Attitudes Towards Television Commercials with an Underlying Health Claim

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Attitudes Towards Television

Commercials with an

Underlying Health Claim

Bachelor‟s thesis within Business Administration

Authors: Jasmine Hansson, Emilia Sundberg

Tutor: Olga Sasinovskaya

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Bachelor‟s Thesis in Business Administration

Title: Attitudes Towards Television Commercials with an Underlying Health Claim

Authors: Jasmine Hansson, Emilia Sundberg

Tutor: Olga Sasinovskaya

Date: 2011-05-23

Subject terms: Consumer behavior, Generation Y, university students, TV Commercials, health claims, attitudes, marketing messages in TV commercials, qualitative research, focus groups.

Abstract

Background: Health and eating healthy has become increasingly popular during the recent decades. On television, countless numbers of food commercials claim their products to be healthy, and fit good looking people propagate for the benefits of the products. At the same time, there are many studies showing these marketing messages to be highly misleading. Consequently, a great extent of existing research within this field treats the subject of consumers, children in particular, and television in relation to eating habits. However, in this study, we are not interested in confirming these facts; instead we focus on the attitudes that consumers have towards these marketing messages with underlying health claims shown in TV commercials. Today, many new types of communication channels exist, nevertheless, watching TV is an increasing activity, especially among young consumers. It was found that research including young adult consumers was scarce, why the segment of university students belonging to the generation Y was chosen for this study.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to identify the attitudes that Swedish generation Y university students have towards TV commercials with underlying health claims. The aim is also to investigate why these consumers react to the commercials the way they do.

Method: In this thesis both a quantitative and a qualitative method was used, where the qualitative method was the most dominating. Thus, it can be considered a mixed methods approach. However, the quantitative part is dominating. For the empirical study we conducted tests where a number of persons in focus groups were exposed to different TV commercials, all with an underlying health claim. The respondents answered an in-group questionnaire and thereafter during the in-group discussion they were asked to describe their reactions to the TV commercials. Finally, the respondents were also asked what factors they believed important to them when they consider buying a product.

Conclusion: The Swedish generation Y university students presented a number of

attitudes towards the chosen television commercials. The students did recognize the underlying health claims and furthermore indicated other factors noticed within the commercials. Also, we could see that factors such as memory, unconscious influence as well as positioning of the

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commercials had an influence on the attitudes. The results also specified that factors influencing these consumers in their purchasing decision, except the TV commercial itself, were; whether they had bought the product before, what family and friends used and recommended, as well as price and quality. The above features also had an influence on how these consumers reacted to the marketing messages. The study shows that the model of the emotional process by Holbrook and

O‟Shaughnessy (1984) could be followed. We furthermore built on Bagozzi et al.‟s (1999) classification of advertisements by introducing the multi message ad. To conclude, it can be stated that factors influencing these consumers‟ attitudes of TV commercials with underlying health claims had different aspects and explanations, although common patterns could be seen.

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Kandidatuppsats i Företagsekonomi

Titel: Attityder till TV-reklam med underliggande hälsobudskap Författare: Jasmine Hansson, Emilia Sundberg

Handledare: Olga Sasinovskaya

Datum: 2011-05-23

Ämnesord: konsumentbeteende, generation Y, universitetsstudenter, TV-reklam, hälsopåståenden, attityder, marknadsföringbudskap i TV- reklam, kvalitativ forskning, fokusgrupper.

Sammanfattning

Bakgrund: Hälsa och att äta hälsosamt har blivit alltmer populärt under de senaste decennierna. På tv hävdar ett oräkneligt antal reklaminslag för matprodukter hur hälsosamma de är och vältränade, snygga människor propagerar för fördelarna med produkterna. Samtidigt finns det många studier som visar att dessa reklambudskap är vilseledande. Följaktligen handlar en stor del av forskningen i ämnet om sambandet mellan konsumenter - i synnerhet barn, och TV i relation till matvanor. I denna studie är vi inte intresserade av att bekräfta dessa fakta, utan fokus är istället inriktat på hur tittarna tolkar reklambudskap med underliggande hälsopåståenden. Idag finns många nya typer av kommunikationskanaler, men trots det ökar TV-tittandet, i synnerhet bland unga konsumenter. Forskning kring generation Y och deras syn på TV-reklam med underliggande hälsobudskap är hittills begränsad.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att identifiera de attityder som svenska universitetsstudenter tillhörande generation Y har gentemot TV reklam med underliggande hälsobudskap. Syftet är också att undersöka varför dessa konsumenter tolkar reklamen som de gör.

Metod: I rapporten användes både kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder, där den

kvalitativa var mest dominerande. Man kan därför säga att en blandad metod användes för att få fram bästa resultat. För den empiriska studien gjordes ett test där ett antal personer i fyra fokus grupper fick se olika TV-reklaminslag, alla med ett underliggande hälsobudskap.

Gruppmedlemmarna fick individuellt svara på ett antal frågor ur ett formulär och därefter i gruppen diskutera sina reaktioner på

reklaminslagen. Hur dessa påverkade dem och vad de anser som viktigt när de själva ska köpa en produkt var andra frågor som diskuterades.

Slutsats: Det visade sig att reklaminslagen uppfattades på olika sätt av studenterna i fokus grupperna. De identifierade de underliggande hälsobudskapen i reklamerna och även andra uppfattningar om reklambudskapen kunde utläsas. Ur resultaten kan utläsas att faktorer såsom minne,

undermedvetet inflytande och även reklaminslagens position i

förhållande till varandra var av vikt för hur de uppfattades. Resultatet visar också att studenterna påverkades av många fler faktorer än själva reklamen i sig, exempelvis huruvida de köpt produkten innan, vad familj och vänner använde och rekommenderade, samt pris och kvalité. Dessa

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faktorer påverkade även hur studenterna tolkade reklammeddelandena. Dessutom visar vi hur Holbrook och O‟Shaughnessy‟s (1984) Model of the Emotional Process, stämmer överens med resultaten i denna studie. Vi bygger även vidare på Bagozzi et al.‟s (1999) två klassificeringar av reklam och introducerar en tredje; multimeddelande-reklam.

Sammanfattningsvis kan konstateras att många olika faktorer påverkade dessa konsumenters attityder gentemot TV-reklam med underliggande hälsobudskap. Trots det kunde ändå vissa gemensamma mönster utläsas.

