Consumer Perception And Attitude Towards Provocative Advertising

Consumer Perception And Attitude Towards Provocative Advertising

Statement of Problem

This report will analyse and critically evaluate consumer perceptions and attitudes towards provocative advertising. The following specific aims are targeted:
§  Define types of provocative advertising;
§  Assess positive and negative impact of provocative advertising for company/consumers;
§  Assess effectiveness of provocative advertising in gaining consumers attention;
§  Explain how consumers perceive the risk in provocative advertising.

Review of Related Literature
Modern consumer civilization is primarily based on the open market. Advertisements and publicity empower the open market and persuade consumers. As advertising nurtured during the passage of time through different markets, many stereotypes, functions, and norms have been reintroduced into customs. When masses take these standards and integrate them into their routine, supremacy, or domination is marked. As said by Italian scholar, Antonio Gramsci, these norms or ideologies are the basis of power and reliance in symbolic environments, producing a dominating society. Today’s culture is founded on signs and theories in advertisements and what is in between the lines. The following literature review aims to describe the basic concepts related with provocative advertising and its influence on consumers.
Types of Provocative Advertising
Before types of provocative advertising are explained it is helpful to describe what advertising is, in the first place.  Advertising is the structured mass communiqué of information, usually paid and normally influential in nature, employing both verbal and nonverbal elements, about products (goods, services, and concepts) by identified sponsors through various media. The goal of advertising is to persuade masses to react in a specified way, for example to purchase a service or product or to advocate a wide range of concepts, whether economic, political, religious, or social.
An influential advertisement produces an emotional response (Gordon, 2006). Emotions are prompted by clear, powerful benefits (Toubia, 2006), fear or alarm (Rossiter et al, 2004), or desire or demand (Helstein, 2003). For example Nike, through its association of knowledge, power, and truth, publicizes and authorizes a particular notion of a female athlete in blend with ideas of emancipation. The impressions are that utilization of their product distinguishes the user as a “real” athlete and that the “real” athletes are not delimited by boundaries, but are independent.
The word provocative is defined as something which is stimulating or exciting, either in a positive or negative fashion. Generally the words “provocative advertising” points to forms of advertising that utilizes shocking or sexy images to reach this goal (Pope et al, 2004). Some examples include nudity, sexual acts, abject poverty, car collisions, and death. Shocking content in an advertisement considerably boosts attention, promotes memory, and positively influences behaviour compared to milder advertisements (Dahl et al, 2003).
Provocative advertising operates through one of three factors: uniqueness, uncertainty, and misbehaviour of a social or cultural taboo. Distinctive stimuli can have a positive influence on attention to the advertisement, while ambiguity–the degree to which an advertisement is open to different interpretations–can lead to further processing and grant the chance for an artistic experience. Much advertising nowadays works implicitly – either below or minimal levels of, awareness (Penn, 2006).
Provocative images are used in advertising as a more common practice as compared to the last two decades. Major companies including Benetton, Calvin Klein, Citroen, Peugeot, Moschino, and Esprit have used provocative imagery in various advertising campaigns (Polegato et al, 2006).  Benetton has used images of boat people, an AIDS victim, a priest kissing a nun, and a cemetery. One significant type of provocation has been the use of nudity and sex, even though the advertisement is not for sexual demands, but relates to violence, drugs, and political or racial issues.
The advertisements found in Glamour and Maxim refrain from touching on the aspect or represent any interpretation of family or education. The advertisements though, do depict a hegemony found in society which appears as the natural standard, the upper-middle class white male. Men hereby gain their power by the portrayal of females as well as themselves, as long as they fit the norm. The general theme of these advertisements do greatly impact gender discrimination and the power of dominance over women, producing a dominant discourse and recreate this commanding ego of men. We do not see representations of real masses and society in advertisements, but rather we see depictions of personnel who stand for controlling social norms and values. This has become the conventional symbol of the two sexes in our society, and advertisements incorporating the attractive woman and dominant man only represent what our society has already been presenting.
Provocation engenders different responses between the sexes (Koernig, 2006). For example, in Western cultures, males prefer female nudity and vice versa (Nevala, 2006). Women may be more suitable to think over the underlying purposes of the advertiser and add greater connotation to the images than are men, who are supposedly more inclined to the marginal effects of the visual appeal (Nelson and Paek, 2005).  Asian, Black, Indian (Asian Indian), white and multiethnic British participants show systematic distinctions in advertisement processing among various groups toward the same advertisement (Wolin et al, 2003).
Several researched have also concluded that the product type implicated in advertisements emphasizing gender discrimination or nudity has an effect on watcher reaction, and much of this is connected to congruity. For example, a female model is more suitable for body lotion than for a ratchet set.  Generally, an individual’s reported attitude to an advertisement containing meek nudity will be considerably less positive when the advertisement is for a consumer product as compared to the occasion when it is an appeal for a cause and the greater the relevance of the erotica to the grounds, the more positive will be the image that an individual holds of that cause.

