The Effect of Advertising on Youth a Focus on the Tobacco Industry Essay Example

The Effect of Advertising on Youth a Focus on the Tobacco Industry Essay Advertising is a one-way communication whose function is to notify possible customers about products and services and how to acquire them. Every major medium is used to deliver these messages, including: television, radio, movies, magazines, newspapers, video games, the Internet and billboards. Advertising is often placed by an advertising agency on behalf of a company. One definition of advertising would be: Advertising is the non personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media. (Richard F. Taflinger). In other words, advertising could be categorized as a facet which feed the consumer with information regarding a specific product that the consumer is could be purchasing. However, the aim is not only providing information about a given product, but also it should be born in mind that advertising provides all sort of information regarding the advertised product to the consumers. (Nelson, 1974). In an attempt to stress the significance of advertising on youth, the researcher thought of integrating a specific industry which had a lot of controversial literature and its effect on youth. The industry in hand is the tobacco industry. Research Objectives: The main objective of this paper is to draw the lines to the direct connections in terms of effectiveness between advertising and youth aged 15 to 25 years. We will write a custom essay sample on The Effect of Advertising on Youth a Focus on the Tobacco Industry specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Effect of Advertising on Youth a Focus on the Tobacco Industry specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Effect of Advertising on Youth a Focus on the Tobacco Industry specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer In an effort to emphasize this connection, the researcher tried to depict the effects of advertising on youth through the case of tobacco industry. Tobacco advertisements are considered here a vehicle to which the researcher planned to utilize to investigate the effects falling on youth. However, the researcher took a focus on cigarettes specifically, excluding other products of tobacco such as cigars and water pipes (shisha). Research Importance: The importance of this research, as the researcher perceives it, lies in the fact that advertising has taken a long course of development through the years to reach its 3- present influential status. However this status proved to be a double edged weapon when it comes to its medium of usage and the effect of on its target groups. In the following pages, a review of the literature would show the various effects of advertising on youth focusing on the tobacco industry. Literature Review: Function of Advertising: For the advertisement to reach its goal, it has to hit on the emotions of the viewer. This does not have to mean making advertisements that stress emotions, but rather advertisements that connects emotionally with consumers. This is the way to increasing product sales, broadening market share, or remind the consumer of the advertised product if this is the companys aim. Advertisements could also affect other non-using consumers by persuading them to purchase the new product. Such process could lead consumers to switching their product preferences and eventually becoming loyal consumers. (S. P. Raj, 1982). Significance of Advertising: In this competitive and fierce market, every company aims to have the most market share, and the most demand of the customers toward its products. Consequently, companies try to make the most attractive and effective advertisements about their new products, which reveals the importance of advertising in order to be able to compete better with other products. (Becker Murphy, 1993) Advertising plays a large role toward the consumer in order to remind him with the brand name and the product, also the product which have the most possibility in purchasing it habitually, so it plays a big role in improving the consumer mind with the product. Therefore, when the company is creating an ad; it should inform the consumers about the product and the brand, so as to obtain a positive effect toward the brand from the consumer, and this may lead to that the consumer will start thinking about this product that he may purchase and that is the purpose of any company when it makes an ad. (Kolter Armstrong, 2006) -4- On the other hand the product or the brand that is not well know toward the customers the company must create a lot of advertising in order to inform the customers about the brand, and this is an important reason that the product is well known to all the customers. Advertisements play a big role in which it increases the demand toward any product and it also may discourage a customer from switching behavior from one product to the other. And there are many advertisements that provide very little direct information about the product, but they provide the customers with indirect information about the quality of the product that is advertised. (Becker Murphy, 1993) The customers mostly get affected by the social and the psychological forces that the advertisements are created in; thus the company has to choose a good media, time, and places in order to inform all the customers about the product. Nelson, 1974) Advertising tends to affect the consumers