impact of advertisement on the life style of pakistani youth
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research articleTRANSCRIPT
Contents
Sr. No. Topic Page No.
1. Abstract 1
2. Introduction 2
3. Objectives and Hypothesis 4
4. Methodology 4
5. Theoretical Framework 4
6. Literature Review 8
7. Sample 8
8. Universe 8
9. Conclusion 12
10. Limitations 13
11. References 14
Impact of Advertisement on the Life Style of Pakistani
Youth
Abstract
Objective of this Study was to access to the role of the TV advertisement in
changing the life style of Pakistani youth with the help of the habits, attitudes, tastes,
moral standards parameter. And also to measure to which extent advertisement is
useful in changing the life style and its impact on society. It was a community-based
analytical study,. A group of 20 respondents takes part in the study out of which 10
were female, 10 were male, and data was collected from government college
university Faisalabad... In results, male and female both point out that the
advertisement is changing lifestyle and variable associated with lifestyle by far of its
limit and can be problematic of our society.
Keywords: impact, lifestyle, advertisement, Society
Introduction
The impact of television is immense due to combination of audio- visual effect
and broadly spread viewer ship and this feature of TV is worldwide acknowledge and
used as effective tool for advertisement .In Pakistan now days marketer are heavily
targeting lifestyle in TV advertisement. Alfred Adler firstly used lifestyle in 1929, for
person basic reaction and behavior. Denial Czitrom and David Marc (1985) provide a
sketch to the popularity of lifestyle in 1960s, when several lifestyles became known to
individuals and groups, including; gay lifestyle, communal life style, student and
youth lifestyle, all forming the new “alternative lifestyles”. The originality of the
word was somewhat lost during the transformation and introduction of the alternative
lifestyles, focusing more on being part of a more Hollywood lifestyle, observed by
celebrities, and followed by masses.
Now the question arise how Advertisement and Lifestyle are related. In
business, "lifestyles" provide a means by which advertisers and marketers try to target
and match consumer aspirations with products, or create aspirations relevant to new
products. Therefore marketers take the patterns of belief and action characteristic of
lifestyles and direct them toward expenditure and consumption. These patterns reflect
the demographic factors (the habits, attitudes, tastes, moral standards, economic levels
and so on) that define a group. As a construct that directs people to interact with their
worlds as consumers, lifestyles are subject to change by the demands of marketing
and technological innovation.
Youth is considered the builders of any nation. The advertisement industry has
a tremendous impact on our thinking. Most people believe what they see on TV. The
advertisers know how to appeal to our senses. They tell us what to wear (because
everyone is wearing it), what to eat (because everyone is eating it), and what to do
(because everyone is doing it). They use peer pressure very heavily. "You need to
wear these tennis shoes because (add a big name sports star) is wearing them and
everyone else is going to wear them. You want to be cool don't you?" You have to
have a fast car that can go 120 mph even though the speed limit is set at about half
Interdisciplinary Journal of Research in Business Vol. 1, Issue. 7, July 2011(pp.39-44)
They have confused our youth with the difference between "need" and "want.
The cultural impact on youth life style is global; advertiser can use the same
commercials in all over the world (Ebad, 2010). This leads to break down in the
differences of the societies. The youth now, a day grows while watching these ads and
that is why the culture of almost 70% of the world is changing. Advertisement is also
influencing behavior of kids. Advertising makes kids want things -- it creates desire --
which puts a lot of pressure on parents. Television is a showcase for "must have"
items that parents are expected to buy. Kids and parents always have to struggle about
purchases. When a parent says, 'No, I can't buy that, I don't have enough money',
there's an underlying sense that the parent is not meeting the child's needs and is
depriving the child of what he or she needs to be happy."(Neelima Gupta, 2008).
At the same time advertisement affects the psychology health the youngster
who learn how to get parents to respond to his or her wishes and wants. This may take
the form of a grunt, whine, scream, or gesture--indeed some tears may be necessary--
but eventually almost all children are able on a regular basis to persuade Mom or Dad
to buy something for them. Advertisement is integral part of industry, and tactfully
targeting the youngster to sell their profit but forgetting that advertising has an impact
on impressionable minds of the children. Parents should be aware that advertising is
going on, and it's influencing their children more than they think (AnandNawathe,
2007*). Parents must educate the children to examine the surrounding more carefully
and take decision more logically. A Study done by (Shabbir, 2008) shows that
Pakistani children are very much aware about TV commercial’s features like:
truthfulness, annoyingness, taste and influencing characteristics of the ad. Their
behavior is also different about advertised and non-advertised brands.
