Cultural differences affect interactive television advertising

Comparing results from the UK and the USA, this study shows that even subtle cultural differences between two very similar countries can affect new forms of advertising such as interactive television (iTV) commercials. The UK pioneered the mainstream use of iTV advertising, and now it is a mainstream advertising option in the USA on cable networks and online TV networks like Hulu. This study tests whether effective iTV-ad execution factors identified by a previous study of 500 UK iTV campaigns are similarly effective in the USA based on data from 257 iTV campaigns run on the experimental Wink platform between 1998 and 2004. It finds that specific cultural differences make iTV advertising in the USA unique, but also identifies potential globally effective universals for iTV ads. The results of this study allow advertisers to predict the most effective alternative ideas for iTV advertising campaigns run in the USA and potentially in other countries around the world.     

Information content in TV advertising. Consumer policy implications of the growing supply of TV advertising in Europe

The growth of both national and transnational television and TV advertising in Europe raises many issues. One issue of high relevance to traditional consumer policy is, however, barely mentioned, namely the consequences for consumers of the growing quantity of international TV advertising and the consequences of a growth or introduction of TV advertising in general. The purpose of the study reported here is to contribute to an objective evaluation of TV advertising strictly from a consumer point of view. For this purpose the article analyses the information content of the commercials on the satellite channel “Sky Channel” and on the West German channel ZDF. The results of that study are supplemented with the results from a review of those relevant investigations into the information content of print and TV advertising which can be found in the international literature. This includes an attempt to make the studies comparable and a critique of the prevailing tradition in measuring “informativeness”. It is concluded that from a consumer point of view, TV advertising has limited value since information relevant for most purchasing decisions is not communicated to a degree that would seem to have any practical significance for consumers. Furthermore, the information content of print advertising appears to be clearly superior to that of TV advertising.     

Today’s practice of brand placement and the industry behind it

This article presents a content analysis of brand placement on Dutch television, followed by 24 interviews with the parties involved. By combining a content analysis and a practitioners’ perspective, this article offers unique insights into the increasingly popular phenomenon of integrating advertising into television content. Analysis of one week’s television programming showed that programmes with brand placement are growing into a significant part of Dutch television. A fifth of these sponsored programmes can be classified as brand-integrated programmes in which brands are an intrinsic part of the programme. The practitioner interviews showed that these brand-integrated programmes were considered as the future of advertising. Moreover, the interviews gave insights into the mutual relationships between the different parties, showing that practitioners use the law restrictions to estimate the acceptance levels of the audience with respect to television sponsoring.     

Hong Kong children's understanding of television advertising

This study examines Chinese children's understanding and comprehension of television advertising. A quota sample of 448 children made up of 32 girls and 32 boys from kindergartens and grades 1-6, were personally interviewed in May 1998. The results indicated that children in grade 2 (aged 7-8 years) were beginning to understand what advertising was and were aware of the persuasive intention of television advertising. Over one-third of older children from grade 4 understood that television stations carried advertising for money. Like children in the West, the main reason for liking and disliking commercials depended on their entertainment element. An understanding of television advertising, recall of brands from slogans and comprehension of advertising content were consistently related to the cognitive development of children. Brand recognition from liked and disliked commercials was strong. Comprehension of the key messages of advertising content varied greatly by children's cognitive development and the style of presentation. Ethical issues and public opinions of Hong Kong consumers regarding advertising to children were discussed.     

公益广告是电视媒体承担社会责任的重要表现

电视媒体已经成为社会主要传播渠道,成为当之无愧的第一媒体。因此,电视媒体应当承担社会公民应尽的社会责任和义务。在履行好"内容把关人"的职责,传播先进内容的同时,公益广告是电视媒体承担社会责任的重要表现。中央电视台不仅播出大量公益电视广告,而且积极组织、策划与创意各项公益内容与活动,主动承担媒体的社会责任,有效地推动了中国电视公益广告的成长与发展。     

Global and Cultural Characteristics of Humor in Advertising:

Extending theoretical frameworks tested in other national markets, this study provides an in-depth look at the structural and content characteristics of television advertising that uses humor in Japan. Similar types of humor structures are found but important content differences are observed as well. In addition, structural characteristics previously shown to be associated with higher levels of perceived humor in U.S. television advertising, are not found to affect perceptions of humor in Japanese television advertising. The study's implications for academics and international marketing managers interested in improving performance in the Japanese market are discussed.     