Positive And Negative Impacts Of Provocative Advertising
When evaluated from the view of results, provocative advertisements are much more influential than non-provocative ones. The positive impact of provocative advertising is the raising on consumer consciousness about an issue or product, which they may not have otherwise thought about. Examples of positive provocative advertisements are those against drug use, in which the negative image of frying eggs is associated to brain damage caused by drug use. The image is pleasant (most people like fried eggs for breakfast), but in some ways violent, when you associate your brain being fried similarly. The net intended effect is to discourage drug use which is an overall positive result.
Many negative effects of provocative advertising stem from the extended logic of the viewer who determines they can only be happy, successful, or if they are like the people portrayed in the advertisement. As mentioned earlier the most successful advertisement is one in which an individual spots with the concepts and people being portrayed, so their use of the advertised product is consistent with their self image. Since the consumer identifies with the advertisement on an emotional level, provocative advertising is intimately connected to self image.  For those people who cannot identify with the advertisement, instead of concluding that the product is at fault, they begin to think that if only they could change themselves, then they would be able to identify themselves with the product, and only then will they have happiness, success or whatever other emotion is being claimed.
Research has found that implicit self-evaluations (ISEs) and explicit self-evaluations (ESEs) are differentially susceptible to influence (Brumbaugh et al, 2006). This was measured after exposure to images of beauty in magazine advertisements or to control advertisements without any body images. Female participants’ ESEs and body-images were unaffected by conceptualized images of beauty, but, exposure to such images (as compared to control advertisements) led to a decrease in the relationship between beauty and the 3 basic characteristics (self, in-group, and gender) also a drop in the amount of snack food consumed during the course of the study. These findings suggest that women may not as easily correct for, or protect against, unsuitable social contrasts and other pressures to the self on the implicit level, at least in the domain of attractiveness.
Even not-so-provocative advertising has unintended effects on materialism, parent-child conflict, and unhappiness. These were investigated using vote-counting analysis (Buijzen and Valkenburg, 2003) and the analyses yielded a modest effect size for the relation between advertising and materialism and a moderate effect size for the relation between advertising and parent-child disagreement. Though, proofs for the theorized relation between advertising and sadness were not found.
Some negative effects of provocative advertising are direct. For instance, pro-tobacco marketing and media stimulate tobacco use among youth (MacFadyen et al. 2003; Wellman et al. 2006). Exposure to pro-tobacco marketing and media increases the odds of youth holding positive attitudes toward tobacco use (odds ratio, 1.51; 95% confidence interval, 1.08-2.13) and more than doubles the odds of initiating tobacco use (odds ratio, 2.23; 95% confidence interval, 1.79-2.77). Highly appealing marketing and media are more influential at promoting use (odds ratio, 2.67; 95% confidence interval, 2.19-3.25) as long as they were on the whole, attractive, sociable and reassuring; and supported young people’s view of smoking and reinforced their smoker identities. These effects are monitored across time, in different regions, with varying study designs and measures of contact and result.