TV advertising has enhanced their involvement in product selection and
purchase, they prefer to buy TV advertised products and sometimes they want TV
advertised products even though they do not need them. They also like the
advertisements of the products that they are using and believe that products are as
good as expected from TV advertisements. Advertisement has an impact on buying
behavior of the youth. This ultimately changes their lifestyles. In Pakistan, most
advertising agencies now target children through advertisement especially when
advertising consumer products like children’s toys, chocolates, candy bars, tooth paste
etc. (Farooq Ahmed Jam,2010) identified Impact of marketing activities (specially
adverting) on children is very important and sensitive issue for the society and
marketers. Results showed interesting findings that ads do not impact negatively to
children memory and behavior rather it enhances the knowledge of children and the
ads targeted to children are not effective for effective positioning of children related
products marketers should target the parents and include ethical orientation along with
environmental knowledge to influence the buying behavior of parents.
Objectives and Hypothesis
Objective of this research is to access to the role of the TV advertisement in
the changing life style of Pakistani youth with the help of the habits, attitudes, tastes,
moral standards and parameters. With that also to measure to which extend
advertisement is useful in changing life style and its impact on society.
Methodology
It was community based analytical study, the author has developed a
questionnaire, and the question was designed to know the point of view of youth
regarding the impact ofadvertisement in changing the life style. First part of
questionnaire contains information regarding demographic. Second part has the series
of close-ended indirect questions, which were based on lifestyle variables like believe,
Norm Cultural value, family bonding and tendency to copy Ad. In the end, direct
question was asked regarding the change in life style due to advertisement. -random
convince sampling technique was used in our survey. To complete the survey 20
samples, respondents selected from government college university Faisalabad. 10
Male and 10 from the female filled 20 questionnaires.
Theoretical Framework
Uses and gratifications theory
Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT) is an approach to understanding why
and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. UGT is an
audience-centered approach to understanding mass communication. Divergent from
other media effect theories who question "what media do to people?", UGT focuses
on "what people do with media?"
This Communication theory is positivistic in its approach, based in the socio-
psychological communication tradition, and focuses on communication at the mass
media scale. The driving question of UGT is: Why do people use media and what do
they use them for? UGT discusses how users deliberately choose media that will
satisfy given needs and allow one to enhance knowledge, relaxation, social
interactions/companionship, diversion, or escape.
It assumes that audience members are not passive consumers of media. Rather,
the audience has power over their media consumption and assumes an active role in
interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. Unlike other theoretical
perspectives, UGT holds that audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet
their desires and needs to achieve gratification. This theory would then imply that the
media compete against other information sources for viewers' gratification.
UGT has a heuristic value today because it gives communication scholars a
"perspective through which a number of ideas and theories about media choice,
consumption, and even impact can be viewed."
Uses and Gratifications Approach
Mark Levy and Sven Windahl provide a good description of what it means to
be an "active consumer" of media:
"As commonly understood by gratifications researchers, the term "audience
activity" postulates a voluntaristic and selective orientation by audiences toward the
communication process. In brief, it suggests that media use is motivated by needs and
goals that are defined by audience members themselves, and that active participation
in the communication process may facilitate, limit, or otherwise influence the
gratifications and effects associated with exposure. Current thinking also suggests that
audience activity is best conceptualized as a variable construct, with audiences
exhibiting varying kinds and degrees of activity."
Assumptions of the Theory
Unlike other theories concerning media consumption, UGT gives the
consumer power to discern what media they consume, with the assumption that the
consumer has a clear intent and use. This contradicts previous theories such as Mass
Society Theory, that states that people are helpless victims of mass media produced
by large companies; and Individual Differences Perspective, which states that
intelligence and self-esteem largely drive an individual's media choice.
Given these differing theories, UGT is unique in its assumptions:
1. The audience is active and its media use is goal oriented
2. The initiative in linking need gratification to a specific medium choice rests
with the audience member
3. The media compete with other resources for need satisfaction
4. People have enough self-awareness of their media use, interests, and motives
to be able to provide researchers with an accurate picture of that use.
