Contents

Sr. No. Topic Page No.

1. Abstract 1

2. Introduction 2

3. Objectives and Hypothesis 4

4. Methodology 4

5. Theoretical Framework 4

6. Literature Review 8

7. Sample 8

8. Universe 8

9. Conclusion 12

10. Limitations 13

11. References 14

Impact of Advertisement on the Life Style of Pakistani

Youth

Abstract

Objective of this Study was to access to the role of the TV advertisement in

changing the life style of Pakistani youth with the help of the habits, attitudes, tastes,

moral standards parameter. And also to measure to which extent advertisement is

useful in changing the life style and its impact on society. It was a community-based

analytical study,. A group of 20 respondents takes part in the study out of which 10

were female, 10 were male, and data was collected from government college

university Faisalabad... In results, male and female both point out that the

advertisement is changing lifestyle and variable associated with lifestyle by far of its

limit and can be problematic of our society.

Keywords: impact, lifestyle, advertisement, Society

Introduction

The impact of television is immense due to combination of audio- visual effect

and broadly spread viewer ship and this feature of TV is worldwide acknowledge and

used as effective tool for advertisement .In Pakistan now days marketer are heavily

targeting lifestyle in TV advertisement. Alfred Adler firstly used lifestyle in 1929, for

person basic reaction and behavior. Denial Czitrom and David Marc (1985) provide a

sketch to the popularity of lifestyle in 1960s, when several lifestyles became known to

individuals and groups, including; gay lifestyle, communal life style, student and

youth lifestyle, all forming the new “alternative lifestyles”. The originality of the

word was somewhat lost during the transformation and introduction of the alternative

lifestyles, focusing more on being part of a more Hollywood lifestyle, observed by

celebrities, and followed by masses.

Now the question arise how Advertisement and Lifestyle are related. In

business, "lifestyles" provide a means by which advertisers and marketers try to target

and match consumer aspirations with products, or create aspirations relevant to new

products. Therefore marketers take the patterns of belief and action characteristic of

lifestyles and direct them toward expenditure and consumption. These patterns reflect

the demographic factors (the habits, attitudes, tastes, moral standards, economic levels

and so on) that define a group. As a construct that directs people to interact with their

worlds as consumers, lifestyles are subject to change by the demands of marketing

and technological innovation.

Youth is considered the builders of any nation. The advertisement industry has

a tremendous impact on our thinking. Most people believe what they see on TV. The

advertisers know how to appeal to our senses. They tell us what to wear (because

everyone is wearing it), what to eat (because everyone is eating it), and what to do

(because everyone is doing it). They use peer pressure very heavily. "You need to

wear these tennis shoes because (add a big name sports star) is wearing them and

everyone else is going to wear them. You want to be cool don't you?" You have to

have a fast car that can go 120 mph even though the speed limit is set at about half

Interdisciplinary Journal of Research in Business Vol. 1, Issue. 7, July 2011(pp.39-44)

They have confused our youth with the difference between "need" and "want.

The cultural impact on youth life style is global; advertiser can use the same

commercials in all over the world (Ebad, 2010). This leads to break down in the

differences of the societies. The youth now, a day grows while watching these ads and

that is why the culture of almost 70% of the world is changing. Advertisement is also

influencing behavior of kids. Advertising makes kids want things -- it creates desire --

which puts a lot of pressure on parents. Television is a showcase for "must have"

items that parents are expected to buy. Kids and parents always have to struggle about

purchases. When a parent says, 'No, I can't buy that, I don't have enough money',

there's an underlying sense that the parent is not meeting the child's needs and is

depriving the child of what he or she needs to be happy."(Neelima Gupta, 2008).

At the same time advertisement affects the psychology health the youngster

who learn how to get parents to respond to his or her wishes and wants. This may take

the form of a grunt, whine, scream, or gesture--indeed some tears may be necessary--

but eventually almost all children are able on a regular basis to persuade Mom or Dad

to buy something for them. Advertisement is integral part of industry, and tactfully

targeting the youngster to sell their profit but forgetting that advertising has an impact

on impressionable minds of the children. Parents should be aware that advertising is

going on, and it's influencing their children more than they think (AnandNawathe,

2007*). Parents must educate the children to examine the surrounding more carefully

and take decision more logically. A Study done by (Shabbir, 2008) shows that

Pakistani children are very much aware about TV commercial’s features like:

truthfulness, annoyingness, taste and influencing characteristics of the ad. Their

behavior is also different about advertised and non-advertised brands.

