders of anorexia nervosa and bulemia. The study involved measuring self image and ideal self image and relating these measures to the incidence of the eating disorders and to advertising and merchandising measures. Based upon the findings, various tentative recommendations were made to advertisers who desire to assist in containing eating disorders through their efforts in the marketplace.Robin T. Peterson is Professor of Marketing and General Business at New Mexico State University. In 1982 he was awarded Outstanding Educators of America and in 1985 Outstanding Marketing Educator. He is the author of over 60 articles which have been published in refereed and trade journals.     

再提广告策略中的作战思维

已经到了年末,各个企业应该已经开始思考和制定来年的媒介计划。快要过去的08年经济环境动荡、企业整体赢利缩减,广告投入力度也会收到相当的影响。但是广告策略是现代企业市场战略中的关键一环,面对不稳定的经济形势,简单地缩减或者单纯地节约媒体投放不算明智之举,做好市场布局,使广告策略行之有效才是上举。     

初探吴江市新媒体广告

本文试图通过网罗式的搜集,分析吴江地区的新媒体广告发展的类型和特点,并通过此分析了解吴江新媒体广告的现状,从而提出吴江地区新媒体广告的未来发展策略.     

Investor sentiment and advertising expenditure

A strategic issue facing marketing managers is ‘how much and when’ to spend on advertising. We argue that investor sentiment in the stock market may influence advertising expenditure by affecting firms' ability to raise new funds. We show that during periods of low (high) investor sentiment, firms decrease (increase) their advertising expenditure, even though the effectiveness of advertising is greater (lower) during such periods. We also find that these results are stronger for financially constrained firms that rely more on external financing. Our findings suggest that marketing managers can improve the efficiency of their advertising expenditure by raising (reducing) it during periods of low (high) sentiment.     

Drug information in TV advertising

Pharmaceutical drugs are a special product because of the risks attached to their uninformed use. For this reason, drug advertising, in particular TV advertising, becomes a consumer policy issue. In West Germany, it is legally regulated. An empirical study by Möckel reported upon in the paper shows that there are many contraventions of these regulations. The author discusses the causes of this, and concludes that TV advertising for drugs should be forbidden.

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Fernsehwerbung für Arzneimittel

Zusammenfassung Arzneimittel sind wegen der Risiken unüberlegten oder uninformierten Konsums eine besondere Art von Waren. Daher kann Werbung für Arzneimittel, insbesondere im Fernsehen, zu einem verbraucherpolitischen Problem werden. Das Heilmittelwerbegesetz enthält detaillierte Vorschriften zur Arzneimittelwerbung. Eine an der Gesamthochschule Wuppertal durchgeführte Untersuchung deckte zahlreiche Verstöße gegen das Heilmittelwerbegesetz in der Fernsehwerbung auf. Der Verfasser diskutiert die Gründe für derartige Rechtsverstöße und gelangt zu der Schlußfolgerung, daß in das Gesetz ein Verbot von Arzneimittelwerbung im Fernsehen aufgenommen werden sollte.

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Günter Borchert is Professor for Legal Science, especially Social Security Law, at the Bergische Universität/Gesamthochschule Wuppertal, P.O. Box 100127, D-5600 Wuppertal 1, FRG.