who know the product well and the consumers who still don’t know it well. So it affects the consumers who are having the higher loyalty of the product in order to keep them up dated with the product so as not to forget it and let them purchase more and more of the product, but on the other han d the consumers who are having low loyalty with the product, the aim from any advertising that a company makes is to let them know the product and to keep with them until they start purchasing the product usually. And also a main point that the adverting aims to do is to make the consumers switch from the competitive products to the product of the company that is advertised now, and all of this depends on how the companies make their ads in order to be effective so it can affect the consumer when he sees it. (S. P. Raj, 1982) Advertising focuses on how it keeps the brand familiarity with its consumers, so it differs from a company that makes advertising for the customers who are still not familiar with the product. So as we see that the main aspect that the companies concentrate on now is to make advertisements that will have an effect on the consumers who are already familiar by the brand, so what any company want to reach from this point is to keep the brand information in the consumers mind so as they do not forget it and start looking for another brand that is competitive to our brand. (Kent Allen, 1994) There are now some companies that think that the advertising and the promotion makes the consumers much aware about the prices, and this had resulted in that the companies had decreased the effective prices that they charge on the products. 5- So now some companies tend to see and ask if the consumer may have a response toward any changes in the marketing mix strategies over a long period, for example, could this consumer changes his price sensitivity over a long period, or does his sensitivity toward the prices could increase and change over a long period and what are the aspects that had affected this changes, for example, if the company makes some changes in the advertising or promotions so could this result in a change in the consumers price sensitivity. (Mela, Gupta Lehmann, 1997) So these tasks will not esult only in the process that will let us know the differences and changes that will occur in the consumer’s behavior over a long period, but it will also help us in improving and providing better pricing, advertising, and promotion policies that will result in the improving the manufacturing process of the company. A long term period effects means that the companies tend to increase the consumers loyalty toward choosing their brand through making an effective advertising and promotions, and this processed over a long period, so that is why it is called the long term effect. Mela, Gupta Lehmann, 1997) However, the effect of advertising on consumers might differ depending on several factors. First, the consumer differences effect on advertising where any company or advertiser must take in to consideration that the advertising that they create must have a positive effect on the customers in order to grab their attention toward the product. It is also important to understand and to know the feelings and the attitudes of the customers, toward the product or the brand according to the ad that he watch and also how does his feeling is related through his contact to the ad. Edell Burke, 1987) Now most of the companies that intend to create an ad they attempt to concentrate on how the ad can affect the consumer emotions so that he can feel that this product is good and have better quality than other competitors, but this is not an easy job that may be done, because the emotions of any consumer is very hard to be affected with a normal ad, so there must be a different task to be done in o rder to affect the consumer emotion and all this will affect the consumer behavior. Kolter Armstrong, 2006) Second, the effect of consumer awareness of the product on advertising since the kind of any advertising differs from one good to the other because the goods that are already well known will not have a lot of ads in order to inform the consumer, but on the other hand the products that are unknown these are the ones that needs a lot of -6- advertising and concentration from the company toward this product so you can let your product to be well known in a little period of time. (Nelson, 1974) Chronologic development of Advertising: The 1960s saw advertising transform into a modern approach in which creativity was allowed to shine, producing unexpected messages that made advertisements more appealing to consumers eyes. The Volkswagen ad campaignfeaturing such headlines as Think Small and Lemon (which were used to describe the appearance of the car)ushered in the era of modern advertising by promoting a position or unique selling proposition designed to associate each brand with a specific idea in the reader or viewers mind. This period of American advertising is called the Creative Revolution and its poster boy was Bill Bern Bach who helped create the revolutionary Volkswagen ads among others. The late 1980s and early 1990s witnessed the introduction of cable television and particularly MTV. Pioneering the concept of the music video, MTV ushered in a new type of advertising: the consumer tunes in for the advertising message, rather than it being a byproduct or afterthought. As cable and satellite television