TV advertising has enhanced their involvement in product selection and

purchase, they prefer to buy TV advertised products and sometimes they want TV

advertised products even though they do not need them. They also like the

advertisements of the products that they are using and believe that products are as

good as expected from TV advertisements. Advertisement has an impact on buying

behavior of the youth. This ultimately changes their lifestyles. In Pakistan, most

advertising agencies now target children through advertisement especially when

advertising consumer products like children’s toys, chocolates, candy bars, tooth paste

etc. (Farooq Ahmed Jam,2010) identified Impact of marketing activities (specially

adverting) on children is very important and sensitive issue for the society and

marketers. Results showed interesting findings that ads do not impact negatively to

children memory and behavior rather it enhances the knowledge of children and the

ads targeted to children are not effective for effective positioning of children related

products marketers should target the parents and include ethical orientation along with

environmental knowledge to influence the buying behavior of parents.

Objectives and Hypothesis

Objective of this research is to access to the role of the TV advertisement in

the changing life style of Pakistani youth with the help of the habits, attitudes, tastes,

moral standards and parameters. With that also to measure to which extend

advertisement is useful in changing life style and its impact on society.

Methodology

It was community based analytical study, the author has developed a

questionnaire, and the question was designed to know the point of view of youth

regarding the impact ofadvertisement in changing the life style. First part of

questionnaire contains information regarding demographic. Second part has the series

of close-ended indirect questions, which were based on lifestyle variables like believe,

Norm Cultural value, family bonding and tendency to copy Ad. In the end, direct

question was asked regarding the change in life style due to advertisement. -random

convince sampling technique was used in our survey. To complete the survey 20

samples, respondents selected from government college university Faisalabad. 10

Male and 10 from the female filled 20 questionnaires.

Theoretical Framework

Uses and gratifications theory

Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT) is an approach to understanding why

and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. UGT is an

audience-centered approach to understanding mass communication. Divergent from

other media effect theories who question "what media do to people?", UGT focuses

on "what people do with media?"

This Communication theory is positivistic in its approach, based in the socio-

psychological communication tradition, and focuses on communication at the mass

media scale. The driving question of UGT is: Why do people use media and what do

they use them for? UGT discusses how users deliberately choose media that will

satisfy given needs and allow one to enhance knowledge, relaxation, social

interactions/companionship, diversion, or escape.

It assumes that audience members are not passive consumers of media. Rather,

the audience has power over their media consumption and assumes an active role in

interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. Unlike other theoretical

perspectives, UGT holds that audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet

their desires and needs to achieve gratification. This theory would then imply that the

media compete against other information sources for viewers' gratification.

UGT has a heuristic value today because it gives communication scholars a

"perspective through which a number of ideas and theories about media choice,

consumption, and even impact can be viewed."

Uses and Gratifications Approach

Mark Levy and Sven Windahl provide a good description of what it means to

be an "active consumer" of media:

"As commonly understood by gratifications researchers, the term "audience

activity" postulates a voluntaristic and selective orientation by audiences toward the

communication process. In brief, it suggests that media use is motivated by needs and

goals that are defined by audience members themselves, and that active participation

in the communication process may facilitate, limit, or otherwise influence the

gratifications and effects associated with exposure. Current thinking also suggests that

audience activity is best conceptualized as a variable construct, with audiences

exhibiting varying kinds and degrees of activity."

Assumptions of the Theory

Unlike other theories concerning media consumption, UGT gives the

consumer power to discern what media they consume, with the assumption that the

consumer has a clear intent and use. This contradicts previous theories such as Mass

Society Theory, that states that people are helpless victims of mass media produced

by large companies; and Individual Differences Perspective, which states that

intelligence and self-esteem largely drive an individual's media choice.

Given these differing theories, UGT is unique in its assumptions:

1. The audience is active and its media use is goal oriented

2. The initiative in linking need gratification to a specific medium choice rests

with the audience member

3. The media compete with other resources for need satisfaction

4. People have enough self-awareness of their media use, interests, and motives

to be able to provide researchers with an accurate picture of that use.

5. Valuejudgments of media content can only be assessed by the audience.

Heuristic Approach of UGT

Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch synthesized that UGT's approach was focused

on "the social and psychological origins of needs, which generate expectations of the

mass media or other sources, which lead to differential patterns of media exposure (or

engagement in other activities), resulting in need gratifications and other

consequences, perhaps mostly unintended ones."

According to Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch's research there were five components

comprising the Uses and Gratifications Approach. The components are:

1. The audience is conceived as active.

2. In the mass communication process, much initiative in linking gratification

and media choice lies with the audience member.

3. The media compete with other sources of satisfaction.

4. Methodologically speaking, many of the goals of mass media use can be

derived from data supplied by individual audience members themselves.

5. Value judgments about the cultural significance of mass communication

should be suspended while audience orientations are explored on their own

terms.

