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There was a short survey posted on the website about effects of television advertising few weeks back, as some of you may recall.

Seven advertisements that had women representation in them were identified for the survey. The ads identified were  Amul Macho , The Axe Effect , Amul Manthan Story, Virgin mobile , J.K. Super Cement, Slice, Parle Hide n Seek.

The survey was broken into two parts, Part A consisted of 8 close ended questions and part B had a rating system of popular TVCs in order of relevance, likeness, requirement of use of women and storyline on a scale of 1 to 10 wherein 1 denoted least least likable and 10, most likable.

Survey Analysis Part A

1. Do you find the presence of skimpily clad women in commercials for products like invertors/cement etc relevant?
19% said Yes, 81% said No.

2. Have you ever bought a beauty product after watching its commercial on TV?

64% said Yes, 21% said No, 15% said Maybe.

3. Have you ever felt insecure about your body while watching a commercial on TV?

42% said Yes, 58% said No.

4. Do you think there is an influx of commercials containing sexual content in the last 5 years?

86% said Yes, 8% said No, 6% said Maybe.

5. Have you ever felt a major impact on yourself by an advertisement?

33% said Yes, 56% said No, 11% said Maybe.

6. Do you think that indecent representation of women in Indian advertisements may have led to increase in crime against women?

25% said Yes, 40% said No, 35% said Maybe.

7. Do you feel uncomfortable with modern protection/anti-pregnancy pills and sanitary products advertisements?

31% said Yes,65% said No, 4% said Maybe.

8. TVCs for modern protection and sanitary products etc. raised sexual awareness or vulgarity.

52% said Sexual Awareness, 35% said Vulgarity, 4% said Neither.

Survey Analysis Part B

Part B of the questionnaire was calculated by finding Arithmetic Mean i.e. more commonly known as average.

The overall ratings given to each of the 7 advertisements are:-

Amul Macho- 2.75
The Axe Effect- 5.15
Amul Manthan Story- 5.42
Virgin mobile- 3.87
J.K. Super Cement- 3.47
Slice- 3.59
Parle Hide n Seek- 4.40

It can be seen from the average ratings that television viewers look for content in television commercials, not blind use of women just to add oomph or glamour factor.

Cross-cultural Analysis

55% of respondents from Bangalore feel strongly about the content of advertisements while 34% of respondents from Delhi are more tolerant towards TVCs as long as there is creativity involved.

Students and young professionals are more articulate about indecent exposure of women in TVCs. On the other hand, housewives and middle-aged respondents are more tolerant towards any such TVCs.

In general, respondents in the age group of 18-25 years of age are more critical about TVCs than those in the age group of 26-35 years of age.

It can be seen from the survey conducted that younger generation of today that is more professionally and politically active and aware have strong views and decision making abilities. They are intolerant towards superficiality of any kind, including that of television and commercials as a whole and are critical about issues such as brand value, consumerism and propagandist nature of advertisements.

Note that this study was done on a graduate level and therefore is prone to some miscalculations and errors. All suggestions, comments, queries are welcome, if any.

I would like to thank all of you that responded to the survey and helped me with my college project.
The survey was conducted with a random sample size of 50 people in the age group of 18-44 years from across the country.

About the author

Sakshi