Download University of Warsaw Department of Journalism and Political

University of Warsaw
Department of Journalism and Political Science
Ewa Małgorzata Chludzińska
The world of television commercial (exemplified on citizens of Łomża)
The thesis written under supervision of prof. dr hab Grzegorz Dąbkowski
A summary doctoral thesis
Warsaw 2016
1. Justification of the choice of the dissertation’s subject
The doctoral thesis highlights a specific area of commercial activity. It can be described
as “the second life of commercial” and refers to what happens with a commercial as a
media report beyond advertising agency and media, in what way does society perceives
it, how does it influence marketing decisions of potential clients, how does it shape their
lifestyle as well as the hierarchy of values of particular social groups, how does it change
their awareness. It becomes an important issue because the commercial starts to live its
own life, creates its own system of values that exists independently of its creators.
The problem seems to be an important issue, taking under consideration the fact that the
first fascination with commercials after 1989 has already passed, the distance towards the
phenomenon constantly rises and the sense of commercials and the future of commercial
industry are both questioned.
The process of interaction of commercial with life is important, not only because of the
influence of commercials on life and what is being done with the announcement, but also
because of the fact that it changes the receivers’ awareness. Not much is known about the
way slogans and commercial texts exist in social environment and situations in which
people use slogans from well- known TV spots and what are the subjective experiences
of commercial receivers, which are the outcome of their participation in the world of
mass consumption initiated through media.
Moreover, some parts of TV commercials like, for instance picture, music, words are
worth considering. They seemingly pass next to the viewers, but they subscribe in the
social imagination and function beyond the context, influencing human’s life informally.
Still it is unknown if the viewer unconditionally accepts the values suggested by the
media, if he verifies the constant stream of persuasive images and deflects attacks of
advertisers or creates his/her own meanings based on individual experiences of reality.
It is important to know and understand what do the people do with commercials, how do
they perceive them and if they, by consuming one meaning, create new one.
The subject of the thesis is based on comparison of commercial text perception by
Łomża’s citizens between 2000/01 and 2010. In other words, it is important to examine
“life after television” (G.Gilder). It is difficult because it may be compared to watching
an encyclopedia. Only some parts and fragments. (W.Godzic). Apart from that,
a commercial as a modern text gives some numerous answer possibilities. It “reflects”,
“Creates” aesthetic needs and knowledge necessary for an individual to function in
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consumer culture. The commercial and its receivers stay in relation with culture’s “here
and now”. They constantly read the meanings initiated by commercials and popular
culture. That is why it is difficult to state and name the relationships between the viewer
and a TV commercial. The thesis is an attempt of describing in the broader social and
cultural context of a human being coming into contact with commercials. The character
of a local environment and its influence on reception of commercial content is
considered.
2. The aim of the thesis
The main aim of the thesis is to compare the reception of commercial by the citizens of
Łomża in 2000/2001 and 2010, defining the trends of the communication of commercials
by the representatives of the community and to point in what way the commercials
industry is perceived by average people: if it creates consumer’s tastes or if it influences
the quality of the citizen’s life. One of the important issues was to reconstruct and
compare the receiver’s attitude in light of evolution of perception of various aspects of
TV commercial in 10-years perspective.
3. Research problem
The main problem was to examine how TV commercial is perceived in social perception,
how does it influence not only on marketing decisions of potential clients but also how
does it shape the lifestyle, hierarchy of values of people living in certain social conditions
(in my case-an average size town), how does it change their awareness. The most
important issue is the phenomenon of passwords and slogans in their life beyond
television, second or third.
The research serves not only to describe statistically the taste and appreciation of a
certain group of people towards commercials. The outcomes of commercial influence are
far more serious than just the attitude towards products and buying them. They influence
the psycho and social behavior as they reach the deepest spheres of cultural awareness of
a social group participant. That is why, it is important to discover the explicit and
inexplicit social behaviors commercially conditioned.
3.1. Research questions:

What is the attitude of commercials and media channels receivers towards them?