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Acknowledgements

Firstly, we would like to thank our supervisor Olga Sasinovskaya for the guidance and honest commitment during the process. We would also like to thank our fellow seminar students for their valuable feedback during seminar sessions.

Finally, we would like to give a special thanks to our families and friends for the support and love during the writing process.

Jasmine Hansson Emilia Sundberg

Jönköping International Business School 23 May 2011

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1 Introduction

In this section, we will present an introduction and a background to the study as well as a related problem discussion. Further, the purpose followed by the chosen perspective will be introduced. Some delimitations are also presented and finally, definitions that are commonly used in the paper.

Consumer behavior studies involve many different schools of thought, spanning from sociology and anthropology, to psychology and business studies, to name a few. Consumer Behavior is defined as the dynamic interaction of affect and cognition, behavior, and the environment by which human beings conduct the exchange aspects of their lives

(American Marketing Association Dictionary, 2011). As marketing itself is a blend between these fields, this will also be the case in this paper. Theories about consumer behaviour and what drives the consumer in his/her buying decision have shifted through the decades. The rational choice perspective was for a long period dominant, looking upon the consumer as a human being making well thought out and logical decisions based on a given set of information. The dominating theories have changed several times since then and today different perspectives can be seen within consumer behaviour research. The so called experimental view has become popular during the past thirty years or so where the consumer is not driven by rationality; instead softer needs such as feelings, desire, hedonism as well as aesthetics are being focused on (Holbrook & Hirschman 1982). For this reason, various perspectives on consumer behaviour will be included in this paper. However, all theoretical paths cannot be followed.

1.1 Background

Consumers are constantly overwhelmed by different kinds of stimuli by marketing messages, often followed by an increasing amount of decisions that „need‟ to be taken (Ekström, 2010). When it comes to television advertisement the stimuli in the form of marketing messages are competing with each other on the consumer‟s attention, both in the form of other commercials as well as the program itself (McClung, Park & Saur, 1985).

McClung et al. (1985) state that “the major intent of advertising is to influence brand-attitude formation and choice by conveying to the consumer a specific concept regarding the market offering” (p.351). Thus, from the marketer‟s point of view, it is all about communicating the right message to the consumer. This needs to be done in an effective way in order to implement the brand image in his or her mind, hopefully becoming the brand of choice (McClung et al., 1985).

However, today consumers are to a high extent aware and well informed when it comes to marketers‟ advertising strategies. Young consumers in particular are not easily convinced (McCrindle, 2002) and marketers therefore constantly have to invent new ways of communicating with people, for instance through; Internet, mobile phones or outdoor happenings. The consumer segment studied within this paper can be regarded as belonging to the generation Y, in this case university students and the media of interest is the TV commercial, which can be considered as a rather traditional means of communication for marketing messages. However, TV is still in everyman‟s home and young people are spending several hours a day watching television. According to McCrindle (2002) one quarter of factors that influence eighteen year olds comes from TV and movies, which shows the impact of this media on young consumers.

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Food plays a crucial role in peoples‟ life and according to Ippolito and Papparlardo (2002): “Television is the primary medium used for food advertising” (p. 26). Within previous research, studies establish a direct causal link between food advertising and unhealthy diets (Harris, Bargh & Brownell, 2009). As health aspects are used as a marketing strategy by companies, one must consider how and why people are affected and therefore theories are needed to fully understand the problem. Harris et al. (2009) also state that very little is known about the effects of advertizing on adolescents and adults compared to that of children as well as advertizing for calorie-dense, low-nutrient food. Thus, studying what attitudes young adult consumers have towards TV commercials promoting food, becomes rather interesting.

1.2 Problem Discussion

We found that prior studies within the field of consumer behavior in relation to underlying health messages portrayed in TV commercials were limited. Rather, research treated issues such as; negative health effects of TV commercials on children and adolescents as well as influence on their purchasing decisions (Kraak & Pelletier, 1998), or; nutritional content in products displayed in TV commercials (Resnik & Stern, 1977). Other studies concerned placement of the TV commercial within the pod (Coulter, 1998), or effects of

repetitiveness of TV commercials (Gorn & Goldberg, 1980). Also, research concerned commercials directed to a specific segment of consumers, such as children (Story & French, 2004) and not to a more general public. In other words, prior studies dealt with evaluating the healthiness of products as well as the structure of commercials and not consumer attitudes of marketing messages. Furthermore, a large amount of the research focused on children rather than young adults or adults and no correlation between TV commercials and generation Y consumers could be seen.

1.3 Purpose

The purpose of this thesis is two folded; to identify the attitudes that Swedish university students belonging to the generation Y have towards TV commercials with underlying health claims. Also the purpose is to understand why these consumers react on the commercials the way they do.

1.4 Research Questions

1) Do consumers notice the underlying health claims in the chosen TV commercials? 2) What other messages do consumers notice within the chosen TV commercials? 3) What influences do consumers find important when considering making a

purchase?

1.5 Perspective

Considerations were made when choosing the perspective in which this thesis is to be written. The perspective held in this thesis is from the point of view of the consumer. The reason for this is that it is the consumer reaction process that is of interest here. Marketers use different and sophisticated ways of catching the consumer‟s attention, however it is the latter who ultimately decides whether to buy the product or not. The type of consumers that were chosen for this study was Swedish university students belonging to the generation Y. Further arguments for this choice can be seen in section 2.7.1.

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One must also consider the fact that there are different types of TV commercials

depending on the context, positioning and type of commercial. There are commercials that are shown separately, in a pod, or even sponsored by the program itself, all of which can affect the way the TV commercial is understood by the consumer. The perspective taken within this paper is the „regular‟ TV commercial shown in between programs, during the commercial break.

1.6 Delimitations

We have no intentions to generalize the qualitative information collected in this study for Sweden as a whole, but rather to analyze the findings within the targeted sample and connect these to existing theory within the field. Further, the aim is not to present a

complete picture of issues related to the attitudes of consumers towards commercials, as no research can be fully complete. The intention is neither to decide whether a product is considered healthy or not, nor to give dietary recommendations, as we do not consider this matter relevant to the purpose of our study. Instead, our aim is to investigate what attitudes consumers of a specific segment have towards TV commercials with underlying health claims and what attributes they believe to be important when considering to buy a product.