Effectiveness Of Provocative Advertising In Gaining Consumers Attention
Increasing level of advertising competition has made it increasingly thorny to draw and hold consumers’ attention and to set up strong memory sketches for the advertised brand. A usual communication scheme to penetrate this competitive clutter is to increase advertisement originality.  Originality may have detrimental effects when consumers are more considerate to the advertisement at the cost of the advertised brand and may quickly wane when the advertisement becomes known. A stochastic form of the influence that advertisement creativity and acquaintance have on consumers’ eye fascinations to the key factors of advertisements-brand, text, and images – and how the information dug out during eye fascinations supports memory for the advertised brand was devised (Pieters, et al, 2002). Infrared eye tracking was applied to collect eye fascination data from 119 consumers who paged through two general-audience magazines containing 58 full-page advertisements. Memory for the advertised brands was assessed with an indirect memory task.  Creative advertisements drew more attention to the advertised brand. More importantly however, advertisements that were both creative and known attracted the largest amount of attention to the advertised brand, which improved subsequent brand memory. In addition, new and well-known advertisements were found to promote brand memory directly.
Complexity harmfully influenced a variety of memory measures, but only for those who were less involved with the product category (Lowrey, et al, 2006). Creativity is another significant element of advertising. A set of randomly selected award-winner advertisements (Communication Arts) with a random sample of control commercials were compared (Till and Baack, 2005). The commercials were surrounded in TV programs and subjects for a naturalistic viewing experience. Studies 1 and 2 had aided and unaided brand and execution recall as dependent variables. For Study 3, brand attitude and purchase intent were the dependent variables of interest. Results pointed out that creative advertisement help unaided recall, but that creativity did not improve aided recall, purchase intention, or brand and advertisement behaviour.
The influence of provocative advertisements depends on culture, personality age of the individual, and their past experiences (Schlosser, 2003). The degree to which self-image is affected is different among different cultures. A cross-cultural examination with 750 female respondents from five European cities of the model self-image of women in terms of health and beauty revealed distinct cultural variation in model self-image in terms of healthy and beautiful beauty types (Bjerke, et al, 2006).  Persons with certain personality characteristics are likely to evaluate provocative advertisements and their products differently. Overall, extroverted subjects evaluated them in more positive ways than introverted subjects. In addition, their evaluations of the advertised brand were more positive if the portrayed product image is more congruent with their real or model self-concepts (Gurari et al, 2006).

One Example
“Feminists celebrated this week when the Advertising Standards Board (ASB) upheld complaints that billboards advertising Windsor Smith shoes breached community standards of taste. (http://www.brisinst.org.au/resources/wynter_vivienne_shoes.html)
The billboard in question plays on the imagination to portray a woman in her underwear apparently about to engage in an act of oral sex with a fully clad man wearing said shoes.
The National Women’s Media Centre called on women offended by the billboards not to have sex with men wearing the shoes.
That comment led to a storm of media and protest, culminating in the ASB asking for the billboards to be pulled down.
This is a triumph for women and men anxious about the imagery of women in the media. Portrayal of women as sexually subservient subjects of men insidiously damage our fight for equality and equal status in the community.
But we’re concerned at the power of the ASB to enforce its decision. As this article goes to screen, Windsor Smith have agreed to comply with the request in ‘their own time’. (http://www.brisinst.org.au/resources/wynter_vivienne_shoes.html)
In other words the company can take quite some time to take away the billboards – hundreds of which are tactically positioned across the country.
This begs the question: did Windsor Smith intentionally design the billboards to aggravate objection? The company was asked to cover some digitally enhanced and clearly exhibited cleavage after complaints about its last advertisements.
NWMC realizes the company has another equally provocative advertisement on the drawing board. Was the whole campaign designed to attract publicity and flog shoes? This could only occur under self-regulation – a regime introduced under the Howard Government where the ASB can say ‘please remove your ad’ to advertisers but has no power to enforce the decision, which makes the ASB look like a bit of a toothless tiger.
On the up side, men in my circle of friends have all been greeting me this week with the words “I’m not wearing Windsor Smith!” (http://www.brisinst.org.au/resources/wynter_vivienne_shoes.html)
Maybe the shoes are getting a bit of a reputation as being for men who are having trouble getting introduced to available women. But stay tuned. This type of deliberately provocative advertising is a new millennium phenomenon. One silly advertisement has been removed from billboards on the grounds of taste but under our weak regulation system it will surely soon be replaced by another – perhaps even by the same company.” (http://www.brisinst.org.au/resources/wynter_vivienne_shoes.html)

