Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and

Management Sciences

Effect of Socially Sensitive Products on the social

values: A review paper

SUBMITTED TO: Dr. Anjum Parvez

SUBMITTED BY: Fozia Ali Zahidi and Muhammad Ali

 Abstract
The purpose of this article was to review research literature on topic “advertisement of socially
sensitive products and their effect on moral values in a society”. Twenty eight articles were
studied, analyzed and critiqued. It was observed that these research studies are very informative
and most of them extensively explore the perspectives of both the marketer or advertiser and that
of the consumer. However, a few areas still need to be highlighted which are suggested in the
conclusion. Implications of the findings of the reviewed researches are also discussed for the
society at large.
 1. Introduction
The scene in an ad presently being run on national media opens with a fat person comes

out of Raksha, near a small shop, in which an old man is sitting, reading a newspaper. He asks

for ‘Josh Condoms’ small pack, he has a very meaningful smile on his face. Another person, thin

in appearance, approaches the same shop and asks for same product but the Big Pack of it. He

has a sense of victory or achievement on his face and at the same time he is appreciated with

clapping by all the people present around him.

This ad is more sensitive than any other advertisement of condoms, used in Pakistan national
media. The reasons are;

 It is not clearly mentioned that they are married or not and why they want it.

 The use of condoms is still considered prohibited in Islam.

 The consumption of more condoms was appreciated in this advertisement.

 It is providing the sense of acceptability of this product in society.

 The tagline of this advertisement was a bit socially inappropriate.

The business environment has become so dynamic and volatile that the high level of competition

has left few loopholes for business to produce and promote such products which are still

considered wrong or illegal according to religious beliefs followed in Pakistan generally.

Especially when children are exposed to these products, they feel anxiety to just see or hold that

thing, this sense of curiosity can ultimately lead them to use it. As they are innocent and

immature for certain kinds of information, they engage themselves in such sexual activities

which are not just harmful for their health but also affect their character. Our social institutions

like family and school, colleges are not contributing in the character building of youth, so it

becomes more dangerous to openly accept and promote the usage of these products.
In Pakistan, religion is still deeply embedded in our daily life and behaviors; the usage of

condoms is conditionally allowed only in few sects, generally it is not allowed to use. The

government promoted the concept of family planning, by designing a full campaign of

advertisements to launch different medicines and condoms to control the growth rate of

population but the advertisement of other producers of condoms do not highlight the aspect of

birth control. In fact they promote the pleasure associated with the usage of condoms. Those

pleasures are not mentioned clearly but the subliminal message is that it can increase the time

period of physical interaction. Again, artificially induced time period during physical interaction

in not at all any healthy thing but very harmful for health and can cause further health problems

for the consumer.

The above case has been presented in order to explain the context of the topic of the present

review article.

The articles studied and reviewed on the topic have been selected on the basis that they answer

the following questions:

1. They deal with television advertisements.

2. They specifically deal with advertisements and their moral aspect in relation with society

at large.

3. They deal with the qualitative side of experiences of people associated with

advertisement both in the capacity of advertiser and the consumer.

 Literature Review

Advertisement is the basic tool for achieving goals particularly the sales targets in

business today. The word Advertising has the origin from the Latin word ‘Adventure’ which

means to attract or to get attention (Halamata, 2013). By connotative meaning it means

communication with masses. Advertisement is a special type of message which is non-personal

in nature, usually persuasive, paid form with some identified source through various media

(Imtiaz, as cited in Karim & Akber, 2011). To communicate with large audience, companies do

need advertisement so that they can introduce, differentiate and persuade the audience towards

their product or service.

The dimensions of postindustrial revolution such as availability of alternatives, buying

power of consumers, rationality of customers, globalization, negotiation power of suppliers,

quality concerns of customers, brand loyalty and high competition have altogether elevated the

role of advertising to new levels. That is why business units, regardless of size and scope, heavily

rely and invest on advertising.

For effective communication it is very important to develop better understanding of the

audience and when there are so many advertisements to hit the same consumers in the market

then it becomes very difficult to communicate the message efficiently. That is the prime reason

for being creative and thinking out of the box while selecting the way the message is delivered in

advertisement.

There are limitless ways to communicate a message but not every way of communicating

is appropriate for the audience. Education, maturity, economic conditions, moral values, culture

and religion can be some of the possible constraints in using different ways of communication.
Some societies are technologically more sophisticated and advanced to interpret the meaning of

advertisement easily than others; for example some cultures allow and encourage the liberty of

women and therefore, people generally more easily give acceptance to such emancipatory and

liberal ideas conveyed in advertisement while in some other cultures people do not accept such

ideas that easily.

Therefore, it is very difficult to select the content and way the content is to be presented

to the audience, in which one not only has to promote the product but is also held responsible for

the between-the-lines messages that the advertisement conveys through its portrayal of the two

genders, ethnicities, languages, cultures and social norms.