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1.7 Definitions

In this section concepts that are important to the understanding of this paper will be explained. Attitudes

When discussing human behavior, social psychologists have used the concept of attitudes and there are many different definitions (Ajzen, 2005). However, according to

Kothandapani, 1971), attitudes are defined by three interrelated components: an affective component involving feelings about an evaluation of the attitude object, a cognitive component involving beliefs about the object and a behavioral intentions component. This definition will be suitable for the present thesis, as the subject of study is how TV commercials affect consumers as well as their cognitions and furthermore how their behavior influences the final purchasing decision.

Generation Y

The generation Y is in marketing terms regarded as the generation born between the early 1980‟s and around 2000 (McCrindle, 2002). Advertisement and consumption is a natural part of their life which makes them rather critical towards marketing messages. Generation Y‟s are known to be well educated and are characterized for being: "brought up with lots of self-esteem, lots of activities and huge appreciation of what technology can provide for them in terms of improving efficiency" (Nazareth, 2007, p. 81). In this thesis, we have chosen Swedish university students who belong to the generation Y population group.

Health claims

According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), health claims "describe a relationship between a food, food component, or dietary supplement ingredient, and reducing risk of a disease or health-related condition" (FDA, 2011). In this paper we use the term health claim when referring to the health messages stated within the chosen TV commercials of our study. These health claims are more or less clearly expressed and depend on how each consumer reacts to the commercial.A description the health claims we identified in each of the four TV commercial used in this study can be found in section 2.6.3

Purchase Decision

Purchase decision is a frequently used term in this thesis and can be described as a step within the consumer decision making process (Bettman, Johnson & Payne, 1991). The use of the term in this paper refers to the final decision that consumers take after considering their needs, desires and their influences. These decisions can be influenced both consciously as well as unconsciously.

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1.8 Structure of the Thesis

The structure of the thesis is shown below:

Figure 1-1 Structure of the Thesis

The thesis opens with an introduction followed by the method and the theoretical

framework. This nontraditional structure was chosen in order to formulate the purpose and furthermore create the research questions. When conducting the study, it was necessary to investigate the purpose through the method before building up a theoretical framework. Once we were able to identify exactly what was going to be investigated, the theoretical framework could be formulated based on the results found in the empirical study. The findings and analysis of this paper are combined for both parts of the two folded purpose. The reasoning behind this decision was that findings and analysis were very much interrelated and the separation of the two would only create repetitions. Furthermore, by combining findings and analysis, the purpose as well as the research questions could be answered more directly and hopefully this structure contributes to a better understanding for the reader. Some extensive parts of the analysis/findings sections are concluded with a summary to decrease confusion and to give a better overview. Finally, the thesis ends with a conclusion as well as a section for discussion and further research.

1 Introduction

2 Method

3 Theoretical Framework

4 Empirical Findings & Analysis of Attitudes

4.1 Noticing the Health Claim and other Messages, RQ 1 & RQ 2

5 Empirical Findings & Analysis of Why Consumers are Influenced 5.1 & 5.2 Significant Influences on Purchasing Decisions, RQ 3

5.3 Summary of Influences on Purchasing Decisions

6 Conclusion

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2 Method

This section will present the methods used as well as some of its pros and cons. Further, we will also discuss and argue why the methods have been chosen and describe how the empirical information was gathered and analyzed. Lastly, the issue of trustworthiness of this thesis will be discussed.

2.1 Qualitative Research

According to Daymon and Holloway (2011), the qualitative approach is more common than the quantitative approach within marketing communication studies. Bryman and Bell (2011) state that quantitative research strategies emphasize quantification whereas

qualitative research strategies emphasize words when collecting and analyzing data. "Quantitative research tends to focus on the „how it is,‟ whereas qualitative research is more of an exploration of the why and thus the „how it could be‟ ” (Lillis, 2002, p.4).

The qualitative research method is influenced by an interpretive way of viewing the world around us and is thus driven by meaning, understanding and exploration. The method allows the researcher to remain open through the process towards new findings that were not anticipated when the research began, as he or she is not in total control of the

outcomes of the study (Daymon & Holloway, 2011). The idea of qualitative research is to study an issue within its specific setting and unique context and therefore conclusions can never be drawn in a general way. According to Cooper and Schindler (2011), qualitative research aims at understanding a problem through detailed description. The idea is not to reach some kind of common ruling truth, rather the researcher together with the

participants that are being studied seek knowledge and understanding (Daymon & Holloway, 2011). Also, in qualitative research the researcher‟s individual knowledge, mindset and experience affects the results to a high extent.

There are numerous pros and cons of qualitative research. One weakness is the difficulty to establish generalizations from qualitative results; the study can seldom be applied to a population at large as it is context specific. Other weaknesses of qualitative research are lack of transparency of data and that the study can become too subjective (Daymon & Holloway, 2011).

The positive sides of qualitative research are that it takes the specific context and its individuals into account. It strives to understand the world as it appears; complex and multifaceted; “Qualitative researchers seek to uncover the views and meanings held by research participants…” (Daymon & Holloway, 2011, p. 7). Further, qualitative methods can measure softer values and thus give the researcher deeper information that can be valuable in some situations. According to Cooper and Schindler (2011) this is one reason why this method is increasing in popularity among business managers today. According to Daymon and Holloway (2011), other benefits with qualitative research are its holistic, processual and reflexive characteristics.

In this study, our intention was to grasp the ideas and thoughts of consumers towards a set of TV commercials as well as to understand what influenced them when making certain decisions. Thus, it concerned gaining an understanding on a deeper level of individuals‟ reflections and such data would be difficult to derive through quantitative methods. We aimed to see and hear the consumers‟ reactions on the TV commercials that were shown to

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them and therefore qualitative data was needed in the form of focus groups. In this setting, the consumers could be studied and we could take other communication forms, such as facial expressions into account. Also, we believe that spontaneous reactions on the commercials would not be shown in a quantitative study. Therefore, the qualitative approach was regarded the most suitable when collecting data. However, there were reasons to believe that the qualitative method used would not give results that were completely satisfying and thus we decided to also use a quantitative method. This is explained in the below section.

2.2 Mixed Methods Research

One must take into account that research strategies could have interconnections;

It is common to describe qualitative research as concerned with the generation rather than the testing of theories. There are examples of studies in which qualitative research has been employed to test rather than to generate theories (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.27).

These interconnections create a third research strategy called mixed methods research where both quantitative and qualitative methods are being used.

In a study by Zamanou and Glaser (1994), it was found that they were able to combine "the specificity and accuracy of quantitative data with the ability to interpret idiosyncrasies and complex perceptions provided by qualitative analysis" (p.478). It was the use of the triangulated approach that helped them collect different types of data which other researchers in their field could not. These included factors such as values.