How do the receivers perceive commercialized products, brands or companies?

Which advertised products do the receivers choose and why?
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
Do the receivers know the advertised products and in what way do they mark
them?

In what way the receivers verify a lie and the truth in a commercial?

What is the viewers attitude to Polish and foreign issues in TV spots?

What is the best time for viewing the commercial? When do people watch
commercials?

What styles of TV commercials are the most acceptable among the viewers?

What form of a TV commercial may influence its viewership?

What elements of TV commercials are important for the viewer?

What arguments are used in a commercial? Which of the fulfill viewers
expectations?

In what way does a TV commercial shapes social models and authority figure?

What do the TV viewers think about children participation in a TV commercial?

What is the citizens of Łomża statement towards a TV commercial pointed at
children?

In what way do the viewers judge TV commercials and what are their
expectations towards TV commercials?

In what direction do the changes considering commercials perception of the
citizens of Łomża in the first decade of the XXI century go? What are the reasons
and consequences of that?
4. Scientific assumptions:
While defining and reconstructing Łomża’s viewers attitude towards TV commercials
several important scientific assumption have been made:

Reception of a TV commercial has a multi-level structure and is the consequence
of various social, biological, demographic, economic factors. It is also connected
with transmitting of emotions. Taking these factors and conditions under
consideration, an appropriate methodology of research has been chosen.

Television and its products determine viewers’ behavior.

Media and humans function on the basis of a feedback (TV influences their
everyday life while they decide about TV and its existence).
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
Recognition of various attitudes of viewers towards TV announcements allows to
describe the influence of media on the development of consumption determined
society.

A TV commercial melts into culture, it becomes its discriminant.