In spite of the development of social networking websites and internet gadgets, television

still is the greatest source of entertainment and information for most people. Therefore, television

advertisement can have a very significant role in shaping people’s ideas not only about the

products they promote, but also in shaping their self-image and of the people in general.

Advertising and its Importance

Advertising is an important activity in many respects. Despite criticism on it (Hayko,

2010), there are many ways advertising is helpful for the consumer, in the fact that it conveys

information to the potential consumer. Mostly people generally believe that advertising cannot

influence them. “People do not typically admit that they are influenced by advertising” (Cohan,

2001). This may not be the situation, advertising holds mostly all the electronic media, over 60

percent of production of newspaper and magazines (Korn, 2006).

Keeping in view the business and economics side as well, advertisements play a very

positive role, by stimulating sales and acting as a catalyst in economic activity (Robbs, as cited in
Hayko, 2010). Some researchers suggest that advertising almost gives a personality to a product.

It is so powerful a means that it can make the product so prominent in the competing market that

people eventually buy it leaving other less advertised products behind (Hussainy, Hakim &

Khan, 2014). Besides, another good side of advertising is that it can act as a tool of propagating

constructive social information (Zain-ul-abideen & Salaria, 2010). For example in India

education for women has been continuously promoted and supported and has helped challenge

and change stereotypes against women (Kariya, Mehge & Bhise, 2013).

Advertising and general public mindset

However, despite the positive usage of advertising and its potential to propagate useful and

constructive social messages, it has generally been criticized (Polay, 1986; Hayko, 2010).For

almost one and a half century, advertisements and their relationship with people’s attitudes,

feelings and personality development has been under study by psychologists and sociologists.

Major points on which advertising has been criticized include using deception to promote

the product, promoting unrealistic fanciful images of people who use a particular product thus

inculcating unreasonably high levels of desires and expectation in people, and in this way

promoting materialistic culture (Jones, 1970). According to Hayko (2010) advertisements,

because we watch them on daily basis, replace almost subliminally, our most original thoughts

and feeling by thoughts and feelings that ‘should’ be pursued. Although some advertisers admit

this fault in advertisement but still, it does not seem possible for them to advertise their product

without manipulating people’s emotions through deception, negatively presenting certain

categories of human beings and promoting deviation from social norms unnecessarily (Jones,

1970).
 According to some researchers (Jones, 1970) advertisers focus is making people desirous

of external stimulation and external objects, thus underestimating and lowering the importance of

the ‘internal states’ which are not necessarily dependent on purchasing such external objects that

the advertisers propagate. Advertisements seem to provide ready-made and easy solutions to the

issues that life poses, thus making people eager for immediate gratification of their problems and

desires.

Gulas and McKeage (2000) investigated the problem of moral and ethical concern in

advertisments and proposed certain important aspects that according to them advertisers should

take care of in deciding the mode and content of advertisement. These aspects include fanciful

presentation of a product, promoting unrealistic heroism, promoting unhealthful and potentially

harmful products, thus attracting people with immature minds and affecting them in a negative

way. These concerns by Gulas and McKeage (2000) are built on the studies and findings of

Dunfee, Smith and Ross (1999) andLatour and Henthorne (1994) who also proposed similar

ideas about advertising.

Advertising, materialism and individualism

Since, advertising affects people psychologically, turning in a way, ‘greeds’ in to ‘needs’,

it is subliminally and sometimes blatantly encouraging individualistic and materialistic values.

According to another research, through advertising, people tend to internalize the idea that

highest goals in life, like success, beauty, happiness and satisfaction can be gained only when

you own certain material objects, like those promoted in ads (Wulfemeyer & Mueller, 1992).

Materialism can be considered directly proportional to individualism. When people see

their inner satisfaction coming from products, rather than from people, they would prefer
products over relationships. In a research by Zain-ulabideen and Salaria (2010) television

advertisements were found to have a significant relationship with materialism as well as with

unhealthy eating habits.

Another study (Hussainy, Hakim & Khan, 2014) concludes that the destructive effects of

advertising on values and cultural norms include: presenting certain groups of people as more

vulnerable or fragile (women, in this case) and promoting individualistic and materialistic values.

Religion and Advertisements

Religion is a long-term phenomenon which cannot be sacked by the marketers for the

short term. That’s why it has been taken as a valuable construct in consumers’ perspectives

(Ismail, 2015). Religion is one of the main factors of interet from point of view of research in the

field of advertisemen, as it is the most widespread and prominent social-institution which has

major control on people’s morals, attitudes and conducts at both the personal and communal

levels (Karim, 2010). This commitment with religion and faith affects the sentiments and mind-

sets of the individuals towards the utilization of an advertised product (Jamal, 2003).