According to the research, goals for media use can be grouped into five uses.[5] The

audience wants to:

1. 1.Be informed or educated

2. Identify with characters of the situation in the media environment

3. Simple entertainment

4. Enhance social interaction

5. Escape from the stresses of daily life

History

Beginning in the 1940s, researchers began seeing patterns under the

perspective of the uses and gratifications theory in radio listeners. Early research was

concerned with topics such as children's use of comics and the absence of newspapers

during a newspaper strike. An interest in more psychological interpretations emerged

during this time period.

In 1948, Lass well introduced a four-functional interpretation of the media on

a macro-sociological level. Media served the functions of surveillance, correlation,

entertainment and cultural transmission for both society and individuals.

Stages of the Theory

The Uses and Gratifications Theory were developed from a number of prior

communication theories and research conducted by fellow theorists.

Stage 1

In 1944 Herta Herzog began to look at the earliest forms of uses and

gratifications with her work classifying the reasons why people chose specific types

of media. For her study, Herzog interviewed soap opera fans and was able to identify

three types of gratifications. The three gratifications categories, based on why people

listened to soap operas, were emotional, wishful thinking, and learning.[15]

In 1970 Abraham Maslow suggested that Uses and Gratifications Theory was an

extension of the Needs and Motivation Theory. The basis for his argument was that

people actively looked to satisfy their needs based on a hierarchy. These needs are

organized as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in the form of a pyramid with the largest,

most fundamental needs at the base and the need for self-actualization at the tip. From

the bottom-up the pyramid contains Biological/Physical, Security/Safety,

Social/Belonging, Ego/Self-Respect and Self-actualization at the top.[16]

In 1954 Wilbur Schramm developed the fraction of selection, a formula for

determining which form of mass media an individual would select. The formula

helped to decide the amount of gratification an individual would expect to gain from

the medium over how much effort they had to make to achieve gratification.

Stage 2

In 1969 Jay Blumler and Denis McQuail studied the 1964 election in the United

Kingdom by examining people's motives for watching certain political programs on

television. By categorizing the audience's motives for viewing a certain program, they

aimed to classify viewers according to their needs in order to understand any potential

mass-media effects. The audience motivations they were able to identify helped lay

the groundwork for their research in 1972 and eventually the Uses and Gratifications

Theory.

In 1972 Denis McQuail, Jay Blumler and Joseph Brown suggested that the

uses of different types of media could be grouped into 4 categories. The four

categories were: diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance.

In 1973-74 McQuail, Blumler and Brown were joined by Elihu Katz, Michael

Gurevitch and Hadassah Haas, in their media exploration. The collaborative research

began to indicate how people saw the mass media.

Stage 3

The most recent interest surrounding Uses and Gratifications Theory is the

link between the reason why media is used and the achieved gratification.

UGT researchers are developing the theory to be more predictive and

explanatory by connecting the needs, goals, benefits, and consequences of media

consumption and use along with individual factors.

Work in UGT was trailblazing because the research of Katz, Blumler, and

Gurevitch built on Herzog's research and caused a paradigm shift from how media

influences people to how audiences use media, diminishing the dominance of the

limited effects approach to mass media studies.

Literature Review

The role of advertisement changes into what the organization wants them to

do. there were times that an organization uses the advertising to help them survive

from the impacts of economic trends. Still the economists views that the advertising

lays a significant effects on the youth. And in a long process the advertising can lead

the organization to competition. Based the understanding regarding the advertising,

the approach rooted in the organization research for the right answer on the effects f

the computation. Consequently, the accepted basic role other the advertising is to

provide the youth with the right amount of information regarding to product or

services, which is related to the objective of the competition and that is to deliver the

youth satisfaction. In this view, the level of advertising effect the youth with the focus

of organization, based on the previous studies regarding the youth behavior, there are

three inflectional factors that affect the youth behavior when buying there are

enumerated as external influences internal influences and the marketing influences in

which the advertising product promotion, and the pricing techniques are found.

Definitely marketing activity such as advertising effect both internal and external

behaviors.

Sample

Random convince sampling technique was used in our survey. To complete

the survey 20 samples, respondents selected from government college university

Faisalabad. 10 Male and 10 from the female filled 20 questionnaires.

Universe

The total universe in this research was 20, 10 Male and 10 from the female

filled 20 questionnaires.