Receiver’s attitudes are of an evolutionary character.
It is worth mentioning that the reconstruction of attitudes, motivation of a consumer, even
if supported with reliable research outcomes, may be conscious and controlled to a
certain level. The problem is that it is difficult to examine people’s opinions, because
majority of us unconsciously try to show themselves from the best possible side or hides
true opinions in case they may be publically unacceptable. The problem is an emotional
reaction of a receiver. It is hard to guess what is not going to be accepted by the viewers
or even offend them.
5. The scope of research
The research was conducted with a specially constructed questionnaire. The questionnaire
is divides into two parts. The first part refers to
the demographic data, questions
concerning the age, education, gender and occupation of respondents. The second part
focuses on questions concerning the reception of commercials, their contents, marketing
behaviors, verifying brands, products and companies as well as the judgement of
commercials and their functioning in everyday life. The questionnaire contains 24
questions. Seven of them are closed questions: they refer to viewers, types, forms of the
most watched commercials, style preferences, elements of commercials and attitudes of
viewers towards the high number of commercials offers.
Nine questions of the questionnaire are conjunctive cafeteria that refer to the choice of
particular commercials and products, decisions referring to the purchase of the products
(polish vs. foreign) by the respondents. Three questions refer to the reasoned attitudes of
the respondents concerning the participation of the politicians or children in commercial
spots and their opinions on the commercials oriented on children. Three questions from
the cafeteria refer to the viewers preferences towards the arguments used in commercials,
time of commercials and the relationship between commercials effectiveness and time of
their edition.
Eight questions constitute open cafeterias. A part of them refers to the verification of
advertised products – if they are as good as suggested in the commercial or if they are
useful enough. Other questions investigate the knowledge of companies and their
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commercials in TV as well as verdicts of which spots are good and which of them appear
to be a failure (especially Polish products). Two questions from cafeteria refer to the
problem of slogans and their use by the viewers in various situations.
The construction of the questions allows to express comments freely, justify one’s own
attitude, original judgements referring to commercials, positive, negative or even ironic
comments of the respondents. The research was conducted by the author of the thesis
personally.
6. Research description
Research involved 550 citizens of Łomża: between 2000/01 -210 people (including 155
females and 55 males), in 2010-340 respondents, including 221 females and 119 men
(chosen accidentally). The examined population was divided into age categories (16-20
years old, 21-25 years old, 41-50 years old, 51-60 years old and 60+). The groups
concerning origins and education of people were isolated.
The respondents were described on the basis of the occupation. In the research from 2000
and 2001 there were high-school students, teachers, local media journalists, students and
representatives of various occupations: hygiene and occupational safety instructors, shop
assistants, distribution specialists, manufacturers, technical editors, social worker,
official, economist, white-collar worker, accountant, nurse, writer. The group that didn’t
match the occupation were house-wives. In 2010 the division into groups changed
because of the abilities and variety of respondents and the greater number of them. New
research groups appeared: administration workers, blue-collar workers, judicial branch
representatives and pensioners. Reopening the research in 2010 allowed to trace the
changes over the past years, changes in consciousness of Łomża’s citizens towards
commercials, what kind of processes did the commercial undergo. It also showed the
changes in culture connected with commercial expansion. The questionnaire allowed to
compare the preferences connected with commercials in micro-scale and general
conclusions referring the direction of the development and needs in this field. It was
extremely hard to conduct the questionnaire in 2000/01. There were no people willing to
fill in the questionnaire. The vast majority of respondents refused to participate in the
research, claiming that they had no knowledge on the subject. Males rejected more often
claiming that this should be the ladies task and point of interest. People over 50 rejected
to participate totally. They claimed that the commercial was something new for them,
they didn’t know it and had no opinion on it. It was difficult to find people who would
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like to cooperate, that is why usually young people participated in the research. They had
no objections to fill in the questionnaire.
While reopening the research in 2010, new trends towards commercial were clearly
visible. It was no longer the element of “the other world” but an “everyday guest”
accompanying people from morning o dawn on the TV screen. The changes were
expressed on the basis of research of Łomża’s citizens. Some of them filled
questionnaires spontaneously, projecting subconsciously the brands and products from
well-known commercials. Sometimes they hummed music from commercials. Some of
them asked for more time justifying it with the statement that there are too many
commercials to choose from.
Young people filled the questionnaire most eagerly. Commercials were their world, they
grew-up with commercials, that is why they did not feel any restrains while forming
judgements referring the commercial in general. The research gave an opportunity to
show off the knowledge concerning commercials and their products desired especially by
young people. Young people easily recollected commercial slogans. During re-opening
the questionnaire, middle aged and elderly people, who underwent the mental
metamorphosis connected with democratization of social reality took part freely. They
filled the questionnaire in a reliable manner, showing their emotions not necessarily
connected with commercials. As it is shown, in past ten years commercial industry has
broaden its offer connected with consumption. The invasion of commercials supported
the changes in world view – opening of people on world, building a vision of the
individual client, a human being actively participating , choosing and opinionating.
7. Structure of the diploma thesis
The structure of the thesis was based on the multifaceted outlook on commercials,
broaden view of the phenomenon in terms of cultural aspects of the modern world.
The introduction defines commercial as a multifaceted text of culture, as a border case of
two types of actions: marketing actions and communication. The interdisciplinary outlook
on commercials was suggested as commercials are present on the verge of economy,
marketing, law, psychology, linguistics, psychology, communication theory, propaganda
theory. Subsequently, there is no one universal definition of commercial. Still some
paradoxes concerning commercials exist:
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
Commercial is criticized, unwanted and treated marginally, but is pervasive.

Commercial statement is perceived as a product of marginal media activity, but is
one of the main factors that determines the logic of development of mass media,
especially television.

Commercial is the instrument of business. It encourages to purchase, it functions
in the categories of consumption ideology , but still it poses to the category of art.