Denzin (2009) suggests methodological triangulation which is commonly used in research of small scale and here more than two types of methods can be used. When both

qualitative and quantitative methods are combined in one study this is called „between-method‟ triangulation. A quantitative method, for instance a survey, can be used to substantiate qualitative findings of, let say, observations (Daymon & Holloway, 2011).

Some researchers argue that that the mixed methods approach should not be used by undergraduate students due to its complexity (Daymon & Holloway, 2011); however we argue that there are valid motives for conducting our research this way. For instance, one reason for using the in-group questionnaires was to avoid the effect of heard behavior (Banerjee, 1992), which means that the answers of the participants are being affected by other group members. Further, in a group setting, there is a risk that one or a few

individuals will become spokespersons for the whole group which might leave out opinions from other participants, creating biases. According to Daymon and Holloway (2011) focus group data is always produced by the group as a whole and one shall be aware of that the unique composition of the group affects the answers.

We applied triangulation, where the results of the in-group questionnaires, which employ a quantitative method approach, were cross-checked with the quantitative data from the focus group discussions. Thus, the in-group questionnaires allowed us to obtain answers from each individual participant and in that way we could structure the answers in a more organized way and distinguish tendencies within those. At the same time, the qualitative data derived from the focus groups was needed in order to collect information that could not be obtained from the in-group questionnaires. This could for instance be gestures,

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mimics, or spontaneous opinions or reactions. Therefore, though we used triangulation which is a form within the mixed methods approach, the in-group questionnaires can here be seen as a complement in order to obtain a fair view of the data. Thus, the main findings and analysis are focused on the results derived from the qualitative research. In addition, the mixed-methods approach used within this thesis might be considered as a „light‟ version and we are aware of the fact that the method is more complex than explained in this

section and in the way applied in our study.

2.3 Interpretivist Approach

There are different approaches to research and the way researchers decide to study a certain subject. In this paper we have taken on the methodological view of interpretivism to justify the choice of a qualitative/mixed methods approach. Within interpretivism, focus does not lie on measurement but rather on meaning (Daymon & Holloway, 2011). Here, the researcher strives to understand a specific situation within a certain context, why results can seldom be generalized to a larger population. This is also why interpretivism is suitable in qualitative studies such as in this thesis. Researchers using the interpretivist approach argue that there is no single truth and they see the world as constantly changing. Therefore, results are never static and can have different meanings depending on context and viewer.

Further, the interpretivist view has a subjective approach to research and the scholar sees him/herself as influencing the outcomes of the study (Daymon & Holloway, 2011). In this study we found the interpretivist approach to research the most suitable as the main method used was qualitative. Moreover, the aim was to investigate the meaning of a

specific issue and not to measure it by purely quantitative tools. We wished to understand the context of the viewers and identify what attitudes they had towards the commercials and we were open to the possibility of many different results as the outcome of our study. However, even though interpretivism is characterized for being subjective, the intent was to stay as objective as possible in selecting methods and theories as well as when analyzing the data.

2.4 Data Collection

This section will explain two types of methods for data collection; primary and secondary data collection. For this study, both secondary and primary data collection were used. According to Crowther and Lancaster (2008); “secondary data is data which has been collected previously by someone else, and consequently has been collected for a different purpose” (p. 90). For this research, we used articles, books and the internet to find

secondary data. Much of the literature searched was within consumer behavior and focused in areas of marketing, psychology, food, television as well as purchasing behavior. It is through this data that the theoretical framework had been developed.

Crowther and Lancaster (2008) state that primary data can be closely related to methods and techniques of information collection. In this paper, the primary data collection methods that were used appeared in the form of focus groups as well as in-group questionnaires. These are further discussed in the sections below.

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2.5 Focus Groups

Focus groups are a qualitative form of collecting data and can consist of approximately 5-9 participants (Edmunds, 1999). Furthermore, Edmunds (1999) states that in-depth

understanding of the target's perspectives or opinions can be achieved through the use of focus groups. The moderators would guide the conversation of the focus group however participants are able to talk freely within the topic at hand. Focus groups are “helpful in answering questions of how and, in particular, why people behave the way they do” (Folch-Lyon & Trost, 1981, p .443). According to Daymon and Holloway (2011), interpretivist researchers generally use small samples of data; however, the results provide data of high quality.

Advantages of using focus groups include the fact that they are easily coordinated,

conducted and analyzed within a relatively short time period (Edmunds, 1999). In addition, the technique of collecting qualitative data through focus groups is also good as it gives the researcher the possibility to focus on concentrated amounts of data on precisely the topic of interest (Morgan, 1997).

Groups of people are much more convenient to collect data from and at less cost than to interview individuals separately. In addition, when conducting focus groups, the researchers have direct interaction with respondents and are able to get fast clarification of the

responses and to ask follow-up questions. This type of open response dialogue gives way to collecting large and rich amounts of data in the participants' own words (Stewart,

Shamdasani & Rook, 2007). This in turn would help the researcher with obtaining deeper levels of meaning, make important connections and identify subtle nuances in expression and meaning (Stewart, Shamdasani & Rook, 2007). With this, the researchers are able to observe any nonverbal responses that may carry supplement information to the verbal responses participants have. Therefore, data analysis can be immediately started during and after group sessions and preliminary findings can be presented quickly.

There are limitations to using focus groups which must be considered. The first

disadvantage would have to be that the moderators play a significant role and their opinion can influence the respondents, leading to biased answers. To reduce such a bias in this study, we were careful in not expressing own opinions and minimized interventions as much as possible. In order to make sure that this also happened and to keep focus on the purpose of the focus group, a script was formed that the we could stick to during the sessions.

Another limitation of using focus groups is the fact that participants may act and answer differently due to different factors such as; insecurity or even shyness. In order to decrease this bias, we assured participants that there were no right or wrong answers (Edmunds, 1999). Participants could thus speak freely and express their opinions without being judged.

When using the discussion type empirical data collection, it is possible that decisions within the group will follow an occurrence called herd behavior. Herd behavior is a concept that explains how individuals in a group can act together without planned direction like the behavior that animals portray (Banerjee, 1992). In order to reduce the possibility for participants in focus groups to change their minds through following the crowd, we introduced in-group questionnaires that the participants would answer individually. This would reduce this bias, giving the researchers the original thoughts of participants. In

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addition, such in-group questionnaires will aid the researchers in explaining why

participants responded in a certain way during discussions (Edmunds, 1999). However, as the TV commercials were shown before the in-group questionnaires were carried out, we cannot guarantee that the respondents might have been influenced by each other in possible discussions and spontaneous comments taking place during the ongoing commercials.

