Ethics in Food Advertising to Children in India—A Parental Perspective

Marketers are seen to bombard children with advertisements for unhealthy foods using sophisticated promotion techniques that have serious negative effects on health and overall well-being of children. So parents try to mediate children’s exposure to media content and call for governmental regulations in an attempt to shield them. The extent to which they mediate further determines whether they contemplate food advertisements as being ethical or unethical. Therefore, the present study tries to uncover the antecedents to ethical versus unethical perceptions of Indian parents about food advertisements directed at children. No study, to the best of the researchers’ knowledge, has been conducted so far in India in this regard. Using binary logistic regression with mothers, it is found that the mothers who view food advertisements as unethical report their children to watch fewer hours of TV during weekdays and hold negative attitudes toward advertising to children. These mothers, however, do not feel that the government needs to impose restrictions on food advertisements aired on TV since they themselves indulge in mediation of TV advertising as a general parenting responsibility. The implications of the article are finally discussed.     

Advertising in China—Problems and Prospects

Economic reform in China has revived the importance of the market forces and of advertising. Although advertising has a less important role in the Chinese market than in Western countries, it is the fastest growing industry in China. Foreign participation in advertising is limited and contributes about 10 per cent of Chinese advertising revenues. This paper argues that there is ample opportunity for foreign advertisers. Nevertheless, because the Chinese market is different, foreign advertisers need to be patient when attempting to enter the market. The problems and prospects of advertising in China are pinpointed in this paper. Some precautionary measures for the advertisers are also discussed.     

Advertising by Medical Professionals—A Healthy Outlook

The opening up of the professions to advertising does not yet include the medical profession, and the author argues that this exclusion is unwarranted. Far from being against the public interest, he suggests that patients are not only capable of using more information, but that improvements in medical practice will flow from this. The experience of the legal—and other professions—following the relaxation of advertising rules is discussed together with the problems arising. The conclusion is that advertising by the medical profession is worth at least a trial and that liberty to advertise be extended to consultants and hospitals.     

Leshan City——A Pleasure Resort with Cultural Attractions

Located at the fringe of the western plain in Sichuan Province and the confluence of the Minjiang, Qingyijiang and Daduhe Rivers, Leshan is an historic city of major importance to tourism. As one of the earliest towns originally under the jurisdiction of Kai Ming Shi, the king of Shu during the Western Zhou Dynasty (B.C. 1066—     

What is the Value of Luxury? A Cross‐Cultural Consumer Perspective

International luxury businesses are challenged by the identification and satisfaction of the common needs and desires of global market segments. Although luxury goods have become available to a wider range of consumers, the traditional conspicuous consumption model has been transformed into a new experiential luxury sensibility that is marked by a change in the way that consumers define luxury. Based on an empirical study in collaboration with American, European, and Asian researchers, the results provide evidence that consumers in various parts of the world purchase or wish to purchase luxury products for varied reasons but that such consumers generally possess similar values. Regardless of their countries of origin, the basic motivational drivers of luxury consumers are similar among the financial, functional, personal, and social dimensions of luxury value perceptions, although the relative importance of these dimensions varies.     

From Cultural Capital to Symbolic Violence——Rethinking CET Reform from the Perspective of CDA

1. the Shift of English from a Language to Cultural Capital The notions of cultural capital and symbolic violence are central to the understanding of Bourdieu’s educational theory. In the first place, Bourdieu carried Marx’s theory of capital a step further to broaden it. According to Bourdieu, besides economic capital which was dealt with at length in Marx’s and Webber’ economic theory, capital has another two forms—cultural capital and social capital. These three forms of capital al…     

Understanding “Native Advertising” from the Perspective of Communication Strategies

Native advertising is at the intersection of strategic communication and journalism information. As a type of commercial hybrid content, its distinctiveness as a promotional method is questioned. As a vehicle for informing, it blends in with the surrounding editorial causes concern. Thus, the purpose of this study is to deconstruct “native advertising” and form a clearer understanding of this emerging and changing concept. To serve this purpose, this study conducted content analysis of communication strategies of 151 native advertisements sampled from three news websites. The findings revealed that more than half of the sample cited sources and disclosed sponsors. Congruence was largely based upon function-based associations. About one-third of the native advertisements offered how-to advice and addressed connections between the sponsor and the story. Sometimes, the sponsor was not mentioned in the stories at all. The findings suggest that native advertising exhibits certain features of sponsored content, differs from traditional advertising or advertorials, and imitates journalistic style and format. This study also recommends that strategic persuasion goals should be balanced against congruence with the style and the format of the surrounding journalism.     