How do consumers perceive the risk in provocative advertising?
There are two main risks of provocative advertising, desensitization and distortion.  The motive behind more and more provocative information and actions are exposed in available is because it has become acknowledged and liked over time. People now enjoy and expect risky actions; and have become familiar to such attitude. Thus awareness of a problem or stimulation of people to act on something requires an out of the ordinary approach. This has a negative impact on product developers, since in order to convince the consumer to switch brands they have to put in extra work to make their product stick out. This leads directly to the second danger of advertising, distortion.  This happens because for any given category of product there is really a limited number of material combinations that can truly make something unique and different. Thus the challenge is to create an image around a product that is functionally equivalent to its competitor that distinguishes it. Normally, there is nothing to distinguish it so the advertisement relies on a play on word to give an impression of something, but never explicitly stating it, on which basis consumers respond. This can result in wasting of money, or improper use of a product. For example the recognition of long known consumer brands like Bayer Aspirin or Tylenol give the impression that these substances are totally safe, and yet they are not and must be used with caution.

Research Methodology And Data Collection
Standard methods are used in the evaluation of statistical data on advertising impacts.  Usually the core of the study consists of stimulus type (TV, radio, print) advertisement type (e.g. mildly erotic or nonerotic), product (e. g. cola, sunglasses, AIDS research, and SIDS research) and brand design. TV advertising can advance how children perceive your toy but it can’t make a limp toy into a success. Sega’s irreverent, fun and provocative advertising was the envy of the industry but kids went for Sony PlayStation. Although it was at the time a new product with a very `young’ and questionable name, the PlayStation was successfully advertised as an awesome product.
Within such a group there may be subdivisions in relation to obviousness of the pro vocation, type of product, and image of the company, gender and age.  Usually participants are shown images or movies of the advertisement and are asked a series of questions. Subjects are often obtained through random selection and a sufficient number based on the standard deviation of their responses are asked to participate. The subjects’ attitude toward the advertisement is usually assessed through a modified version of a six-item scale ranging from definitely not” and “yes, definitely.” Crucial to any study is that the provocative advertisement is provocative and whether it is perceived to be congruent with the product. One-way ANOVA is used to calculate significant differences between two groups. Levene’s test is used to test variance of all the samples.  If this assumption of homogeneity of variance is not met, the statistical test results may not be valid.  Confounding variables influencing results are usually identified by asking participants to indicate their familiarity with and favourability toward each product category and cause type before and after advertisement evaluation.