Another issue of focus groups when it comes to showing the participants TV commercials is that these situations are very much constructed and artificial in the way that they will never exactly resemble a situation where the participant sits at home, comfortably watching television. In that situation the viewer is probably more relaxed and is not paying as much attention to the commercial itself as she/he would when participating in a focus group. Therefore, attitudes towards the commercial within the focus groups might differ from how the consumer would see it in a real world situation. This is an issue that has to be taken into account when analyzing the results of the focus groups.

Finally, the researchers can never be certain that all participants are telling the truth, however the benefits of using focus groups were more significant than the disadvantages and therefore we decided to use focus groups as a qualitative measure when collecting data for this study.

2.5.1 Pilot Study

Before conducting the final focus group discussions, a pilot study was run. This study took place in February 2011 with a group of 6 mixed gender participants; 3 male and 3 female. This study was conducted by one moderator and participants were peers at Jönköping University. The participants were not informed about the topic of the study beforehand which made the pilot study more plausible.

The reasoning for the pilot study was to first test out the internal structure of the focus groups regarding when the in-group questionnaires should be introduced, when to show the commercials and such. Further, the pilot study enabled us to approximate the length of each session and finally also to test out the in-group questionnaires as well as the group discussion questions. This would aid us in indentifying any problematic areas. Within the pilot study we were also able to identify whether or not gender could be an issue when recognizing our findings and analysis of the data.

2.5.2 Sample of the Focus Groups

The subjects studied in the focus groups were students between the ages of 18-25 currently studying at Jönköping University. The arguments for why this segment was selected can be found in section 2.7.1.

The focus groups were designed in the way that one consisted of only females and one of males solely. The reason for this was that possible gender differences could then be discovered. The other two focus groups entailed mixed females and males, where the intention was to find out the respondents‟ opinions regardless of gender. Among the 24 participants within the conducted focus groups, the gender proportion was almost half. There were 13 females and 11 males. One must take note however that there is not an equal amount of participants within each focus group. The reason behind this is that there

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was no certainty that students would show up or keep their word in coming to help out with this study. Many stated that they would come but did not and others did not want to participate for other reasons. Therefore, the number of participants in each group was not controllable in this study due to lack of interest, lack of time as well as lack of resources.

In the below chart, the composition of the focus groups is presented as well as the structure of the procedure.

Figure 2-1 Structure of Focus Groups Focus Group 1 –

Females Focus Group 2 – Males Focus Group 3 – Mixed Gender Focus Group 4 – Mixed Gender

9 persons 6 persons 5 persons 4 persons

1) Commercial 1) Commercial 1) Commercial 1) Commercial 2) Questionnaire 2) Questionnaire 2) Questionnaire 2) Questionnaire 3) Discussion 3) Discussion 3) Discussion 3) Discussion

2.5.3 Designing the Focus Groups & Interview Questions

The focus group sessions took place between March and April of 2011 and were conducted by one or two moderators. The focus group participants were chosen both randomly as well as among peers at Jönköping University. The only parameters taken into account when collecting the focus group members were gender and age as well as them being students enrolled at the university. To mitigate the issue of the situation being constructed and to encourage participants to voice their opinions during the sessions, it was ensured that the focus groups were held in a relaxed environment for all participants, within single group rooms on the university premises. The participants were able to sit at ease and were also served refreshments and snacks, which contributed to a calm and comfortable atmosphere. After initial instructions from the moderators were given, the participants were exposed to the four commercials in a row. After that, they were asked to fill out an individual in-group questionnaire, followed by a group discussion led by the moderators. The in-group questionnaires took participants approximately 20-30 minutes to answer in silence. The length of discussions was not set, however the four groups did discuss for approximately an hour each. Here, the participants were asked to describe their reactions to the TV commercials and what factors they believed to be important when making a purchase decision. As discussed before, the idea with the in-group questionnaires was to obtain answers from the respondents with as little group influence as possible. This would also help the respondent to gather his/her thoughts about the commercials and prepare for the group discussion.

According to Cooper and Schindler (2011), interviews can be unstructured, semi-structured and structured. Structured interviews are those which follow a certain question order while the questions are still open-ended. Although this structure is not the most common within qualitative research the advantage of this is that the data becomes more comparable and “…answer variability is assumed to be real” (Cooper & Schindler, 2011, p. 169). Further, unstructured and semi-structured interviews put high demands on the interviewer‟s level of skillfulness and experience for the interview to become fruitful. In structured interviews, on the other hand, the interviewer‟s neutrality is being kept (Cooper & Schindler, 2011).

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For the above reasons, and being aware of our limitations as students, we used the structured interview composition within the focus groups. At the same time, with all questions asked being open-ended, we could still keep the depth within the answers and extract an abundant amount of data from the participants. This means that we were able to add additional questions to the discussion if necessary and participants could answer freely.

2.5.4 In-group Questionnaire

Daymon and Holloway (2011) argue that focus groups can both be used as a method alone or in combination with other methods. Thus, in order to reduce the possibility for

participants in focus groups to change their minds through herd behavior, we introduced in-group questionnaires which reduced this bias and gave the researchers the „original‟ thoughts of participants. In addition, such in-group questionnaires aided the researchers in explaining why participants responded in a certain way during discussions (Edmunds, 1999).

The first part of the in-group questionnaire included questions such as how old the participants are, where they come from and their interests as well as if they have seen the commercial before and furthermore purchased the products. It is possible that such information can explain the reasons in which participants discussed the issues the way they did.

In addition, the in-group questionnaire included some questions that were open-ended while some were closed. Other questions had limited amount of answers and some had examples that the respondent could choose from. The latter can however be seen as an open-ended question as participants were also given the opportunity to insert other answers in an „other‟ option.

The in-group questionnaire that the participants had to answer individually included a question where they were to give three products attributes that they believed represented each commercial shown during the session. This idea was influenced by how Park and Young (1986) constructed their focus groups when investigating the influence of background music of TV commercials. The mentioning of three attributes forced the participants to recall and to summarize the most important (to him/her) features noticed in the commercial and give a hint on what was considered central to the consumer. The result of the in-group questionnaires were used to aid us in determining the results of the study. We were able to review the results by keeping information from the in-group

questionnaires in mind.