Distribution of study group on gender

Distribution of Male Remarks

Cases Yes No No of respondent

Frequency

(%)

Frequency(%

(%)

Frequency

(%)

Do youth watch TV 50 50 10

Youth spend more

than one hour in

watching TV

65 35 10

Attention to TV

Advertisement

70 30 10

Attention to paper

Advertisement

60 40 10

Attention to bill

board

Advertisement

60 40 10

Advertisement is

changing the believe

of our youth

65 35 10

Advertisement is

changing the norms

of society

55 45 10

Advertisement is

changing the culture

of our society

80 20 10

TV Advertisement 85 15 10

Study Group Male Female Total

No. of Respondent 10 10 20

is changing the

religious value of

our youth

TV Advertisement

is changing family

bonding of our

youth

80 20 10

Youth try to copy

TV Advertisement

after watching it

60 40 10

TV Advertisement

impact lasts on

youth

80 20 10

TV Advertisement

change buying

decision

65 35 10

Celebrity in Ad has

greater impact on

youth

70 30 10

Advertisement is

changing the life

style of our youth

50 50 10

Distribution of Female Remarks

Cases Yes No No of respondent

Frequency

(%)

Frequency(%

(%)

Frequency

(%)

Do youth watch TV 50 50 10

Youth spend more

than one hour in

watching TV

55 45 10

Attention to TV

Advertisement

80 20 10

Attention to paper

Advertisement

60 40 10

Attention to bill

board

Advertisement

55 45 10

Advertisement is

changing the believe

of our youth

65 35 10

Advertisement is

changing the norms

of society

60 40 10

Advertisement is

changing the culture

of our society

55 45 10

TV Advertisement

is changing the

religious value of

our youth

70 30 10

TV Advertisement

is changing family

bonding of our

youth

55 45 10

Youth try to copy 60 45 10

TV Advertisement

after watching it

TV Advertisement

impact lasts on

youth

55 45 10

TV Advertisement

change buying

decision

60 45 10

Celebrity in Ad has

greater impact on

youth

50 50 10

Advertisement is

changing the life

style of our youth

50 50 10

Conclusion

We started with the aim to explore the role of advertisement in influencing the

lifestyle of youth and our findings provided astonishing insights for future researchers

and marketing managers. We ended up with the finding son the bases of above-

mentioned statistics, we can safely conclude that TV advertisement in general and

those involving same celebrities have immense and lasting effect on youth’s lifestyle,

religious value, family bonding and their decision making for buying various items.

Some of the effects are really damaging for our society, which are generally based on

combined family system, established religious and cultural value and where majority

of people cannot not afford to purchase the product, which have severe temptation for

youth in the race of show power.

Limitations

Limitations and Future Research Implications Future researcher must test

these findings in different cultural context to support our findings or if any different

results found. There are some limitations of study regarding sample selection because

entire samples taken from only one city of Pakistan so it may not be the true

representative of population. Life style, economic condition and per capita income of

that area might have some influence on the community in sample. Third major

limitation of our study is regarding the validity and reliability of our measuring

instrument, we designed the questionnaire from the help of different literature and

makes required changes in their scale as per our sample, although we tried our best to

make the process standardized but the sole reliability and validity of our instrument is

referred to them. Despite of all these constraints we tried our best to follow the

standard research procedures and styles for our sincere attempt will add very little

value in this stream of research.

References

Hassan,F., Kirmani,S., &Shabbir, S.M.(2008).Children Attitude towards TV

Advertisements in Pakistan.European Journal of Scientific

Research.BusinessDepartment.International Islamic

University.IslamabadPakistan.ISSN 1450-216X Vol. 21 No.4 pp.693-699.

Haroon,M.,Nisar,M., Qureshi,M.T.,&Rehman,Z,M.(2011). Does the Food

Advertisement on Television Have the Impact on Children’s Food Purchasing

Behavior?A Study Based on Pakistan Food Advertisement. International

Journal of Business and Management.Faculty of Management

Sciences.National University of Modern Languages.Sector H-9,

Islamabad.Pakistan.Vol.6, No. 1.

Devi,A., and Gupta,N.(2008). Impact of T.V Advertisements on Buying Pattern

ofAdolescentGirls.J.Soc.Sci.Government College for Women. Parade, Jammu,

Jammu and Kashmir, India.16(1): 51-55.

Akhtar.S.,Hijazi,T,S.,Jam,A,F.,&Khan,B,M.(2010). Impact of Advertisement on

Children Behavior: Evidence from Pakistan.European Journal of Social

Sciences.Faculty of Management Sciences.International Islamic University.

Islamabad. Pakistan.Vol.12, No.4.

Dethe.S.,Gawande,R., &Nawathe,A.(2007).Impact of Advertising on Children’s

Health.International Marketing Conference on Marketing

&Societ.IIMKDepartment of Management Sciences.University of Pune.Pune.

Baig,E.,Javaid,H.,&Khan,S.(2010). Lifestyle Advertising – Emerging Perspective in

Advertising.European Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative

Sciences.Lahore Business School. University of Lahore1-KM Defence Road.

Lahore. Pakistan.ISSN 1450-2275 Issue 21.

Massey,J.(2007).The Impact of Advertising on Teenagers.West Philadelphia High

School.