Dilemmas in Advertising Research

Abstract

Much advertising research is likely to seem trivial to advertising practitioners and academicians. This is because of two central dilemmas in advertising research. First is the dilemma of purpose: advertising research is too often undertaken for its own sake and thus seems to have a trivial purpose. Second is the dilemma of method: advertising research is often perceived as trivial because it is based on faulty or ill-conceived research procedures. There is much opportunity, particularly for academicians, to pursue non-trivial advertising research. This opportunity originates in the practice of advertising but is not trivial because of it. Specific examples of non-trivial research opportunities in copy research and media research are described and discussed.