Public Display of Affection Marketing

Research Project

By: Nick Aufmuth, AJ Olivieri, and Sarek Hoerth

Public Display of Affection at Badger High School

To: Badger High School Administration

From: Nick Aufmuth, AJ Olivieri, and Sarek Hoerth

Date: 5/20/17

High school is a place of young, teen romance. Many teens tend to show their affection

towards their significant other in public places. Badger High School has been a place where

teenagers can spend time with their special someone in a public setting. This is why our market

research team of Nick Aufmuth, AJ Olivieri, and Sarek Hoerth is conducting a school wide

research project to determine if PDA at Badger High School is a problem, and if people should

be disciplined for engaging in PDA. To figure this question out, we decided to make a survey. It

was a quick and easy 10 question survey that was then distributed to the school to fill out.

During this time, we got 114 people to respond, giving us their feedback on PDA at Badger.

Also, we conducted a focus group to determine more in depth responses regarding the topic.

Finally, we gathered information on PDA at schools using secondary research conducted online.

While working on this project, we encountered many different problems that we had to

overcome. Our first one was with our survey. When we tried to send it out to the school, we

had realized that students could no longer send mass emails. This meant that we could not

send out our survey on Tuesday. Our survey was then sent out by Mr. Huff on Thursday. This

meant that we got our answers two days later than we would have liked to. Our other problem

was trying to conduct our focus group. During 7th hour, we could find very few people to join in

our focus group for this. Luckily, we were able to get a solid group of people.
 Overall, there was a lot that was learned during this project. One of these things was

that is very important to stay organized. There were three separate pieces to this project

working simultaneously, and in order to have a good project, it was essential to know where

everything is at all times. Another thing that we learned was that school surveys can actually be

extremely helpful. There aren’t as many flawed responses as you would expect. Finally, we

learned the entire process of asking a question, gathering primary data on it, and then making a

solution with the data that you collected.

Survey and Results

For this project, we made a 10 question survey that was sent to the school via mass email.
Overall, we had 114 anonymous people who filled out our survey regarding PDA. Our
questionnaire looked like this:

Hello, we are students in Marketing 2 class working on our marketing research project.
Nick Aufmuth, AJ Olivieri, and Sarek Hoerth would like to find out more information
regarding the Public Display of Affection (PDA) at our school. We would like to get
honest responses to improve the atmosphere at Badger. Thanks!

For the following questions, circle the answer that best fits.

1. What grade are you in?

Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior

2. What is your gender?

Male Female

3. Are you currently in a romantic relationship?

Yes No

4. How often do you see PDA in the hallways?

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always

5. How often do you see PDA at dances?

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always

6. What do you classify as PDA?

a. Holding hands Yes No
b. Hugging Yes No
c. Kissing/Making Out Yes No
d. Hands in inappropriate places Yes No
e. Grinding Yes No

7. Do you think that PDA should be allowed during school?

Yes No Not Sure

8. Do you think that PDA should be allowed at school dances?

Yes No Not Sure
9. Do you think that students should be disciplined for engaging in PDA?
Yes No Not Sure

10. Do you have any additional comments about PDA? (Type it in the space below)
The following are the results from all 114 respondents

This question was a good way to find our main demographics in who was answering our
questions.

This question was also very important for finding our demographics.
The answers to this question show there is a lot of PDA in the hallways of our school

The answers to this question show that there is also a lot of PDA at school dances.
This question helped us determine exactly what students meant while talking about
PDA, since there are so many different ways to describe it.

The answers to this question show that the school is fairly split as to whether or not
PDA should be allowed during school dances.
According to the results, PDA is acceptable at school dances. The majority of the
people that took the survey either said yes or not sure.

This answer shows that although it may be an issue at our school, we shouldn’t be
punishing kids for showing their affection.
Focus Group
For our focus group, the overall goal was to try and figure out what some people think

about PDA at our school. This was able to give us findings that were crucial to the

recommendations that we decided to make. Due to the lack of 7th hour study hall students, we

could only get juniors to participate in this survey. However, we were able to get a good mix of

boys and girls, as well as people that are in a romantic relationship compared to people that

aren’t in a romantic relationship. We wanted a good mix for all of these so that we could truly

reach all demographics at our school.

First, we asked for the people in our group to define PDA. The general consensus of the

group was that it was showing private affection in a public setting. When it came to specific

things, they said that kissing, inappropriate touching, grinding, and excessively long hugs were

all considered forms of PDA.

Next, we asked how often they see PDA in school. The group said that they see it all the

time. We asked if they thought it was an issue, or if it bothered them. The group said that it

seems inappropriate to be doing in a school setting, and that it was very unnecessary to do it at

school rather than waiting until they are at a private setting. According to the group, there are

many couples that sit in certain locations when they are engaging in PDA, and it is viewed as

uncomfortable and disturbing. When we asked about where they saw it at school dances, they

said it was everywhere. Specifically, it is normally in the middle of the dance floor. We then

proceeded to ask if this was an issue, and everyone said that it didn’t bother them. They had

that mindset of that everybody does it, and it shouldn’t be seen as that big of a deal.

Finally, we asked if they thought that people should be punished for engaging in PDA.

Initially, we got three different opinions. One person said that we should discipline them.

Another person said that we shouldn’t discipline them. The third person that they should be

punished if the PDA has been excessive and over a long period of time. As they started
discussing the issue more and more, it became clear that the best option was to only give

warnings to people if it is excessive and if it has been going on for a long time.
Finding Two Alternative Sources
http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-pda-public-displays-of-affection-be-banned-in-sch
ools

This piece of secondary data is taken from a website called Debate.com This information
is all just a part of a big survey that was taken, and also asked students why they
thought the way that they did about PDA in a school environment. The results of the
survey show that ¾ of students believe that PDA should not be banned entirely in a
school environment. The students who said yes mainly said in their debate that PDA was
just kind of gross and most people don’t want to see that. The students that said no
believed that PDA in a school environment was not hurting anybody, and that others
should just look the other way.

http://samfordcrimson.com/survey-shows-samford-students-shun-snuggling/

Samford University did a study and asked students how they felt about PDA on campus.
56% of students said that PDA on campus was an issue that was bothering them. Many
of the students believed that simple holding hands, brief kissing, or tender hugging was
an acceptable kind of behavior. The behaviors that students found to not be acceptable
were: snuggling, canoodling, and making out.

Recommendations

We recommend that excessive PDA should not be tolerated at our school, but nothing more
than a warning should be given to these people, or being told to move elsewhere. On an online
survey that was conducted about PDA in schools, 74% of the respondents said that students
should not be punished as long as it’s not excessive. In addition to that, in our survey, 51% of
people said that school should NOT discipline their students, whereas only 28% of people said
yes.

Another recommendation is to allow PDA at school dances. As of right now, our Badger High
School Student Handbook states that no public display of affection is allowed at these dances.
However, our focus group said that PDA should be acceptable at school dances to a certain
extent (no inappropriate touching). Also, in the survey we conducted, 60.5% of people said that
PDA should be allowed at school dances, and only 15.9% of people said that it shouldn’t be
allowed at dances.