became increasingly prevalent, specialty channels emerged, including channels entirely devoted to advertising, such as QVC, Home Shopping Network, and ShopTV. The same advertising techniques used to promote commercial goods and services can be used to inform, educate and motivate the public about noncommercial issues, such as AIDS and political philosophy. Advertising, in its noncommercial appearance, is a powerful educational device capable of reaching and motivating large audiences. Advertising justifies its existence when used in the public interest it is much too powerful a tool to use solely for commercial purposes. Attributed to Howard Gossage by David Ogilvy. Weighing Advertising: A way to measure advertising effectiveness is known as ad tracking. This advertising research method measures shifts in target market perceptions about the brand and product or service. These shifts in perception are plotted against the consumers’ levels of contact to the company’s advertisements and promotions. The -7- principle of Ad Tracking is generally to measure the effect of the media weight or spending level, the effectiveness of the media targeting, and the quality of the advertising implementation. The effect of advertising has been a matter of significant discussion and many different claims have been made in different situations. Over the past fifteen years a whole science of marketing research has been developed to find out the effect of advertisements on consumers, sales, profit and market share. During debates about the banning of cigarette advertising, a common claim from cigarette manufacturers was that cigarette advertising does not encourage people to smoke who would not otherwise. The opponents of advertising, on the other hand, claim that advertising does in fact increase spending. According to many sources, the past experience and state of mind of the person subjected to advertising may determine the impact that advertising has. Children under the age of four may be unable to differentiate advertising from other television programs, while the ability to determine the honesty of the message may not be developed until the age of eight. Effects of advertising vehicles on consumers: No one can deny that advertisement has become a very familiar aspect in our lives. Companies and businessmen tend to use advertisements as a method of selling and presenting their merchandise and services, using many forms of ads such as billboards, posters and mails. People are subjected on a daily basis to various advertisements starting from offering the most basic needs to highly luxurious goods. Such advertising has a direct impact on the human behavior that aims at pushing them to desire certain goods or services, and convince the public to behave in a profitable way to the advertiser, which make businessmen, have the will to pay millions of dollars on advertising (Maxwell 1931, 430-432). Previous studies by Lavidge and Steiner (1961) described the target of advertising based on three main purposes: cognitive, affective and conative. The cognitive purpose provides information in order to give the viewers enough knowledge about the product. The affective purpose is to persuade through generating -8- fondness and liking of the product. Lastly, the conative purpose is to arouse desire to actually buy the product (Grewal, Kavanoor, Fern, Costly and Barnes 1997, 2). Although advertising has a powerful impact on the human behavior, yet people should be cautious when dealing with such phenomenon, as it may have harmful, as well as, advantageous effect. In considering some of the positive outcomes of advertising, it can be suggested that it reduces cots for consumers, by arousing demands which leads to large scale production. Also, it raises the standard of living through educating the public to utilize products that are being supplied by government, individuals, industry and other institutions (Maxwell 1931, 431). There are also quite detrimental effects of advertising as for example some might aim at arousing the desire to buy harmful or unwanted products such as cigarettes. Advertising also overstates health superstitions, political prejudice through giving false notions. Moreover, it has a great influence on determining the lifestyles and habits of people, which makes these modes of living in the hands of producers and merchants who seek only profit (Maxwell 1931, 431-432). As a result of this huge manipulation of advertising on their lives, people should take precautions while dealing with such social force. They should be able to exploit advertising in an efficient way that ensures desiring worthy products, and resist the negative influence of advertising. In order to achieve such ability, people should have education, even in public schools, on how to response to advertisements appropriately, as it is a very common activity in our lives (Maxwell 1931, 432-433). Many previous studies agreed that the effect of television advertisements over time increases, stabilize, and ultimately decreases, which is called commercial wear out. For advertisements to regain its effectiveness, a period of no exposure should take place (Burke and Edell 1986, 114-117). The issue of how people remember TV commercials that suggest emotional reaction and those that do not, was also investigated. This process mainly depends on the executional attributes of the ad and the people’s processing when they first watch the ad and then