Food advertising targeting children in India: Analysis and implications

In spite of advertising being severely critiqued for planting erroneous behavioral patterns in young children, there is limited research on advertising aimed at children in the Indian context. This study explores issues like gender representations, stereotypical portrayals, deployment of various appeals, persuasion tactics, and Indian advertising policies in the food commercials targeting Indian children. Hypotheses were developed based on socio-economic and cultural aspects specific to Indian ethos. Content analysis was carried out on commercials appearing on five major children's television channels in India. Results indicate that ads depict boys significantly more than girls, and demonstrate mother as the primary approver for choice of food. Additionally, results reveal that ads use familial settings more than other contexts. Emotional appeal is found to be more prevalent. However, unlike hypothesized, ads were not found to use scholastic or fantasy cues more than athletic or non-fantasy cues. The findings are examined through an ethical lens, and implications for various stakeholders are presented. The study provides advertising policy makers and executioners insights into ethically congruent communication strategies to be used for advertising to children.     

The Typicality and Accessibility of Consumer Attitudes Toward Television Advertising: Implications for the Measurement of Attitudes Toward Advertising in General

Despite the wide array of contemporary advertising formats and media, television advertising remains the most dominant form to which typical consumers are exposed. Research on attitudes toward advertising in general (Att-AiG) implicitly assumes that the Att-AiG measure represents advertising as a whole. A major finding of the current research is that consumers tend to have a mental representation, or exemplar, of the most typical type of advertising—television advertising—when they report their Att-AiG. Therefore, in reality, Att-AiG primarily reflects attitudes toward television advertising. In addition, the results of our experiments indicate that television ad exemplars generate temporal changes in consumers’ reported Att-AiG and attitudes toward television advertising. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Information Content of Advertising in the United States,Japan, South Korea,and the People's Republic of China

The results of this four country-four media study indicate that different countries/cultures have varying degrees of information cues in their advertising. Broadcast media (television and radio) have lower information content than do print media (magazine and newspaper) in all countries. Overall, the average number of cues per advertisement for all four countries was: 3.10 for magazine, 2.91 for newspaper, 2.14 for television, and 2.05 for radio. The study found that the information content (number of cues) and the type of cues varied by media within each country. This implies that international advertisers need to consider their strategies in developing advertising themes for various target audiences in different countries.     

Children's understanding of television advertising: a qualitative approach

In this paper children's understanding of television advertising was explored using focus groups in a qualitative approach. None of the 6 year olds, a minority of the 8 year olds and by no means all of the 10 year olds were able to articulate an understanding of the persuasive nature of advertising. It was concluded that children's understanding of the persuasive intent of television advertising is less well developed than previously thought, challenging current marketing perspectives. These findings raise questions for European legislation, UK broadcasting practices and for advertisers and manufacturers who target children.     

A longitudinal content analysis of gender role portrayal in Belgian television advertising

This study explores gender role portrayal in advertisements broadcasted on Belgian commercial television. We gathered a sample of 493 commercials (featuring 907 characters) randomly selected out of two periods (January 2002–April 2003, n = 250 and January 2009–April 2010, n = 243) from a database containing all advertisements broadcasted on Belgian commercial television. A content analysis was carried out using a coding scheme based on existing literature. Content categories included gender of the characters, gender roles (i.e. parental, housekeeping and professional expert) and sexual objectification. Hypotheses predicted that men and women would be represented differently in television advertising, and that these differences would reflect traditional gender stereotypes. Moreover, due to regulatory changes, we hypothesize that these differences should decrease over time. Results are largely in accordance with the existing literature. Women tend to be depicted as younger and are portrayed more often within dependent roles as caregiving parent, housewife or as sexual objects than men. A longitudinal analysis of role portrayal changes across two periods within and between genders indicates little change in gender role portrayals in Belgian television advertising between 2002–2003 and 2009–2010. Despite social and regulatory changes, gender stereotypes in advertising seem to persist over time.     

Challenges facing China's television advertising industry in the age of spiritual civilisation: an industry analysis

Foreign firms face a number of cultural, legal and industry challenges as China's television advertising industry is asked to contribute not only to the country's material civilisation but also its spiritual civilisation. Since the early 1990s, Chinese Government policies have focused on advertising content in relation to both censorship and moral issues. This paper provides an insight into the challenges facing advertising and outlines opportunities for researchers, educators and international scholars into the new millennium by tracing the growth and changing role of advertising in China.     

