Impact of Advertisements on Peoples Decisions free essay sample

Modern advertising was created with the innovative techniques introduced with tobacco advertisement in the 1920s, most significantly with the campaigns of Edward Bernays, who is often considered the founder of modern advertising. Today Tobacco is consumed by an estimated 1. 1 billion people world wide and about 1/3rd of the adult population. The World Health Organization(WHO) reports it to be the leading preventable cause of death worldwide and estimates that it currently causes 5. 4 million deaths per year. This can be considered as an example of what happens when advertisements endorse a product with negative effects. While advertising can be seen as necessary for economic growth, it is not without social costs. Advertising is increasingly invading public spaces, such as schools, which some critics argue is a form of child exploitation. Apart from that advertisements frequently use psychological pressure (for example, appealing to feelings of inadequacy) on the intended consumer, which may be harmful. As a result of these kinds of advertisements, people who dont require a product with subconsciously develop a feeling of want/need. The feeling will make them spend money unnecessarily, which can lead to various kinds of complications in their personal lives. Many even feel that often, advertisements exploit the desires of a consumer, by making a particular product more appealing, by manipulating the consumers needs and wants. Advertisements frequently use celebrities to endorse their products. A large section of people tend to ignore their rational decision making skills and buy products without thinking much about it. Through this survey we are attempting to understand how peoples decisions can be influenced by advertisements. Some quick facts about advertisements : There are different types of advertisements, t. v. ads, radio ads, online ads, bill board ads, celebrity branding, text messages, e-mails, human bill boards, mobile bill boards etc,. In 2010, spending on advertising was estimated at $142. 5 billion in the United States and $467 billion worldwide. In June 1836, French newspaper La Presse was the first to include paid advertising in its pages. In India, the Code for Self-Regulation of Advertising in India, established by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), is applicable on Television Commercials (TVCs). If consumers see an advertisement, which they consider misleading or offensive, they can write to ASCI. Some countries(Sweden, Greece etc,. ) have banned advertisements targeted to children. This may have happened because they might have assumed that children are not matured enough to think whether ads depict truth or not. Women’s bodies are often â€Å"dismembered† in ads and shown only as â€Å"body parts. This type of representation has been criticized for objectifying women and contributing to the underlying culture of violence toward women. In fashion advertising, women are often pictured lying on bearskin rugs, wearing furs and feathers, or dressed in tight-fitting leather clothing. Some researchers criticize these kinds of ads because they feature women as â€Å"prey†. The America n Psychological Association (APA) reports that children under eight years old are not able to critically understand advertisements and that they regard them as truthful, accurate, and unbiased. The average child in America watches over 40,000 television commercials in a year, or over 100 a day. Advertisers consciously try to create a ‘nag factor† by bombarding kids with ads encouraging them to buy certain products in order to become popular. American children ages 12-17 will ask a parent for products they have seen on television an average of nine times until parents finally give in. Advertisers appeal to several common psychological themes to motivate people to buy their products. Some of the most common psychological appeals are to self-preservation, sex, self-esteem, fear, authority, and imitation. Advertisers often use a technique called â€Å"affective condition,† which means they take a product and place it next to other things consumers feel positively about. For example, a detergent ad will juxtapose their brand with babies, sunshine, flowers, or other similar items. Repeatedly showing their brand with these items makes consumers feel good about the detergent too. Studies show that repeated exposure to a stimulus that is barely perceptible creates an â€Å"exposure effect,† which increases positive feelings toward the object. For example, even though most people do not click banner ads, the ads still positively influence the way people feel about the product. In fact, the â€Å"wear out† effect of banner ads did not appear even after 20 exposures. Channel One delivers two minutes of advertising and 10 minutes of news to approximately 7. 7 million students. Over 27% of Channel One advertisements are for junk and 10% are for military recruitment. Channel One also advertises movies, TV shows, and video games with alcohol and tobacco use, violence, and sex. Statement Of the Problem: Advertisements have become a part of the daily life of all sections of the society. Everyday an average American human being is exposed to 3000 advertisements(Source Union of Concerned Scientists Website). A lot of these advertisements will subconsciously affect the way we make decisions in every walk of our life. We have to study these influences and find ways to control the negative influences. Concepts in the Study: We are primarily looking at Tele Vision(T. V. ) commercials. Television is a very widely used source of advertising and it is also one of the costliest ones. A 30 second slot for advertising during Super Bowl series can cost up to 3 million USD( the cost of making these commericials are additional). Review Of Literature: 1. The Effects of Negative Political Advertisements: A Meta-Analytic Assessment. Richard R. Lau(Rutgers University), Lee Sigelman(George Washington University), Caroline Heldman(Rutgers University), Paul Babbit(Rutgers University). (Journal Of Advertising) The conventional wisdom about negative political advertisements holds that no one likes them, but they work, that is, they have the consequences their sponsors intended. Moreover many analysts expressed concern over the detrimental effects of such negativity on the American