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Abstract
The purpose of this research study was to examine the consequences that television
advertising has upon the general attitude of college students towards television advertising
in Pakistan. The data was collected from the randomly selected 538 college students
including both genders. The respondents in five major cities like Peshawar, Islamabad,
Rawalpindi, Quetta and Karachi. were asked to answer a self administered questionnaire.
The descriptive, correlation and regression analysis tools were made use of to analysis the
data. The results revealed that the television advertising in Pakistan has a significant but
negative ethical and social consequence however a positive economic one. The results
indicated that there is significant positive general attitude of students towards the television
advertising in Pakistan. The respondents also demanded more regulations to control the
television advertising in Pakistan. The study also predicted a positive relationship between
the consequences and general attitude of the students towards the television advertising.
The study recommends that marketers and the regulatory bodies have the responsibility to
pay proper attention to the rising ethical, social and regulatory concerns of the students’
about the television advertising. Moreover the study provides a useful bench mark for the
future research studies.
1. Introduction
Advertising is a communication tool used by the marketers to persuading the potential buyers to
purchase certain product or service. It plays a pivotal role in achieving the financial and commercial
objectives of the companies concerned. The role of advertising is also vital in the cutthroat competitive
environment and the mushroom branding in the present century. The challenges of the age demand a
bit more of the marketers towards informing, educating and facilitating the customer as to how to have
a timely access to certain product or a service in a novel and innovative way. The marketers are
therefore devising ways to make advertising more effective.
General Attitude of College Students Towards Consequences and
Impact of Television Advertising in Pakistan 592
Despite the fact that advertising is an effective tool for the business along with its being an
important element of the modern age and a fast growing industry, the public image of advertising is
still a matter of great concern. (O’Donohoe,1995).
Advertising is criticized for its presenting misleading information, promoting adverse values,
fake claims, subliminal seduction messages and persuading people to buy things they no longer need
(Katona, 1964; Pollay, 1986; Pollay and Mittal,1993). Again, this industry is blamed of spreading
unsustainable consumption patterns around the world over and encouraging excessive consumption.
All the foregoing aspects are apt to hinder its effectiveness as well as efficiency as a marketing tool
(Beales et al., 1981; Calfee and Ringold, 1987; Pollay and Mittal, 1993; Wright, 1986). Therefore, it is
critical of the advertising concerns to follow the public opinion advertising for its for reaching impact
on the economy, cultural values and on the business itself. (Wills and Ryans; 1982).
The students represent a sizeable segment of the society. They have dominating role in opinion
making. That is why; exclusive studies on the students’ attitude towards advertising are being carried
out in different parts of the world today.
To exploring the college students’ attitudes towards advertising is important for several
reasons. They are a large and ever growing segment of the populace. They have considerable amount
of money at their disposal. They are the outstanding asset for the product and service sellers as they are
the trendsetters and early adopters. They can influence the purchasing decisions of their peers and
parents, establish brand loyalties that continue long after the college days, and ensure a higher standard
of living after their graduation (Morton, 2001; Russell, 1996; Wolburg and Pokrywczynski, 2000).
2. Literature Review
2.1. Ethical Consequence
Penny M. Simpson, Gene Brown, Robert E. Widing II (1998 ) proposed that the unethical perceptions
of the advertisement shown significantly and negatively affected all advertising response variables like
Ad credibility, Attitude toward advertising, attitude toward the advertiser, pleasure and Ethical
judgment.
Sandage & Leckenby (1980); Rettie, Robinson & Jenner (2001) and Zhang (2000) suggested
that using meddling tactics in advertising while competing for consumers attention can be frustrating to
the audiences and can lead to affinity of generally negative public attitude towards advertising.
Chung-Chuan Yang (2000) has found that negative effects of advertising on students’ attitude
towards advertising. They found taht students in Taiwanese college consider advertising as wasteful of
national resources, encourages people to waste, and persuades them to buy things they should not buy.
The students also agree that advertising is misleading and deceptive
Reid & Soley (1983) found that in spite of doubtful effectiveness, sex appeals in advertising is
still thought-out a useful method to draw attention of consumer to an ad.
Beard (2003) replicated Larkin’s study and found that college students recognize advertising as
performing an important economic role.
3. Problem Statement
This study aims at investigating the consequences and impact that television advertising has upon the
general attitude of college students Pakistan.