References
Bjerke, R, Author Bjerke Rune Bjerke, Rune, Polegato, R, Et Al. 2006, How Well Do Advertising Images Of Health And Beauty Travel Across Cultures? A Self-Concept Perspective PSYCHOL MARKET 23 (10): 865-U4 OCT
Brumbaugh, AM, Author, Reprint Author Brumbaugh Anne M. Brumbaugh, Anne M., Grier, SA, Et Al. 2006, Insights From A “Failed” Experiment – Directions For Pluralistic, Multiethnic Advertising Research J ADVERTISING 35 (3): 35-46 FAL
Buijzen, M, Valkenburg, PM. 2003, The Effects Of Television Advertising On Materialism, Parent Child Conflict, And Unhappiness: A Review Of Research J APPL DEV PSYCHOL 24 (4): 437-456
Dahl, DW, Frankenberger, KD, Manchanda, RV. 2003, Does It Pay To Shock? – Reactions To Shocking And Nonshocking Advertising Content Among University Students J ADVERTISING RES 43 (3): 268-280 SEP
Gordon, W. 2006. What Do Consumers Do Emotionally With Advertising? J ADVERTISING RES 46 (1): 2-10 MAR
Gurari, I, 2006. Author, Reprint Author Gurari Inbal Gurari, Inbal, Hetts, JJ, Et Al. Beauty In The “I” Of The Beholder: Effects Of Idealised Media Portrayals On Implicit Self-Image BASIC APPL SOC PSYCH 28 (3): 273-282 SEP
Helstein, MT. 2003, That’s Who I Want To Be – The Politics And Production Of Desire Within Nike Advertising To Women J SPORT SOC ISSUES 27 (3): 276-292 AUG
Koernig, SK, 2006, Author, Reprint Author Koernig Stephen K. Koernig, Stephen K., Granitz, N, Et Al. Progressive Yet Traditional – The Portrayal Of Women Compared To That Of Men In E-Commerce Magazine Advertisements J ADVERTISING 35 (2): 81-98 SUM
Lowrey, TM, 2006, Author, Reprint Author Lowrey Tina M. Lowrey, Tina M.  The Relation Between Script Complexity And Commercial Memorability. J ADVERTISING 35 (3): 7-15 FAL
MacFadyen, L, Amos, A, Hastings, G, Et Al. 2003, ‘They Look Like My Kind Of People’ – Perceptions Of Smoking Images In Youth Magazines SOC SCI MED 56 (3): 491-499 FEB
Nelson, MR, Paek, HJ. 2005, Cross-Cultural Differences In Sexual Advertising Content In A Transnational Women’s Magazine SEX ROLES 53 (5-6): 371-383 SEP
Nevala, JD, Gray, NJ, Mcgahan, JR, Et Al. 2006, Gender Differences In The Effect Of Visual Sexual Stimulation On The Perceived Covariation Between Freedom And Responsibility J PSYCHOL 140 (2): 133-153 MAR
Penn, D, 2006, Looking For The Emotional Unconscious In Advertising INT J MARKET RES 48 (5): 515-524
Pieters, R, Warlop, L, Wedel, M. 2002, Breaking Through The Clutter: Benefits Of Advertisement Originality And Familiarity For Brand Attention And Memory MANAGE SCI 48 (6): 765-781 JUN
Polegato, R, Author, Reprint Author Polegato Rosemary Polegato, Rosemary, Bjerke, R, Et Al. 2006, The Link Between Cross-Cultural Value Associations And Liking: The Case Of Benetton And Its Advertising J ADVERTISING RES 46 (3): 263-273 SEP
Pope, NKL, Voges, KE, Brown, MR. 2004, The Effect Of Provocation In The Form Of Mild Erotica On Attitude To The Ad And Corporate Images ADVERTISING 33 (1): 69-82 APR.
Rossiter, JR, Thornton, J Fear-Pattern Analysis Supports The Fear-Drive Model For Antispeeding Road-Safety TV Ads PSYCHOL MARKET 21 (11): 945-960 NOV 2004
Schlosser, AE Experiencing Products In The Virtual World: The Role Of Goal And Imagery In Influencing Attitudes Versus Purchase Intentions J CONSUM RES 30 (2): 184-198 SEP 2003
Till, BD, Baack, DW Recall And Persuasion – Does Creative Advertising Matter? J ADVERTISING 34 (3): 47-57 FAL 2005
Toubia, O, Idea Generation, Creativity, And Incentives MARKET SCI 25 (5): 411-425 SEP – OCT 2006
Vivienne Wynter, March 2000, Sexism and advertising, retrieved on Sunday, January 07, 2007 from http://www.brisinst.org.au/resources/wynter_vivienne_shoes.html
Wellman, RJ, Author, Reprint Author Wellman Robert J. Wellman, Robert J., Sugarman, DB, Et Al. The Extent To Which Tobacco Marketing And Tobacco Use In Films Contribute To Children’s Use Of Tobacco – A Meta-Analysis ARCH PEDIAT ADOL MED 160 (12): 1285-1296 DEC 2006
Wolin, LD, Korgaonkar, P Web Advertising: Gender Differences In Beliefs, Attitudes And Behaviour INTERNET RES 13 (5): 375-385 2003.

