An Investigation into the Efficacy of Selected Advertising Clips on Etv: Cultural Considerations
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Date
2010-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Advertising is part of everyday culture in the same way that television programs are part
of culture. Advertising is recognized as being a source of entertainment as well as giving
information. It is a media in its own right. As such it provides people with another subject
to talk or gossip about. However, advertisement can be effective when the values in the
message directly correspond with the values of the target audiences. It was the main
objective of this study to investigate the extent to which advertisements aired on ETV give
due concern to the cultural values of the audiences for whom the advertisements are
produced.
The study basically employed qualitative content analysis which was designed to answer
the research questions raised and to attain objectives of the study. Moreover, four focus
group discussions and individual in-depth interviews have been used to further tighten
the data obtained from the qualitative content analysis segment of the study and to
explore the audiences’ perception towards advertisements. A total of 15 commercials
broadcasted during five months period were purposefully selected. The selected
commercials were analyzed and interpreted thematically to find out their apparent
content. Furthermore, relevant literatures were also reviewed.
The results found out that most of the advertisements disregard the dominant cultural
values of the society for whom they are advertising. Advertisements appeared fall far
short of localizing foreign advertisement messages that can suit audiences’ expectation.
The advertisements are produced in some others’ context and thus the framework of
which the advertisements produced do not match the cultural context of the target
audiences. Moreover, some of the advertisements lack the genuine and vivid cultural
representation. They are observed employing ‘alien’ cultural elements which do not
coincide with the audiences’ cultural and intellectual knowledge. The study further
revealed that western cultural values are the most recurrent values often observed in the
advertisements aired on ETV. The advertising agencies criticized advertisers for this ill
treatment of local cultural values because they assume that employing western values is
the best way of approaching and pleasing their target customers.
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Keywords
Efficacy of Selected Advertising