when they try to remember it. It was asserted that recognizing the memory of advertisements is important due to the following reasons: a) people may tend to use these memory -9- ketches while deciding which products to buy (Baker Lutz, 1987; Biehal Chakravarti, 1986; Friestad and Thorson 1993, 2), b) advertisers may find ways of refreshing ad memories of people by setting â€Å"cues† in the places where they make their buying decisions (Keller 1987; Friestad and Thorson 1993, 2), c) measuring the level of ads recall is used in evaluating the effectiveness of the ad (Friestad and Thorson 1993, 1-2). During the process of watching TV advertising, people make decisions concerning the amount of attention and concentration towards the ad. Some people do no have a certain objective in mind while watching an ad, which leads to disperse of their cognitive resources as they are less involved in the viewing (Stephens Russo, 1987; Friestad and Thorson 1993, 3). In this type of viewing the level of classification, assessment and integration is very low, while other aspects such as insight and comprehension prevail (Greenwald Leavitt, 1984; MacInnis Jaworski, 1989; Friestad and Thorson 1993, 3). While on the other hand, people who want to evaluate during the view of ads will direct their cognitive resources to information significant to their evaluation. This type of viewing may produce two types of memory traces. First, an episodic memory structure, in which the task generated in the people’s minds, focuses cognitive resources on information relevant to that task. Second, a semantic knowledge structure is produced which includes only the task- relevant information and any accompanying evaluations (Lichtenstein Srull, 1985; Friestad and Thorson 1993, 3). Previous studies proved that events that arouse emotional reactions are more likely to be remembered than non-emotional events (Bolles, 1988; Brewer, 1988; Nilsson, 1984; Friestad and Thorson 1993, 5). It is proposed that ads that arouse emotional reactions is very much associated with episodic encoding processes (Tulving, 1983; Friestad and Thorson 1993, 5), and that the lack of any encoding objectives increases the viewer’s propensity to experiential encoding, due to the focusing of the viewer’s emotional reactions resources on the parts in the ad that arouses his emotion (Friestad and Thorson 1993, 5-6). Many researchers such as Scherer and Ross (1990) discussed the idea of advertising products that have very small differences in appearance and physical 10 haracteristics, on a very large scale. An example that would illustrate more is the industry of soft drinks, where the two leading market competitors are Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Both of them have a huge advertising campaign, yet they are extremely similar, even regular drinkers can hardly differentiate between them. The same goes with the industry of coffee, beer and cigarettes (Von Der Fehr and Stevick 1998, 113) . It has been proved that if advertising increases supposed product differences, levels of equilibrium advertising decrease in the extent to which product are differentiated. While if advertising supreme product diversity, then advertising levels increase in the extent to which products are differentiated, whereas the motivation that increases readiness to pay is insignificant to the level of product differentiation (Von Der Fehr and Stevick 1998, 124). Types of advertising: Moving on to the types of advertising, a variety of types has been studied including comparative and non-comparative, political and persuasive advertising. Comparative and non-comparative advertising: Comparative advertising has proven to be one of the most widespread and popular types of advertising in the United States media. This popularity is probably a result of the support of unambiguous comparisons by the Federal Trade Commission (Tannenbaum 1974; Wilkie and Farris 1975; Grewal, Kavanoor, Fern, Costly and Barnes 1997, 1), as well as the advertiser’s confidence of its success. Comparative advertising can be defined based on two principles. First, comparative ads whether unambiguously (Wilkie and Fan-is 1975; Grewal, Kavanoor, Fern, Costly and Barnes 1997, 2) or ambiguously (Jackson, Brown, and Harmon 1979; Grewal, Kavanoor, Fern, Costly and Barnes 1997, 2) makes a comparison between two or more brands in the same general product or service category. Second, comparative ads compare brands based on their products’ attributes (Wilkie and Farris 1975; Grewal, Kavanoor, Fern, Costly and Barnes 1997, 2) or market positions (McDougall 1976; Grewal, Kavanoor, Fern, Costly and Barnes 1997, 2). Therefore, a brand that would assert it’s better than another one without explaining its methods of achieving such position is not using a comparative system (Grewal, Kavanoor, Fern, Costly and Barnes 1997, 2). 