General Attitude of College Students Towards Consequences and
Impact of Television Advertising in Pakistan 594
4. Research Question
This study aimed at investigating the consequences and impact of television advertising upon the
college students’ general attitude. Keeping in view the ever growing need for understanding the
students for their being an important segment of the customers purchasing the products and services
the following research questions were posed:-
Is the television advertising creating any ethical, economic, social and regulatory concerns
among the college students in Pakistan?
Do the consequences of the television advertising predict the general attitude of the college
students in Pakistan?
5. Research Objectives
The following are the objectives of this research study, namely:
1) To examine the consequences of the television advertising upon the college students.
2) To examine the students’ attitude towards the television advertising in general.
3) To determine the impact of different consequences of the television advertising upon the
college students’ general attitude towards television advertising.
4) (4)
6. Significance of Study
5. The study provides adequate guideline, for the regulator, the advertisers and media alike to
reformulate their strategies in the light of the prevailing trend with the view to making the
television advertising more effective.
6. The study will provide a benchmark for future studies with regard to the college students’ attitude
towards advertising
7. Hypothesis
Keeping in view the purpose of the study the following hypotheses were developed:
H1: The television advertising has the ethical consequences for the college students in Pakistan.
H1a: The television advertising is considered to be deceptive by the college students.
H1b: The college students feel that the television advertising has been greatly exaggerated.
H1c: They perceive the television advertising as the pornographic one.
H2: The television advertising has the economic consequences for the college students in Pakistan.
H2a: They consider the television advertising a source of economic growth.
H2b: They feel the television advertising to be a major factor aiming at improving the standard
of living.
H2c: They perceive that the television advertising ensures quality products.
H2d: They believe that the television advertising promotes competition and help curtail the
prices of product and services.
H3: The television advertising has social consequences for the college students.
H3a: The college students feel that the television advertising encourages the people to buy
things which they don’t need.
H3b: They feel that the excessive television advertising is confusing the people
H3c: They argue that the television advertising degrades the people value system by promoting
the materialistic way of life.
595 Jamshed Khan Khattak and Muhammad Aslam Khan
H3d: They criticize the television advertising for its being a promoter of undesirable values
among the youth.
H4: The college students demand the new comprehensive advertising regulations..
H4a: They demand ban on advertising of products which are harmful for society.
H4b: College students recommend regulations to control deception and puffery in television
advertising.
H4c: College students recommend regulations to control proliferation in television advertising.
H5: The college students have generally positive attitude towards the television advertising.
H5a: They believe that the television advertising is generally good.
H5b: They believe that the television advertising is generally helpful.
H5c: They consider the television advertising to be generally believable.
H6: Ethical consequences of the television advertising are positively correlated to the general
attitude of students.
H7: Economic effects of the television advertising are positively correlated to the general attitude of
students.
H8: Social consequences of the television advertising are positively correlated to the general
attitude of students.
H9: Feelings about the television advertising governing regulations are positively correlated to the
general attitude of students..
Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used. Linear regression model was used while determining the
influence of the television advertising consequences upon the attitude of the students towards the
television advertising. All tests were conducted at 5% level of significance.
Metropolitan City
Demographic Total
Peshawar Islamabad Rawalpindi Quetta Karachi
Gender Male 34 (38.2%) 53 (58.2%) 45 (46.4%) 39 (28.9%) 38 (39.6%) 209 (41.1%)
Female 55 (61.8%) 38 (41.8%) 52 (53.6%) 96 (71.1%) 58 (60.4%) 299 (58.9%)
Total 89 91 97 135 96 508
Age 16 years 3 (3.4%) 4 (4.4%) 2 (2.1%) 4 (3.0%) 0 (.0%) 13 (2.6%)
17 years 15 (16.9%) 10 (11.0%) 6 (6.2%) 5 (3.7%) 1 (1.0%) 37 (7.3%)
18 years 31 (34.8%) 20 (22.0%) 30 (30.9%) 16 (11.9%) 4 (4.2%) 101 (19.9%)
19 years 40 (44.9%) 57 (62.6%) 59 (60.8%) 110 (81.5%) 91 (94.8%) 357 (70.3%)
89 91 97 135 96 508
The respondent comprised of 41.1% male and 58.9% female college students in the selected
metropolitan cities. The respondents surveyed in the age of 16 years were 2.6%, 17 years of age 7.3%,
18 years of age 19.9% and that of 19 years of age 70.3%.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
1 1
2 .175** 1
3 .080 .095* 1
4 .108* .064 .045 1
5 .136** .069 .068 .208** 1