The use of humour in television advertising: revisiting the US-UK comparison

This paper replicates a portion of the Weinberger and Spotts (1989) study, which compared the use of humour in television advertising in the US and the UK. A careful comparison of the results of the two studies suggests that the overall use of humour has become more similar in the two countries. Unlike the Weinberger and Spotts study, the current study found no difference in the proportion of ads that use humour, and little difference in the situational use of humour. However, differences in the way that humour is used and in the types of humour used remain. These differences are discussed in the context of Hofstede's (1991) cultural dimensions.     

How advertising literacy training affect children's responses to television commercials versus advergames

This study examined children's advertising literacy level for traditional versus embedded advertising formats by comparing their cognitive and affective advertising literacy level for television commercials vs. advergames. The study also explored how cognitive and affective advertising literacy further attenuate advertising effects by investigating the mediation impact of cognitive and affective advertising literacy on the relation between the ad's format and the purchase request. Third, the study investigated how an advertising literacy training session moderates these effects.

The results of this experimental study showed that advergames lead to a higher purchase request rate among children than television commercials. However, only affective but not cognitive advertising literacy mediated the effect of the advertising format on purchase request. In addition, a training session was shown to accelerate children's cognitive (but not their affective) advertising literacy for advergames, but not for television commercials.     

Addressing the Advertising of Controversial Products in China: An Empirical Approach

China is a country that has undertaken a great transformation since the late 1970’s, and among these changes, has seen a massive growth in the advertising industry with the influx of foreign advertisers, and the development of regional and global media, such as satellite television and the Internet. This has resulted in the Chinese people of all ages having a greater opportunity of exposure to different types of advertising, including the advertising of potentially controversial products, which could clash with traditional Chinese values. Using a stakeholder theory approach, this study analyzes the responses of 630 Chinese respondents to discover who is offended by controversial advertisements and determine ways potentially offensive advertising messages can be reduced, thereby assisting marketers in being more socially responsible in their advertising messages.     

Alcohol Advertising: Content and Controversy

The paper presents an analysis of controversial elements of alcoholic beverage advertising content from magazines and television in the United States. The areas of content analysed are derived from several common models of mass persuasion often assumed relevant to the debates over alcoholic beverage advertising. The author concludes with a brief discussion of some of the assumptions embedded in criticisms of the content of alcohol advertising.     

A content analysis of male roles in television advertising: Do traditional roles still hold?

Analysis of male roles in television advertising is limited. In order to remedy this, our research serves as a catalyst by providing a review of the current literature, conducting a preliminary examination of male roles in television advertising, and discussing ways for this area of research to move forward in the future. Specifically, the study conducted in this paper examines television advertising to provide insight on the depiction of males, the portrayed relations between males and other individuals, and how these depictions may have changed from 2003 to 2008. Male depictions in lead roles are contrasted using 907 primetime commercials from 2003 and 961 commercials from 2008 from the four major US broadcasting networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX). Results suggest that some aspects of male depictions in advertising are counter to, while other aspects are reflective of, the changing gender roles occurring in society.     

And now a word from our sponsor: Do consumers perceive advertising on traditional television and online streaming video differently?

Despite the increasing popularity of online streaming television (OTV), there is little information regarding how perceptions of the new medium differ from traditional television (TV) viewership. The research employed online interviews among young adult viewers of OTV and traditional TV to determine whether young adult consumers (aged 18–34) regard advertising viewed within online TV programming differently than they regard advertising viewed within traditional TV programming. While advertising has long been accepted by American consumers as a necessary element of most mass communication, this research suggests that viewers of OTV programming do not regard advertising as a means to subsidize the cost of online content. Rather, young adults appear to regard advertising as an intruder in the OTV environment. Furthermore, the results indicate that Ducoffe's Advertising Value model (1995) does not predict attentiveness to advertising viewed within the OTV context. Therefore, while OTV advertising may be held to a higher creative standard than traditional TV advertising, there is no indication that entertainment value contributes to an improved attitude toward advertising in the OTV environment.     

Satisfaction with the Informational Value of Magazine and Television Advertising

Abstract

This survey examines consumer satisfaction with the informational value of magazine and television advertising. Three significant conclusions are indicated by the data: (1) consumers are more satisfied with the informational value of magazine advertising than television advertising; (2) blacks are more satisfied with the informational value of both types of advertising than whites; and (3) middle-income are more satisfied with the informational value of both types of advertising than are low - and high-income.