11 However, present experimental studies proved that the effectiveness of comparative advertising is unclear. Some researchers stated that there are certain advantages that are accompanied with comparative unlike non-comparative advertising (Drijge and Darmon 1987; Miniard et al. 1993; Pechmann and Ratneshwar 1991; Pechmann and Stewart 1990a; Rose et al. 1993; Grewal, Kavanoor, Fern, Costly and Barnes 1997, 1), while others reported that comparative is usually associated with objectionable results (Belch 1981; Golden 1979; Goodwin and Etgar 1980; Levine 1976; Swinyard 1981; Grewal, Kavanoor, Fern, Costly and Barnes 1997, 1). Political advertising: It has been claimed that political advertising, which aims at influencing the political behavior of the people, is believed by candidates to have the ability to affect the voters’ decisions, which is clearly shown in the huge amounts of money spent on the advertising campaigns. Reporters as well, have the same belief shown in the wide coverage of advertisements (Adatto 1990; Kahn and Geer 1994, 93). For example, many researchers stated that George Bush’s campaigns played a major role in defeating Michael Dukakis (Kahn and Geer 1994, 93). In fact, political advertising can somehow influence the public’s views, as it provides information to voters that might affect their considerations while voting. Previous investigations of the genuine substance of ads illustrated that it stresses relevant matters and personal characteristics of the candidate (Joslyn 1980, 1981; Kaid and Davidson 1986; Kern 1989; Shyles 1984a, 1984b; Kahn and Geer 1994, 94). Therefore the provided information increases the voters’ knowledge about the candidate which might eventually turn their evaluation of him (Markus 1982; Markus and Converse 1979; Kinder 1986; Brady and Johnston 1987; Kahn and Geer 1994, 94). A good example would be the case of Bill Clinton, as many didn’t know his personal background, the information and advertisements that focused on his background provided new and critical information about him that totally changed the view of many people towards him (Kahn and Geer 1994, 94). Being one of the most widely spread and used mediums of information and entertainment, Television has grown to be an established tool of sharing information 12 capable of effectively reaching different segments of a society. However, and despite such influence, there have been hardly a few number of studies tackling the behavioral aspect of viewing Television, specifically at home. (Anderson Lorch 1986, 1024). Significance of TV as an advertising vehicle: Therefore, and due to this shortage of a profound viewing of behavioral patterns of different age groups within youth age range, the researcher will discuss briefly the Television viewing behavior of children as it is the stage right before youth which is the main core of this study. (Anderson Lorch 1986, 1024). Previous studies show that regular viewing of Television begins during the early years of a child. According to a study in 1961, it has been noticed that Television viewing starts at the age of 2. 5 years, increases during pre and early school years, declines through adolescence and climbs up again among the elderly. (Schramm 1961; Comstock 1978; Anderson Lorch 1986, 1024). Moving on to factors affecting Television viewing behavior, a laboratory study found out that viewing behavior depends on physical and social context of the viewing state, on the formal features and comprehensibility of the material viewed, including other correlated factors. Nevertheless, it was noticed that mostly children from infancy till the age of 9 are the most attracted to Television. However, 5 year olds held a higher recall rate of auditory material than 9 year olds only when having a visual. That has been relied to the fact that during this age, the child is undergoing a phase of visual exploration and this medium –Television- offers the best resort for such appetite. (Alwitt Anderson 1980; Anderson Levin 1976; Anderson Lorch 1981; Anderson Lorch 1986, 1025). Meanwhile, in another study carried out using time lapse cameras in home, it was found that 19% of the time the Television was on no one was in the viewing room and that pre-school children were the least attentive to material viewed. Another study using video cameras installed in homes claimed that viewers usually engaged in other forms of activities rather than viewing aired material. Teens held the highest rate of attention, followed by adults and lastly children. Another longitudinal 13 observational study in 1980 recorded a tremendous escalation of attention from among viewers aged 12 to 23 months. Bechtel Achelpohl 1972; Allen 1965; Carew 1980; Anderson Lorch 1986, 1025-1026). On the other hand, and by examining findings of the study in hand, results showed that there was no relation between the age of the viewer and the time spent in front of the Television set. A highly significant percentage of increase in visual attention was determined among o-5 year olds which stopped during school years and declined during adulthood. There was also no evident relation between the time spent with the Television and the degree of attention among viewers. Findings stressed on the incident that a rise in time spent with the Television was associated with children till the age of 10 and started to decline afterwards. (Anderson Lorch 1986, 1030). A high level of visual attention through later childhood and adolescence was witnessed bearing in mind that a decline takes place after the age of ten. Therefore, the Television was considered to be a highly effective medium of spreading information and viewing different entertainment material to various groups of the society, especially for older children and teens. (Anderson Smith 1984; Anderson Lorch 1986, 1031). The effect of TV advertising on youth: Now that it was proven through different studies that Television does attract the attention of various age groups, especially children and teens, it would have considerable significance to discuss