6 .023 .042 -.011 .201** .296** 1
7 .042 -.129** -.178** .105* .008 .153** 1
8 .132** .130** .081 .027 .100* .064 .044 1
9 .110* .101* .111* -.017 .066 .023 -.071 .163** 1
10 .119** .143** .154** .082 .133** -.017 -.076 .204** .107* 1
11 .123** .117** .124** .000 .083 -.078 -.052 .163** .220** .238** 1
12 .102* .132** .151** .050 .150** -.012 -.027 .159** .154** .207** .259** 1
13 .102* .159** .119** .112* .148** .065 -.107* .106* .050 .171** .159** .272** 1
14 .152** .131** .168** .199** .236** .104* -.039 .169** .140** .204** .163** .190** .218** 1
15 .174** .049 .009 .215** .279** .246** .164** .144** .004 .093* .007 .154** .065 .173** 1
16 .145** -.055 -.014 .247** .194** .277** .222** .019 -.007 -.008 .040 -.024 -.052 .161** .407** 1
17 .090* .113* .072 .155** .175** .164** .057 -.014 .024 .041 .114** .120** .072 .118** .146** .201**
No of Cases: 508
No. of Items: 17
Cronbach’s Reliability Alpha: 0.654
1. Deception 2. Puffery 3. Sexual Appeals 4. Economic growth 5. Standard of living 6. Quality products 7. Decreasing Prices 8. Needless products 9. Clutter 10. Materialisms
11.Undesirable values 12. Harmful Products 13. Regulations 14. Proliferation 15. Good 16. Helpful 17. Believable
General Attitude of College Students Towards Consequences and
Impact of Television Advertising in Pakistan 598
8.6. Validity
Chung-Chuan Yang (2000) used the same instrument in his study about “Taiwanese students’ attitudes
towards and beliefs about advertising” and recommended that outcome obtain from their study
supports that the scales are valid for application in other countries of Asia.
The result of the correlation coefficients in table-4 show a significant correlation among all the
independent variables and the general attitude of the students towards the television advertising
However the correlation between the social consequences and the general attitude of students towards
the television advertising is insignificant.
The results in table-4 indicate that there exists a positive correlation between the ethical
consequences and the general attitude of students towards the television advertising. The results also
reveal that more the ethical television advertising, more positive the attitude of students towards the
advertising. Hence it supports the H1
The correlation coefficient between the economic consequences of television advertising and
the general attitude of students towards the television advertising, as indicated in table-4, is quite
significant. We can draw the inference that the more positive is the economic consequence of the
General Attitude of College Students Towards Consequences and
Impact of Television Advertising in Pakistan 600
television advertising the more positive is the attitude of the students towards advertising. We accept
H2.
The only insignificant value of the correlation coefficient in table-4 is between the social
consequences of the television advertising and the general attitude of students towards the television
advertising. As a result we can infer that a social consequence of the television advertising and the
general attitude of the students towards television have no significant correlation and, therefore, we
reject H3.
The result in table-4 shows a significant correlation between the feelings about the television
advertising regulations and the general attitude of students towards television advertising. We can infer
that more the government regulations to control the television advertising the more positive the general
attitude of the students towards advertising. Hence accept H4.
Model
R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate
1 .474a .225 .219 .57962
a. Predictors: (Constant), Regulatory, Economic, Ethical, Social
Table 6: ANOVA
The results in table-5 and 6 indicate that the independent variables significantly explain 22.5%
of the variation in the general attitude of the college students towards the television advertising.
The results in table.7 show that the ethical consequences and the economic impact significantly
predict the general attitude of the students towards the television advertising. However the social
consequences and feelings about the advertising regulation do not significantly predict the general
attitude of the students towards the television advertising.
Table 7: Coefficients
10. Limitations
The limitations have been associated with this research study identified. One limitation of the study
relates to the college students and it limits the generalization of the results. The respondents themselves
are also a source of limitation because of their being non-serious and other personal factors associated
to the students might influence the responses. The focus of the study however was limited to the
television advertising, the consequences and the attitude towards the print advertising may differ,
however.
Despite these limitations, the results of this study have highlighted some important
consequences of the television advertising and bring to light the need for the future research. The study
also have contributed important information about the consequences of the television advertising and
the general attitude towards it as it have not been explored by the scholars in Pakistan, so for.
General Attitude of College Students Towards Consequences and
Impact of Television Advertising in Pakistan 602
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