Dependence on Advertising

Introduction

Advertising has a very long history. Egyptians used papyrus to make sales messages and wall posters.

In the ruins of Pompeii and ancient Arabia the scientists have found some commercial messages. Advertising on papyrus was also used in ancient Greece and Rome. The first advertising was printed in England in "The News" (a newspaper). TV advertising history was made at 9.01pm on 22 September 1955, when Britain's first television commercial squeezed on to the air. Made by AB-Pathe, it was a 70-second ad for Gibbs SR Toothpaste. Since that time advertising has begun its influence, which becoming more and more authoritative. Now managers create a dream which ordinary people can't come true. People want to get a dream and because of this they start to believe. We may think that we are not dependent on advertising but we buy things which celebrities wear; we don't buy others because we are afraid of trying something new. Advertisers understand this and change our mind, developing the industry of advertising. Presumably now people can't live without advertising, it is a part of our life which controls us and changes our choice on what advertisers need. Also this hypothesis means that people depend on advertising because they want to have the best things and advertising dictates them what is better for them. My goal is to understand why people watch advertising and trust it. Is it depends on the age or not? What type of advertising do people prefer? Are some commercials unacceptable? And do people understand they are dependent? I want to show that it is a problem, which disturbs us to be independent and make our own choice.

Literature review

In 2005 the students from SPBGU (St. Petersburg State University) conducted the sociological research about students' attitude towards advertising. The researchers thought that there were a lot of disputes about advertising in media, its moral aspects and legislation. Also the researchers were sure that advertising annoyed people. Someone wanted to remove it from our lives; others understood that it was necessary for existence of media and for development of trade. The problem of the research was to explore different views about advertising. The aim of this research was to understand students' attitudes to advertising. The objectives were how students relied on advertising, what role advertising played in their lives and what ways they suggest to change it. The interviewers used Simple Random Sample method of research; they used the questionnaire of ten questions. The interviewers asked 20 people from 1st to 4th courses (10 boys and 10 girls). The results showed: 13 people from 20 respondents answered advertising annoyed them. 9 people said that they trust only some commercials, 5 persons (4 girls) trust and 6 students didn't. 8 people thought that good advertising meant good products, 12 students supposed that the quality of products didn't depend on commercials. All respondents (20 people) were sure that we couldn't ban advertising because it gave a lot of money for development of media. In conclusion the interviewers understood that most of students disliked advertising and didn't trust it, but they were sure that it was necessary for media. The research showed that girls trust to commercials more than boys. Advertising influenced on students and they didn't deny it, but they wanted to reduce the amount of advertising in the future.

Method

The study was conducted during one week. In my research I used Simple Random Sample for choice of the respondents. I made up some questions, sent them to Russia and asked my relatives and friends to answer them. Also I asked some unknown people of different age and sex, who worked or studied in the same place. Also I sent my questions to the different people whose email addresses I had.

As a whole there were about 100 people and the aim of the study was to understand what they thought about advertising. The data were collected using a questionnaire. Quantities method was used to create questions. The questionnaire consisted of 16 closed questions with an open one where the responders could write their ideas in 1-2 sentences.

Results

As a result of the research, the questionnaire helped me understand if people of different ages watched ads or not. (Figure 1).

Also 15% of surveyed answered that adverts helped them know something new about products, 21% of people were too lazy to switch to another channel and 34% liked videos and pictures. People liked advertising with animals more than with actors. 26% of surveyed who didn't watch adverts disliked it because they thought it took a lot of time, only 10 % were sure that it was a kind of hypnosis. All participants pointed the main aspect of video. (Figure 2).

Half of the respondents thought that advertising partially affected them, 40% denied this. 59% of people have always trusted adverts, other 41% others did so occasionally, but despite it 60% would follow the advice of friends rather than advice of advertising. 100% of people admitted that they bought only proven products. Half of the respondents supposed that development of economy needed adverts, 27%were sure that this time was for making a cup of tea or something else. The question of the influence of advertising on society divided the respondents in two groups, 50% argued that the effect was, other 50% thought that only a certain extent. Also 100% of respondents thought that some videos are unacceptable and divided it into three types (Figure 3). 39% of respondents thought that advertising was a form of art, other 41% were sure that it was only some commercials.

36% of people could imagine our world without advertising, other 64% couldn't. 80% answered that people who lived in small villages were more affected by adverts because, according to the respondents, they couldn't check the product and they knew nothing about it. They thought if the product was advertised it would be good. 20% thought that people who lived in big cities were more affected by adverts because advertising surrounded them and imposed different goods.

Analysis and Discussion