the effect such medium has on their consuming behavior. And in an approach to this matter, I will discuss selected readings of the literature found on the effect of TV ads on children and teens. Knowing the spreading power of Television, marketers and advertisers have been using Television ads to promote for different products and services. However, some ads proved to be harmful to the society and thats why Television ads have been held responsible for a number of social problems. (Shimp Dyer 1979, 36). An increasingly criticized issue was that of Over-The-Counter (OTC) drug advertising on Television. As there has been a growing belief that there is always a pill to relief from any sort of physical or emotional anxiety. In addition, it has been 14 confirmed by OTC critics that advertising is mainly responsible for the spread of legal and illegal drug use and abuse. However, it was strongly denied by drug representatives that their ads cause such harms. Berger 1974; Watson 1976; Moss 1971; Berger 1971; Edwards 1971; National Council of churches 1974; Stetler 1973; Cope 1976; Payne 1976; Shimp Dyer 1979). According to a Study by Brodlie in 1972 on drug use and sampling a group of heavy users and two other groups who witnessed control over TV exposure it has been noted that heavy drug users viewed Television more often during childhood with minor parental restrictions and on more regular basis. It was alleged that basically, Television had a higher directing effect on heavy drug users during childhood than other controlled groups. It was then suggested that heavy drug users group must have been exposed to more OTC Television ads. (Brodlie 1972; Shimp Dyer 1979, 37). A similar study used two measuring tools where candidates were asked to recall any visual of Television ads on drugs and the other was a brand recall where respondents are asked to sum up all proprietary brands they can recall. After the comparison between the two Television ads recall measurement tool and the respondents use of illicit drugs, a positive relation between marijuana use recall was determined. Hulbert; Shimp Dyer 1979, 37). On the other hand, a study by Ward et al in 1977 claimed that the effect of Television ads on illegal drug consumption might be negligible. The study argues that if Television ads have minor effect on childrens basic consumption skills, then it doesnt have to relate to ideals and norms connected to illegal drug usage. (Ward 1977; Shimp Dyer 1979, 43-44). In any case, illegal drug usage has grown rapidly and is reaching the verge of an epidemic. In parallel, statistics show a massive rise in drug consumption, especially among children. Therefore, it has to be cut down and if Television ads has a share in this rapid growth, then it should be proved and treated. (Shimp Dyer 1979, 43). Moving on to another example on the effects of Television ads on children and teens, which is the Nike athletes shoes ads study. The study examined –among other 15 purposes- the effect of such ads on African American teenagers perception of the product and their intention to make a purchase. Findings came out to suggest that the amount of Television exposure relates to the degree of product perception. As for the intention of making a purchase, it has been found quite high. (Lee Browne 1995, 524-534). Tobacco advertisements and the effect of restriction: Switching to another example, this study examines the causal effects of smoking related advertising. The study hypothesizes that young adolescents who are exposed to anti-smoking TV ads are more likely to have a negative approach towards smoker and tend to evaluate them on such negative basis. The study also claims that some cigarette advertisers tend to use appealing models or well known icons to attract consumers. However, the study predicts that adolescents who have been educated about the hazardous effects of smoking are not likely to be envisioned by such ads that they would appear more mature or exciting by smoking. Yet, such ads would develop thoughts of maturity and thrill even to an individual who knows well the harms of smoking. (Pechmann Ratneshwar 1994, 238-239). In contrast to this, preconceptions that are firmly believed in are uneasily changed and not by advertising, nevertheless, continuous counter-attitudinal advertising usually have a reminding effect on people of their unfavored beliefs. To give a more vivid picture, take the Canadian findings. Canadian advertisers argued showed that certain ads portraying smoking models engaging in dynamic sports action draws out attention to anti-smoking responses. Those ads were irrefutable and conveyed the message that preconceptions about smokers being readily out of breath are untrue. (Pechmann Ratenshwar 1994, 239). After carrying out different procedures and methods of research, it has been proven that subjects who were told about hazards of smoking did perceive smokers more negatively upon viewing smoking ads. Although subjects did find cigarette models attractive and desirable, and even thought about their traits positively, but that didn’t put them aside from thinking negatively about smokers. (Pechmann Ratenshwar 1994, 247). 16 On another note, and according to another study, it has been claimed that in the late 1960s and in year 1970 the Federal Communication Commission required all TV broadcasts and radios to donate a minute of anti-smoking to every 3 minutes of prosmoking ads. Further empirical re