2.6 Data Analysis

In this section we will explain how the raw data of the study was analyzed. The data analysis is divided into three sections, transcriptions, video and audio, and finally language.

2.6.1 Transcriptions

To conduct a qualitative analysis, focus group transcripts were carried out. These

transcripts “will not provide all feedback from respondents” (Edmunds, 1999, p.93). This is because written transcripts do not express body language which is an important part of communication. However, with this said, exact quotations were helpful in identifying participants‟ attitudes towards the products and TV commercials.

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In addition to this, we constructed TV commercial transcripts which provided a

description of the commercials that were used, expressing visually what exactly was shown. The idea of describing the content and message of each commercial was inspired by Park and Young (1986).

The main analysis for this study was to identify the most frequently mentioned comments during the focus group discussions as well as in the in-group questionnaires and to evaluate these. Participants are kept anonymous, however, they are numbered according to which focus group they belonged to, who spoke first etcetera. We argue that it would not be of use to include all quotations from each participant and therefore we have carefully selected comments that represent the answers which were common and significant to the findings. Transcriptions are available upon request.

2.6.2 Video and Audio

To limit the bias in which not all feedback was provided through focus group transcripts, we decided to record all focus groups through video and audio recordings. In this way, we were able to see how the focus group participants moved, talked and acted towards each other as well as reacted to the discussion and questions.

The purpose of using video transcriptions was not to analyze how and why participants use their body language, nor what their movements meant, but rather to examine the attitudes they had towards the TV commercials. Video recordings simplified in keeping track of the conversation to its fullest and to decrease participation of the moderators to a minimum.

2.6.3 Language

In this study, questionnaires and transcriptions were in English. Though all participants were Swedish, we argue that it was necessary to conduct the study in English to reduce any confusion in translations when writing the final paper. However, though English was used within questionnaires and transcriptions, participants were allowed to write and speak in their mother tongue if they were unable to express themselves in English. If and when participants had difficulty understanding the questions in English, we translated the questions into Swedish for their convenience. Therefore, when the questionnaires and transcriptions were collected and summarized, translations between Swedish and English were made and therefore there is the possibility of translation errors. However, we believe that letting participants express themselves in their mother tongue would allow them to feel more comfortable as well as give better exploratory answers. Also, it reduces biases in the way that the amount of misinterpretations of data is being reduced. Further, as we were two persons double-checking the answers, this also reduces the issue of bias problems.

2.7 Sample Selection Discussion

In this section, the selection of the sample will be further explained. The sample chosen for this study are Swedish University Students belonging to the generation Y. In addition, the underlying health claims as well as chosen products and TV commercials are further explained.

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2.7.1 The Generation Y

The segment we are focusing on in this study can be regarded as belonging to the generation Y. This is the generation born between approximately around 1982 and 2001 (McCrindle, 2002) and the group is often referred to mainly by marketers and future analysts (Persson, 2009). Their disposable income is higher than previous generations and they have been introduced to consumption earlier in life (Tomkins, 1999).

The generation Y are exposed to a large number of advertisements in different forms and McCrindle (2002) states that by the age of eighteen, Australian teenagers have been exposed to around 500,000 TV commercials. On average, generation Ys watch television seven hours a day (Bakewell & Mitchell, 2003 in Nielsen Report on Television, 1995). Thus, generation Y consumers tend to have a different consumer behavior pattern than other generations before them (Bakewell & Mitchell 2003).

As generation Ys are exposed to marketing messages to such a high extent, they are not easily convinced and this means that commercials have to stand out from the crowd to affect this generation (McCrindle, 2002). Further, McCrindle (2002) argues that generation Ys search for a bigger meaning in life and they wish to be included and accepted in a community. This generation is highly socially conscious (Cui, Trent, Sullivan, & Matiru, 2003). For generation Ys, shopping is not just a simple issue, it is more of a lifestyle where materialism and technology are seen as important factors affecting their consumer behavior (Bakewell & Mitchell, 2003, Ger & Belk, 1996, McCrindle, 2002).

Also, generation Ys are users of social media and can thus easily search for backside stories about the products and brands they are being exposed to in commercials: “Younger viewers are likely to be especially susceptible to advertising influence” (Manasi, Tirodkar & Anjali Jain, 2003, p.441). Even though they might not be that easy to trick with marketing messages, we believe that they, as other consumers, to a high extent are affected by them. Although they do not mention generation Y, Trolle and Thorsen‟s (2001) description of young adult consumers can be regarded as such. They present a population division in six phases of life that can be found in the table below;

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Table 2.1 Division of the population into phases of life

1.Dependents Small Children living at home 2.Independents Older Children living at home

3.Liberated 1: 20-30 years old Left home, experimenting, interested in exotic food, eat out often, a lot of fast food, drinking together means more than eating together.

4.Parents: 30-55 years old Responsible for a family, father is in charge of cooking, time is a scarce commodity, in everyday life only a small amount of time (15/20 minutes) is spent on food, at the weekend more time is spent on cooking.

5.Liberated 2: 55 - ? years old Large differences in this group, half have only secondary school education. For most, working life and leisure time are separated, woman is a housewife. Eat large meals ritually, rarely eat out privately, Younger group: treat themselves, make great demands.

6.Old Age: 70 - ? years old This group is growing rapidly. The group is also characterized by big differences. Many take care of themselves and have considerable needs. Other are dependent.

Group 3 - Liberated 1: 20-30 year olds in this population division is described as: “there are problems with time and money and finds cooking healthy food difficult” (p.63). This group is further characterized by the following: “Left home, experimenting, interested in exotic food, eat out often, a lot of fast food, drinking together means more than eating together” (Trolle & Thorsen, 2001, p.65).

However, one shall bear in mind that generation Y is a consumer segment mostly enhanced by marketers and is thus a phenomenon difficult to proof scientifically. Naturally, there are diversities within this generation and as humans are different, all generation Y‟s are not characterized the way described in this section.