Religion gives the specifications of the non-prohibited and the prohibited products that

counter the attentions of consumer’s decision (Ansari, 2014) thus the product’s consumption for

Muslims are more subject to ‘prohibited’ and ‘allowed’ things and doings. Religious faiths play

an important role in shaping societal actions. The differences in religious associations have a

tendency to shape the way individuals survive, make choices in what to eat and whom to connect

with (Bin Nooh, khairi, Aziz, Abdullah, Shukor, & Rashiddi, 2014).

Islam does not give the permission for selling the product by adopting the unethical way

which affects the social value and norms of society (bari & Abbas, 2011) Every Muslim has the
faith that they are accountable to Almighty Allah for the deeds they have committed and also

Islam does not tolerate the selling of products by adopting sexual applications or controversial

conceptions.

In-contrast to the Islamic notion there are many Islamic countries including Pakistan

where sexual appeal is used for the promotion of their products, such as good looking models

and also by portraying nudity for advertising (Severn, Belch, and Belch, 1990).

Women, Children and Advertisement

Generally the legislative account or foundations of most societies identify the age range

of childhood, as in most of the eastern and western communities this perimeter is under 14 years.

Young children of this age range are attracted towards advertisements more as compared with the

other age groups and they also perceive that what they are watching is true (Abideen & Salaria,

2009).

Most of the Pakistani childern believe that the quality that is being provided to them for

TV advertisements is annoying and tasteless (Shabbir, Kirmani, Hassan, 2008). They also found

in their survey that Pakistani childern’s perception about the TV advertisement is that the claims

made by the Tv Ads are not true. (Khattak & Khan, 2009)

Blair, Stephenson, Hill and Green (2006) argue that females have been the main object in

advertisements that have appealing side in the past. Ads cannot gain success for generating the

sales only if women are not portrayed as item or sex objects (Nooh, 2012). Most of the

advertisements created to attract the females who are housewives because they have the decision

making powers for most of the products (Uddin, 2014) and also females are cosidered as being

the loyal individual affected by the brand.

 The negative effect of the Tv Ads is the unlikable feelings and sentiments (Houda,

Ghachem, Garrouch, & Mzoughi, 2014) that is caused by the sexually provocative ads. Most of

the Ads are shaped in the modern and advanced settings which is not likely in Pakistani society

such as the Lux advetisement which is not the representative of the Pakistani setting or culture

(Afifa, Naz, Humera, & Danish, 2014).

Advertisements and Socially sensitive Products

Controversial products produce a sense of offence, abhorrence and dislike for consumers,

when they are being advertised (Akhter, Abassi, & Umar, 2011) . “ Advertisements of

controversial or socially sensitive products can clash with the traditional and cultural values of a

country, create negative impact in the minds of general public and damage the brand name or

image” (Akhter, Abassi, & Umar, 2011) .

“Controversial products” described are those services, concepts and products which

stimulate provocative reactions of dislike, outrage, disgust when it is presented openly (Wilson &

West, 1981). These products are characterized by Wilson and West (1981) and Fam et al. (2004)

as “products of personal hygiene, (e.g. birth control or drugs for terminal illness), gender and sex

related products, (e.g. condoms or female under-garments), addictive products, (e.g. alcohol,

cigarette)”. In Islamic perspective the advertisements of “controversial products” include those

using sex appeal and provocation (Mohammad, Quoquab, Mahadi, & Hussin, 2015).

The ethical impasse takes us towards the problems with advertising the socially sensitive

products in muslim countries like Pakistan where consumers due to the islamic and societal

norms and values don’t like the open advertisement of condoms on television and print media

(Bari & Abbas, 2011). Such as josh condom’s advertisement which is being shown on national
television and one of their Ads is also banned not to go on national Tv due to its appealing and

provocative side.
 Discussion and conclusion

The review of the literature on this topic shows that the conflict between marketing a

product and following the social ethics is a serious one and is so widespread an issue that it does

not only affect the marketers and consumers, but the society in general as well.

In most of the studies reviewed here the focus is on people’s reported moral values rather

than on what they actually practice or like to practice. For example, ads of products related with

sexuality might be accused of having lowered the societal moral values, but it should also be of

interest to researchers, that it is such ads that are the informal and in many cases sole source of

useful information regarding certain aspects surrounding sex, take for example the

advertisements of sanitary napkins and condoms. For a moment put aside the sexual appeal in

such ads, we see that in a relatively not-so-open culture like Pakistan, girls, or even their mothers

would not be able to stay informed that any such products exist or not. Similarly, under certain

conditions birth control becomes obviously desirable, and such ads like those of contraceptive

pills and condoms become the sole source of infrmation for masses, specially who are not

educated.

Such aspects in the advertisemnt research have not been dealt with very efficiently in the

studies reviewed in the current paper and must be studied and focussed upon in the future

researches.
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