During the week of September 16-20, 1990, commercials promoting drugs and alcohol outnumbered the networks' news stories, documentaries, and public service announcements (PSAs) about illegal drugs by a ratio of almost 39 to 1. Considering the commercials alone, promotion of drugs and alcohol outnumbered the antidrug promotions by a ratio of almost…

Explores communication strategies and styles used in television advertising by female U.S. Senate candidates for the 1986 elections. Finds that they focused on issues and stayed away from negative advertising in their ads, tending to highlight their competency as political officials and their past accomplishments. (SR)

Based on the associational nature of memory, the distinction between episodic and semantic memory, and the notion of memory strength, a model was developed of the role of emotion in the memory of television commercials. The model generated the following hypotheses: (1) emotional commercials will more likely be recalled than nonemotional…

The concept of the agenda setting function of the mass media holds that apart from any influence they may have on voter attitudes or behavior, the mass media apparently influence voters' perceptions of the importance of the issues. The agenda setting function of the mass media is analyzed for significance in this investigation. A panel study of…

Suggests that local television news directors may be considering new reporting strategies during political campaigns, and that the impetus appears to be a concern that citizens are getting more of their political information from advertisements, along with a recognition that new technologies might be used in new and innovative ways during election…

Finds clear patterns of differences in nature and number of commercials during children's programs on three different types of television channels: broadcast networks, independent stations, and cable networks. Examines themes/appeals employed in commercials, disclosures/disclaimers used, and other content attributes. (SR)

To investigate the factors behind the overall lack of success of televised public service announcements (PSAs), five Marine recruitment PSAs were studied using 138 college undergraduate students (75% male and 90% freshmen and sophomores). Results indicated the following: in general, the PSA messages were perceived as alienating by the students;…

Explores the differences in techniques, strategies, narratives, and symbols used in 1,213 television issue ads and image ads from 13 U.S. presidential campaigns. Concludes that although the majority of both types of ads were positive, negative appeals dominated a higher percentage of issue ads as compared with image ads. (SG)

A study investigated the effects of local (momentary) and global (whole program) involvement in program context and the effects of message complexity on the retention of television commercials. Sixteen commercials, categorized as simple video/simple audio through complex video/complex audio were edited into two globally high- and two globally…

Demonstrates a causal relationship between television portrayals of the ideal body and the distortion of self-perceived body size in a young female audience. (SR)

This set of papers represents the written record of the 1973 national conference for advertising educators held at Arizona State University in March. The conference focus was on current developments in the practice and teaching of advertising. The purpose of the conference was to bring insights about current advertising developments to the…

Offers summaries of studies that investigated many topics, including the following: (1) images of the United States in Jordanian media; (2) television terms, such as "radiovision," that did not last; (3) how newspapers in Alaska cope with staff turnover; (4) newspaper design preferences among students; and (5) the problem of libel for…

A study used 18 television commericals, selected as representative of a variety of executional styles and products, and generated scores for each of them on 18 dimensions of structural variation. In addition, a multivariate analysis was used to examine the relations both among the dimensions and between these dimensions and some common measures of…

This study investigated whether candidate images could be designated as primarily either stimulus- or perceiver-determined and if a multiple regression model could be constructed to predict candidate image ratings from pre-stimulus perceptions of the candidate's party and post-stimulus ratings of the advertisement. One hundred twenty subjects were…