5. Valuejudgments of media content can only be assessed by the audience.
Heuristic Approach of UGT
Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch synthesized that UGT's approach was focused
on "the social and psychological origins of needs, which generate expectations of the
mass media or other sources, which lead to differential patterns of media exposure (or
engagement in other activities), resulting in need gratifications and other
consequences, perhaps mostly unintended ones."
According to Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch's research there were five components
comprising the Uses and Gratifications Approach. The components are:
1. The audience is conceived as active.
2. In the mass communication process, much initiative in linking gratification
and media choice lies with the audience member.
3. The media compete with other sources of satisfaction.
4. Methodologically speaking, many of the goals of mass media use can be
derived from data supplied by individual audience members themselves.
5. Value judgments about the cultural significance of mass communication
should be suspended while audience orientations are explored on their own
terms.
According to the research, goals for media use can be grouped into five uses.[5] The
audience wants to:
1. 1.Be informed or educated
2. Identify with characters of the situation in the media environment
3. Simple entertainment
4. Enhance social interaction
5. Escape from the stresses of daily life
History
Beginning in the 1940s, researchers began seeing patterns under the
perspective of the uses and gratifications theory in radio listeners. Early research was
concerned with topics such as children's use of comics and the absence of newspapers
during a newspaper strike. An interest in more psychological interpretations emerged
during this time period.
In 1948, Lass well introduced a four-functional interpretation of the media on
a macro-sociological level. Media served the functions of surveillance, correlation,
entertainment and cultural transmission for both society and individuals.
Stages of the Theory
The Uses and Gratifications Theory were developed from a number of prior
communication theories and research conducted by fellow theorists.
Stage 1
In 1944 Herta Herzog began to look at the earliest forms of uses and
gratifications with her work classifying the reasons why people chose specific types
of media. For her study, Herzog interviewed soap opera fans and was able to identify
three types of gratifications. The three gratifications categories, based on why people
listened to soap operas, were emotional, wishful thinking, and learning.[15]
In 1970 Abraham Maslow suggested that Uses and Gratifications Theory was an
extension of the Needs and Motivation Theory. The basis for his argument was that
people actively looked to satisfy their needs based on a hierarchy. These needs are
organized as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in the form of a pyramid with the largest,
most fundamental needs at the base and the need for self-actualization at the tip. From
the bottom-up the pyramid contains Biological/Physical, Security/Safety,
Social/Belonging, Ego/Self-Respect and Self-actualization at the top.[16]
In 1954 Wilbur Schramm developed the fraction of selection, a formula for
determining which form of mass media an individual would select. The formula
helped to decide the amount of gratification an individual would expect to gain from
the medium over how much effort they had to make to achieve gratification.
Stage 2
In 1969 Jay Blumler and Denis McQuail studied the 1964 election in the United
Kingdom by examining people's motives for watching certain political programs on
television. By categorizing the audience's motives for viewing a certain program, they
aimed to classify viewers according to their needs in order to understand any potential
mass-media effects. The audience motivations they were able to identify helped lay
the groundwork for their research in 1972 and eventually the Uses and Gratifications
Theory.
In 1972 Denis McQuail, Jay Blumler and Joseph Brown suggested that the
uses of different types of media could be grouped into 4 categories. The four
categories were: diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance.
In 1973-74 McQuail, Blumler and Brown were joined by Elihu Katz, Michael
Gurevitch and Hadassah Haas, in their media exploration. The collaborative research
began to indicate how people saw the mass media.
Stage 3
The most recent interest surrounding Uses and Gratifications Theory is the
link between the reason why media is used and the achieved gratification.
UGT researchers are developing the theory to be more predictive and
explanatory by connecting the needs, goals, benefits, and consequences of media
consumption and use along with individual factors.
Work in UGT was trailblazing because the research of Katz, Blumler, and
Gurevitch built on Herzog's research and caused a paradigm shift from how media
influences people to how audiences use media, diminishing the dominance of the
limited effects approach to mass media studies.