Directors’ Roles in Corporate Social Responsibility: A Stakeholder Perspective

We propose that corporate directors are important in helping organizations deal with two major issues of stakeholders. First, directors can help manage the interests of organizational stakeholders, and second, they assist in protecting the interests of their organizations as stakeholders in society. Their contribution can be conceptualized as the directors’ roles in corporate social responsibility (DR-CSR). We identify two types of DR-CSR, organization-centered and society-centered roles. Based on a study of 120 corporate directors, we observe that the more concern that corporate directors have for stakeholders, the more likely that they will perceive the need to perform their DR-CSR effectively.     

Saving for Retirement—A Case for Financial Education in Germany and UK? An Economic Perspective

Demographic changes, tight public budgets, and reduced generosity of occupational pension plans shift the responsibility for an adequate retirement provision towards the individual. Applying the theoretical perspectives of Behavioural Finance and New Institutionalism to the domain of retirement provision offers insights into the difficulties individuals are facing in planning for retirement, carrying out, and revising plans. Lacking financial literacy seems to lie at the heart of the problem and points to a possible solution: providing financial education to consumers through non-governmental organizations and state-related agencies. This article is examining which role consumer education and consumer advice can play to enhance financial literacy with regard to pensions and old-age provision. As two case studies Germany and the UK are compared because the institutional set-up of the pension systems and the approaches towards consumer policy are very different. The case studies show that financial education with regard to old-age provision can be successful if it reaches consumers in their environment at life-stages where important decisions need to be made. To achieve that considerable efforts have to be taken in terms of funding and organizational set-up. However, evaluation is necessary to prove the effectiveness of the education especially for vulnerable consumer groups. If evaluation reveals that these groups cannot be targeted effectively or that consumers are not taking action subsequently to attending financial education, there might be a case for changing behaviour through the institutional set-up of pension schemes (i.e., through automatic enrolment) and using financial education as a supportive policy instrument.

An Electrical Circuit Analogue of Market Behavior—As Used in Advertising Decisions

An electrical circuit analogue is proposed in this paper to model sales response to advertising. For a given marketing and advertising strategy. and for a given advertising budget, the electrical circuit analogue is used to analyze sales behavior corresponding to various forms of advertising input. It is shown how this analysis can be used to plan the advertising time pattern most appropriate to the manager's requirements and as a means of evaluating the effectiveness of an advertising campaign.     

Determinants of Consumer Perceptions toward Mobile Advertising — A Comparison between Japan and Austria

Mobile marketing provides an innovative channel for transmitting advertising messages to customers via mobile devices. The growth of mobile advertising in recent years requires that researchers and practitioners understand consumer perceptions of this form of advertising. The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors influencing the perception of mobile advertising in different cultures. Based on samples from Austria and Japan, we empirically examine relevant m-advertising effects. The results suggest that infotainment and credibility are key factors predicting advertising value among Austrians and the Japanese. However, our findings show that Japanese customers are more irritated by mobile advertising than are Austrian respondents.     

How to Define a Systemically Important Financial Institution — A New Perspective

The recent financial crisis has demonstrated that a failure of systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs) could seriously damage the stability of the financial system. A precise and consistent definition of a SIFI is pivotal to ensure efficient and effective regulation of the global financial sector. This paper proposes a threefold test that indicates which financial institutions are systemically important across the various industry segments.     

Pan-European Advertising: Think Europe—Act Local

Changes in Europe resulting from the unification of EC countries and the accessibility of new Eastern European markets have fundamentally altered the trading environment in which advertising agencies operate. As the advertising industry attempts to get to grips with legislative and media changes, agencies are working hard to create alliances and develop networks which encompass markets in which they did not traditionally have a presence. This article draws on a combination of quantitative and qualitative information collected from secondary sources and extended personal interviews with key agency personnel, advertisers and representatives from the UK's Advertising Association and The Advertising Standards Authority. The objective is to show how the advertising industry and agencies are continuing to gear up to meeting the new demands of the Europeanized market.