The reason why students were selected because they are a fairly homogenous group of young people that have recently left home, have similar economic resources and are neither teenagers nor adults. Also, as limited research has been carried out on this segment we found it interesting and relevant for this study. Moreover, students can be seen as early adopters (Jones, 2002). Also, the reason for choosing Swedish university students solely was because we wished to avoid language biases, as almost all of the commercials shown in the study were in Swedish. The reason for selecting the generation Y was mainly because most students at universities belong to that generation. In addition, this segment of young adults have a high frequency of watching TV and other media and as they have been brought up with an extensive amount of marketing messages they are critical about what they see. Finally, as we both belong to this segment, it resulted natural to investigate a group that we are a part of and can relate to.

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2.7.2 Types of Health Claims

Below, we will explain the frames of the concept of health discussed within this thesis, as well as some issues concerning health claims.

There are two types of health claims, Type A and Type B. Type A “health claims in relation to diet, that is, claims which describe the link between a food product or a component in a food product and the entire diet, and the prevention or reduced risk of disease” (Trolle & Thorsen, 2001, p.53). Type B is broad in the fact that “producers may claim for all beneficial health-related effects, or for reduced risk of disease, if the claim is well documented” (Trolle & Thorsen, 2001, p.54).

Williams (2005) studied consumer attitudes, reactions and purchase behavior changes towards health claims. He concluded that though “more research is needed to fully understand the impact of health claims on choice as well as health, health claims can

support improved nutrition awareness and better food choices” (pp. 22-23). Roe, Levy, and Derby (1999) state however, that when health and nutrient claims were presented on products, consumers considered them more than if they were not presented. This is further supported by a study conducted by Kozup, Creyer and Burton (2003) in which their

findings suggested that consumers are “sensitive to and willing to use any available nutrition information when forming product evaluations” (p. 31).

However, there have been discussions around health claim regulation in accordance to the appearance of health claims on food labels. Ippolito and Mathios (1991) suggest that health claims have connections to not only dietary fiber but also other sicknesses, including the more severe such as cancer. In addition, Ippolito and Mathios‟ (1991) research led to how health claims helped increase consumer awareness of diet-disease linkages.

2.7.3 Chosen Products and TV Commercials

In this research, we have chosen four products: milk, butter, cereal and bread. All these can be considered Type A health claim products as they claim to contain components which can be seen as healthy. At the same time, the chosen products have no complete and well documented evidences of being Type B (Trolle & Thorsen, 2001). We therefore consider all products shown within the TV commercials of this study clearly belonging to Type A health claims. Further, the four TV commercials were chosen specifically due to the fact that they are recent on Swedish Television at the moment. In addition to this, they are neither positioned in any specific pod nor shown in consideration to any program before or after the commercials. Furthermore, target group/s of the products was not considered here.

The reasons for why we consider the TV commercials as belonging to a Type A health claim can be seen in the below chart.

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Figure 2-2 Type A Health Claims in Chosen TV Commercials

Commercial Type A Claims in Chosen TV Commercials

Alpro Soya milk A soya milk that signalizes that a healthy, balanced lifestyle can be associated with the product. A famous athlete looking fit, healthy and happy. Scenery with light colors and later a forest where the athlete is running. Text such as 100% vegetable protein, natural lactose free and nourishment from nature.

Bregott Butter A butter with less fat than previous products of the same category and brand. Slogan: “A much lighter Bregott”

The commercial shows a lot of nature in the scenery. Main

„spokesperson‟ is a calf running around in the field. Communicates nature, green landscapes, a free, healthy and happy animal. The cow represents the butter itself.

Cheerios Cereal A cereal that claims to be made out of whole grain oats. The producer guarantees that the product contains whole grains with a sign saying “Nestlé‟s whole grain Guarantee”. The commercial is cartoonish, with the slogan “Give those O‟s a Go” and is probably directed at younger consumers. Communicates fun, happiness, wellbeing after eating the product and that the whole family likes it. Pågen Bread A light bread that is claimed to be as healthy as a dark bread.

Therefore also children should prefer the product. Communicates freshness, healthiness, variety, novelty. No expressed health claims in text. Rather it is underlying as viewers should associate a dark bread with a healthy product.

2.8 Trustworthiness

We will in this part present the relevant issues of how to ensure quality of research as well as a why we believe this thesis lives up the requirements.

It is of high importance to every researcher to ensure the quality of research and there are different views on how this shall be done. Lincoln and Guba (1985) suggest the alternative approach, where trustworthiness is being stressed. This approach is characteristic to interpretivist research and has become the most used within qualitative research today (Daymon & Holloway, 2011). There are four arguments attached to trustworthiness presented by Lincoln and Guba (1985); credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability. As the method used for this thesis is mainly based on qualitative research, these concepts were guiding us through the research process in order to reach

trustworthiness.

2.8.1 Credibility

Credibility entails confirmation and support and highlights the issue whether theories used for the study are of high quality and relevant to it (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Also, it is about whether the conclusions drawn from the obtained data can be regarded as credible.

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During the process of this thesis, the intent was to use theories and concepts that were regarded as trustworthy and relevant as well as of good quality. This issue increases the overall trustworthiness of the study.

2.8.2 Transferability

Lincoln and Guba (1985) question the issue of generalizability often associated with quantitative studies and they are critical towards the way in which population is seen here. Qualitative studies are most often conducted with a small sample of data and therefore the outcomes are not generalizable. Instead, Lincoln and Guba (1985) suggest transferability as an alternative, where researchers should present the type and amount of information about how the qualitative study was carried out, in order for the reader to judge whether the data can be transferable or not.

To facilitate the issue of transferability of this study, we have described the process of how the qualitative data was gathered as well as enclosed the in-group questionnaire questions (although these can be seen as a qualitative method) as an appendix to this paper. This is a matter that can be regarded as increasing trustworthiness.

2.8.3 Dependability

Dependability is closely linked to credibility According to Lincoln and Guba (1985),

dependability “seeks means for taking into account both factors of instability and factors of phenomenal or design induced changes” (p.299). This can be described as how the data collected have changed through time as well as how the researcher‟s decisions have shifted during the process. These factors have an influence in the outcome of the study and might lead to inconsistency. However, being aware of this matter, researchers can mitigate dependability factors through discussions and reflections.

We argue that the issue of dependability has been taken into account during the study process and the fact that the research was conducted during a few months can decrease the negative influence of dependability. Further, many decisions have been made through the process, however none has profoundly changed the initial scope of this paper. This can be argued to further increase trustworthiness.

2.8.4 Conformability

Conformability suggests that findings and analysis should be connected to the data in a way that the reader can understand the study. Conformability also includes reducing biases of the researcher through for instance triangulation. The conformability criteria further highlights the importance of researchers to reflect about shortcomings and weaknesses of the study (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). In this paper we aimed to enhance trustworthiness further by including a discussion about the study‟s weaknesses and issues that could have been done differently. This can be seen in the conclusions part.