Bibliography
Atwan, Robert. Edsels, Luckies, and Frigidaires: advertising the American way. New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1979.
Chang, CC, 2001, The impacts of personality differences on product evaluations ADV CONSUM RES 28: 26-33
Cohn, David L. The Good Old Days: a history of American morals and manners as seen through the Sears, Roebuck Catalogues 1905 to the present. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1940.
Evans, George Heberton, Jr. Business Incorporations in the United States, 1800-1943. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc., 1948.
Frith, KT, Cheng, H, Shaw, P. 2004, Race and beauty: A comparison of Asian and Western models in women’s magazine advertisements SEX ROLES 50 (1-2): 53-61 JAN
Holme, Bryan. Advertising: reflections of a century. New York: Viking Press, 1982.
Laird, Pamela Walker. Advertising progress: American business and the rise of consumer marketing. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
Lamoreaux, Naomi R. The Great Merger Movement in American Business, 1895-1904. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

Calculate the price
Make an order in advance and get the best price
Pages (550 words)
$0.00
*Price with a welcome 15% discount applied.
Pro tip: If you want to save more money and pay the lowest price, you need to set a more extended deadline.
We know how difficult it is to be a student these days. That's why our prices are one of the most affordable on the market, and there are no hidden fees.

Instead, we offer bonuses, discounts, and free services to make your experience outstanding.
How it works
Receive a 100% original paper that will pass Turnitin from a top essay writing service
step 1
Upload your instructions
Fill out the order form and provide paper details. You can even attach screenshots or add additional instructions later. If something is not clear or missing, the writer will contact you for clarification.
Pro service tips
How to get the most out of your experience with MyhomeworkGeeks
One writer throughout the entire course
If you like the writer, you can hire them again. Just copy & paste their ID on the order form ("Preferred Writer's ID" field). This way, your vocabulary will be uniform, and the writer will be aware of your needs.
The same paper from different writers
You can order essay or any other work from two different writers to choose the best one or give another version to a friend. This can be done through the add-on "Same paper from another writer."
Copy of sources used by the writer
Our college essay writers work with ScienceDirect and other databases. They can send you articles or materials used in PDF or through screenshots. Just tick the "Copy of sources" field on the order form.
Testimonials
See why 20k+ students have chosen us as their sole writing assistance provider
Check out the latest reviews and opinions submitted by real customers worldwide and make an informed decision.
Social Work and Human Services
Great work I would love to continue working with this writer thought out the 11 week course.
Customer 452667, May 30th, 2021
Management
Thank you!!! I received my order in record timing.
Customer 452551, February 9th, 2021
FIN571
excellent
Customer 452773, March 15th, 2024
Leadership Studies
excellent job
Customer 452773, July 28th, 2023
Nursing
thank you so much
Customer 452749, June 10th, 2021
Criminal Justice
This has been the greatest help while I am recovering from an illness. Thank your team so much.
Customer 452671, May 2nd, 2021
Business and administrative studies
excellent, got a 100
Customer 452773, May 17th, 2023
Managerial Accounting & Legal Aspects of Business ACC/543
excellent work
Customer 452773, February 7th, 2024
Business and administrative studies
Excellent job
Customer 452773, March 17th, 2023
Business and administrative studies
Perfect
Customer 452773, February 23rd, 2023
ACC/543: Managerial Accounting & Legal Aspects Of Business
EXCELLENT JOB
Customer 452773, January 10th, 2024
Social Work and Human Services
Although it took 2 revisions I am satisfied but I did receive it late because of that.
Customer 452603, March 25th, 2021
11,595
Customer reviews in total
96%
Current satisfaction rate
3 pages
Average paper length
37%
Customers referred by a friend
OUR GIFT TO YOU
15% OFF your first order
Use a coupon FIRST15 and enjoy expert help with any task at the most affordable price.
Claim my 15% OFF Order in Chat
Close

Sometimes it is hard to do all the work on your own

Let us help you get a good grade on your paper. Get professional help and free up your time for more important courses. Let us handle your;

  • Dissertations and Thesis
  • Essays
  • All Assignments

  • Research papers
  • Terms Papers
  • Online Classes
Live ChatWhatsApp