Literature Review
The role of advertisement changes into what the organization wants them to
do. there were times that an organization uses the advertising to help them survive
from the impacts of economic trends. Still the economists views that the advertising
lays a significant effects on the youth. And in a long process the advertising can lead
the organization to competition. Based the understanding regarding the advertising,
the approach rooted in the organization research for the right answer on the effects f
the computation. Consequently, the accepted basic role other the advertising is to
provide the youth with the right amount of information regarding to product or
services, which is related to the objective of the competition and that is to deliver the
youth satisfaction. In this view, the level of advertising effect the youth with the focus
of organization, based on the previous studies regarding the youth behavior, there are
three inflectional factors that affect the youth behavior when buying there are
enumerated as external influences internal influences and the marketing influences in
which the advertising product promotion, and the pricing techniques are found.
Definitely marketing activity such as advertising effect both internal and external
behaviors.
Sample
Random convince sampling technique was used in our survey. To complete
the survey 20 samples, respondents selected from government college university
Faisalabad. 10 Male and 10 from the female filled 20 questionnaires.
Universe
The total universe in this research was 20, 10 Male and 10 from the female
filled 20 questionnaires.
Distribution of study group on gender
Distribution of Male Remarks
Cases Yes No No of respondent
Frequency
(%)
Frequency(%
(%)
Frequency
(%)
Do youth watch TV 50 50 10
Youth spend more
than one hour in
watching TV
65 35 10
Attention to TV
Advertisement
70 30 10
Attention to paper
Advertisement
60 40 10
Attention to bill
board
Advertisement
60 40 10
Advertisement is
changing the believe
of our youth
65 35 10
Advertisement is
changing the norms
of society
55 45 10
Advertisement is
changing the culture
of our society
80 20 10
TV Advertisement 85 15 10
Study Group Male Female Total
No. of Respondent 10 10 20
is changing the
religious value of
our youth
TV Advertisement
is changing family
bonding of our
youth
80 20 10
Youth try to copy
TV Advertisement
after watching it
60 40 10
TV Advertisement
impact lasts on
youth
80 20 10
TV Advertisement
change buying
decision
65 35 10
Celebrity in Ad has
greater impact on
youth
70 30 10
Advertisement is
changing the life
style of our youth
50 50 10
Distribution of Female Remarks
Cases Yes No No of respondent
Frequency
(%)
Frequency(%
(%)
Frequency
(%)
Do youth watch TV 50 50 10
Youth spend more
than one hour in
watching TV
55 45 10
Attention to TV
Advertisement
80 20 10
Attention to paper
Advertisement
60 40 10
Attention to bill
board
Advertisement
55 45 10
Advertisement is
changing the believe
of our youth
65 35 10
Advertisement is
changing the norms
of society
60 40 10
Advertisement is
changing the culture
of our society
55 45 10
TV Advertisement
is changing the
religious value of
our youth
70 30 10
TV Advertisement
is changing family
bonding of our
youth
55 45 10
Youth try to copy 60 45 10
TV Advertisement
after watching it
TV Advertisement
impact lasts on
youth
55 45 10
TV Advertisement
change buying
decision
60 45 10
Celebrity in Ad has
greater impact on
youth
50 50 10
Advertisement is
changing the life
style of our youth
50 50 10
Conclusion
We started with the aim to explore the role of advertisement in influencing the
lifestyle of youth and our findings provided astonishing insights for future researchers
and marketing managers. We ended up with the finding son the bases of above-
mentioned statistics, we can safely conclude that TV advertisement in general and
those involving same celebrities have immense and lasting effect on youth’s lifestyle,
religious value, family bonding and their decision making for buying various items.
Some of the effects are really damaging for our society, which are generally based on
combined family system, established religious and cultural value and where majority
of people cannot not afford to purchase the product, which have severe temptation for
youth in the race of show power.
Limitations
Limitations and Future Research Implications Future researcher must test
these findings in different cultural context to support our findings or if any different
results found. There are some limitations of study regarding sample selection because
entire samples taken from only one city of Pakistan so it may not be the true
representative of population. Life style, economic condition and per capita income of
that area might have some influence on the community in sample. Third major
limitation of our study is regarding the validity and reliability of our measuring
instrument, we designed the questionnaire from the help of different literature and
makes required changes in their scale as per our sample, although we tried our best to
make the process standardized but the sole reliability and validity of our instrument is
referred to them. Despite of all these constraints we tried our best to follow the
standard research procedures and styles for our sincere attempt will add very little
value in this stream of research.
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