2.9 Strategies to Guarantee Research Quality

There are several techniques to obtain trustworthiness of research in a more practical sense. Lincoln and Guba (1985) suggest member checking, where the researcher‟s interpretation of data is being verified by the individuals that have been studied. The aim is to reduce

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misinterpretations and to come as close as possible to the very core of the respondents‟ own opinions.

In our study, member checking was not carried out. However, all focus groups were video recorded and in this way the outcomes could be verified afterwards. This also means that all data reflects the exact words of the participants. We are aware that our individual interpretations will affect the final analysis of data; on the other hand we argue that video recording reduces biases and misinterpretations and increases trustworthiness of our paper.

2.9.1 Triangulation

Triangulation is another way of ensuring trustworthiness of research. As described earlier, in this study we used in-group questionnaires to confirm and enhance the data of focus groups, which can thus be seen as a „between-methods‟ approach of triangulation (Denzin, 2009). Thus, the use of this method can further increase trustworthiness of our research, as two different kinds of data collection methods were used, leading to the same results. In addition, the fact that we were two researchers that conducted this study, analyzed the results and came up to the same conclusions, also increases trustworthiness.

2.9.2 Reflexivity

Reflexivity is also a method of increasing quality and reliability of research where the researcher takes on a critical view on his/her own role both as a researcher and as an individual (Daymon & Holloway, 2011). It is about reflecting on your own influence on the process as a whole and how your perspective might filter the outcome.

We believe that, although the aim was to stay objective, our own personal experiences and values, social and cultural backgrounds probably affected the interpretation of data and the fact that we, as well as the focus group participants, are students at the same university had an impact on the results in some way. However, we argue that being aware of this fact helped us to stay objective which increases the trustworthiness of our study.

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3 Theoretical Framework

In this section of the thesis we will present theories which will aid in analyzing the empirical findings, answering the presented research questions and the purpose. The theories presented concern different factors that influence consumers in relation to commercials.

3.1 Model of the Emotional Process

The consumer‟s mind is complex and naturally very diverse due to a number of factors, such as; cultural and social background, personal preferences and mindset. Holbrook and O‟Shaughnessy (1984) suggest the Model of the Emotional Process where the

psychological-cognitive perspective on marketing is stressed. This model can be seen below:

Personal Values

Message, Object Cognitive Evaluations Physiological Feelings Or Event Beliefs Changes

Desires Expressive Behavior

Figure 3-1 Model of the Emotional Process (Holbrook & O’Shaughnessy, 1984).

The model starts off with the message (being an object or an event) that reaches the consumer and is affected by his or her personal values and cognitive beliefs. This leads up to an evaluation caused by feelings and gives rise to psychological changes that also cause feelings, ultimately leading to desires and after that different kinds of expressive behaviors. The final outcome might be; for instance liking/disliking the message, or in other words the commercial. This model can be seen as the very basic structure behind the process of viewing of TV commercials.

3.2 Marketing & Emotions

Several scholars highlight the relationship between marketing and emotions. Holbrook and O‟Shaughnessy (1984) stress the importance of taking emotions into account when studying advertising and present the Model of Emotional Process, discussed above.

Bagozzi, Gopinath, and Nyer (1999) also emphasize this issue and describe emotions as a ”… mental state of readiness that arises from cognitive appraisals of events or thoughts…” (p. 184). Further, Bagozzi et al. (1999) argue that emotions are always followed by different kinds of psychological responses, such as higher pulse and different facial expressions. Moreover, they state that consumers sense and express emotions in a conscious, deliberate

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and purposive way, but also unconsciously, automatic and unreflective. Bagozzi et al. (1999) divide advertisements into two main groups:

Thinking ads, where focus is put on utilitarian consequences of the use of a product or a service, or factual information.

Feeling ads, where the intention is to enhance the emotion consumers will feel through using the product or service presented in the advertisement.

3.3 The Unconscious Influence on Consumers

Bargh (2002) presents a critical view on consumer behavior research, arguing that there is a notion among researchers that consumers are perfectly conscious about their buying behavior. Bargh (2002) claims that the focus is too heavily directed at notion and instead highlights the unconscious side of consumer behavior. Further, Bargh (2002) suggests two ways in which consumers are being unconsciously affected by marketing messages;

subliminally, where the consumer is not aware of the effect on his/her mind, and supraliminally, where the consumer is aware of the influence but not to what extent. We know that TV commercials do work: “The economic impact of TV advertising is substantial and documented” (Krugman, 1965, p. 351). However, it is difficult to evaluate exactly to what extent TV commercials influence consumers and how that process looks like; “We are faced then with the odd situation of knowing that advertising works but being unable to say how much and why” (Krugman, 1965, p 351). Park and Young (1986) argue that the extent to which the viewer will be influenced by a commercial depends on the level of personal relevance of the content. This means that if the viewer finds the commercial relevant, he or she will dedicate more attention to the message and thus the level of influence will increase.

3.4 The Commercial and the Memory

Bagozzi et al. (1999) state that memory is important when discussing emotions and advertisement and that the mood state of the consumer affects the memory. For instance, a positive mood state will increase a person‟s ability to recall information. Du Plessis (2005) focuses on the function of the brain and its storage functions of what a person sees and experiences. Du Plessis (2005) also stresses the importance of memory in relation to commercials and claims that an advertisement needs to influence the memory in order for it to have an impact on the viewer at all.

Moreover, Du Plessis (2005) argues that the length of the commercial is crucial: the longer the exposition of the commercial to the viewer, the higher is the probability of the consumer remembering the commercial. Further, whether a commercial will stay in a person‟s mind or not, depends on its length, intensity and frequency over time. At the same time, the commercial should not be too long, as the viewer can lose interest (DuPlessis, 2005). Krugman (1965) states that it takes four to ten seconds of a commercial for the viewer to decide whether to continue watching or not. Therefore, the beginning of the commercial needs to send out a positive message. On the other hand, Gorn and Goldberg (1980) stress the issue of viewers becoming annoyed and loosing attention when TV commercials are repeated frequently. Even though many TV commercials can be regarded as simple and silly, this is an issue that should not be dismissed as unimportant, as the

Attitudes Towards Television Commercials with an Underlying Health Claim