political system. The data in this assessment doesnt support either contentions. Negative political ads appear to be more effective than positive ads and do not seem to have especially detrimental effects on the political system. Discussion focuses on why negative political become so popular in practice when there is so little evidence that they work especially well. 2. The Effects of Negative Comparative Political Advertising on Candidate Evaluations and Advertising Evaluations : An Exploration. Bruce Pinkleton. (Journal Of Advertising). Currently, political candidates employ a mix of strategies that include comparative advertising as a means of communicating negative information on an opponent to prospective voters while avoiding the sigma attached to a purely negative attack advertising. An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of negative comparative on candidate and advertising evaluations. The results indicated that negative comparative advertising lowers targeted-candidate evaluations, without lowering sponsoring candidate evaluations, despite the low credibility ratings received by such advertising. The results are discussed in relation to another research findings in terms of both campaign strategy and public policy implications. 3. The Effects of television advertising on materialism, parent-child conflict, and unhappiness: A review. Moniek Buijzen, Patti M Valkenburg (http://www. schoncafe. com. au[-gt;0]) (Journal Of Applied Developmental Psychology). In this article, we introduce a model on the unintended effects of advertising. This model describes the existing hypotheses about the impact of advertising on materialism, parent-child conflict, and unhappiness. The validity of each of these hypotheses was investigated using a vote-counting analysis. Our analyses yielded a small to moderate effect size for the relation between advertising and materialism as well as a small to moderate effect size for the relation between advertising and parent-child conflict. However, support for the hypothesized relation between advertising and unhappiness was not found. The outcome of our vote-counting analysis provided several working hypotheses for further research as well as identified possible moderator variables that should be taken into account in future research. Abstract 4. Negative Impacts of Advertising. Bhttp://smallbusiness. chron. com[-gt;1]) The article by Katie Rosehill talks about the Misrepresentation, Unrealistic expectations, False Images, which are a very integral part of advertising these days. The author puts specific focus on how advertisements will impact on a children. 5. 6. www. studymode. com[-gt;2]) 7. www. studymode. com[-gt;3] ) Importance of the study: We have observed how advertisement have become part of our daily life. So, it is extremely important for us to study its ill effects in order to limit them and safe guard the society. It is necessary to study the negative aspects of advertisements to give a positive direction to our society. Objectives of the Study: 1. To understand the kind of advertisements the society likes/prefers to watch. 2. To understand how much advertisements influence people. 3. To understand the attitude of people who dont like an advertisement(to see whether people are taking action against advertisements which they think are false or wrong). 4. To understand how many people know how to make a complaint about a wrong advertisement. Hypothesis: A majority of the people will be influenced by advertisements. A lot of people might not agree that they are influenced by advertisements since it happens subconsciously. Majority of people wont try to take any action against advertisements which they think are wrong. Majority of people wont know how to take action against wrong advertisements. Area of Study: The study is going to take place in Hyderabad. Sampling Method: The method of sampling we have used in this project is called accidental sampling. Accidental Sampling: Accidental Sampling is a type of non probability sampling which involves the sample being drawn from that part of the population which is close to hand. That is, a sample population selected because it is readily available and convenient. The researcher using such a sample cannot scientifically make generalizations about the total population from this sample because it would not be representative enough. For example, if the interviewer was to conduct such a survey at a shopping center early in the morning on a given day, the people that he/she could interview would be limited to those given there at that given time, which would not represent the views of other members of society in such an area, if the survey was to be conducted at different times of day and several times per week. Sampling Size: Sample size is 39 Method of Data Collection: The method of collecting samples we are using is called Interview Schedule Method. Interview Method: This method is an important technique of data collection which revolves around the interview of the respondent by the researcher. In this process, we talk to the respondent in a purposive and systematic manner and through this we enter the life of a complete stranger in a imaginative way. This method helps in not only measuring the socio economic variables but also helps in discovering new facts, insights, feelings of the people and understanding the sociological nature of various facts. Some of the steps involved in Interview Schedule Method are: 1. Construction of questionnaire. 2. Establishing field relations. 3. Legitimizing the respondent. 4. Asking question (Pitch, body language, way of asking have to be taken care of during this) 5. Recording and Editing. There are different types of interviews, the one we have used is a Structured Interview. Structured Interview : In this method, there are structured set of questions, which are planned in advance, this method helps in collecting data if the sample size is large. Field Work: The sample collection was done mostly from people who visited my home which included my friends, my family friends, etc, I also collected some samples from my friends through internet. People were very reluctant to answer it since many of them found it boring. One of the reasons why many of them found it boring is that the questionnaire was completely open ended, people always prefer to answer questions with choices.