The receiver of the commercial (work of art) is not an art connoisseur, but an
average consumer of luxurious products. From the beginning he/she is aware of
the persuasive character of commercial, but he/she allows the commercial to
encourage to purchase products.
In the first chapter the state of research on commercial in the context of modern culture
theory: postmodernism, theory of the third wave, technopol, the concept of
McDonaldisation of the world is presented. The sociological and psychological aspects of
commercials, such as: stereotypes, fashion, ethic norms are considered. The author tries
to systematize the Polish sources on the language of commercials. The vast bibliography
was divides into monographies and studies over the persuasive aspects of language of
commercials, single articles considering various aspects of the language of commercials,
textbooks on commercials, authors of which are not linguists, but some part of those
popular sources are about the language of commercials or public relations.
The second chapter is written from the perspective of the broadcaster, in which TV
performs the function of a commercial medium. The elements of the process of creating
the commercial and means that facilitate the outcome-persuasive effect of the statement
are described and analyzed. Communication on the side of the broadcaster requires many
skills and qualifications. It assumes on formalized activities towards the viewer, who may
independently read the statements that constantly flow from the TV screen.
The third chapter describes the receiver of the commercial and his/her role in the
announcement. It was defined according to the idea by G. Dorfles as “multiplicated
human”, placed between dreams and reality, somewhere between the virtual world and
the supermarket. The author describes various typological criteria of the receivers and the
types of receivers. The author also presents her own division of the mass announcements
receivers. She points such types as: mass receiver, unaware receiver, passive receiver,
receiver-consumer, receiver as an object of persuasive actions of the broadcaster, exact
receiver, active receiver- aware of the commercial manipulations.
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The fourth chapter describes the conducted research. It stresses the justification of
methodological means in light of other methods to reach the receiver, the description of
the questionnaire, the description of the group with metrics including issues connected
with the age, education and occupation of the respondents.
The fifth chapter describes the analysis of comparative research. It compares the attitudes
of Łomża’s citizens towards commercials, media, emission time, false and truth in the
commercial. The collected opinions of the respondents referred to both Polish and foreign
commercials, judgements and expectations towards them. The attempt to describe the
issue of “good commercial” was undertaken.
The analysis showed the attitude of receivers towards products, brands, companies wellknown from TV commercials. Types of products, brands, companies well examined in
the broad context of economic and political changes in the society of 2000/01 and ten
years later. The description is a detailed socio-cultural analysis. Moreover, it also
constitutes the insight into the change of tastes and style (romantic, ironic, informative,
scientific) of certain forms of commercials, slogans and types of argumentation.
Moreover, the material of which the commercial is created was examined. Some parts of
it (picture, music, words) were examined in terms of receiver’s point of view. Besides the
problem of politicians and children participation in commercials was stressed. These
issues evoked emotions among the respondents, who often ironically commented the
issue. The respondents negated the commercials oriented on children. They stressed the
unethical aspects of such practices.
One of the analyzed issues was the popularity of slogans and their use. It appeared that
with the rise of commercials, the knowledge of the slogans used in them is popularized
and widely known, cited in unofficial situations by the respondents. All the mentioned
slogans were divides in terms of their relationship with the advertised products.
Additionally, the chapter presents the statistical data that confronts the attitudes of the
respondents of a middle-sized town with the regional or even nationwide data of the same
character.
8. Conclusions
The comparison of conclusions relating to reception of TV commercials in the last decade
allowed to describe the evolution of attitudes and types of motivation influencing the
decisions on the purchase of products and the fact that they are deeply rooted in the
everyday life on “an average Kowalski”.
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It is difficult to examine and describe the situation in commercial industry and the
external world, commercial and consumption, culture and hiperculture, individual and
media. In this case it is better to stress the tendencies and the directions of the
development of culture in culture, as well as laws that organize the entire process by
reading the meanings in constantly new contexts.
The undertaken research of viewer’s attitudes as well as their judgements over the topic
of commercials showed some regularities:

TV commercial takes a privileged place whereas TV is still the main source of
information as a popular and easily reached medium.

Commercials shape social images in the processes of mythicizing and demythicizing of products.

Average viewers do not see the hidden agenda of the commercials. They are
passive viewers, devourers of commercial images.

The examined group treats commercials intuitively

The viewers are tired of constant assimilation of knowledge planned by
advertisers and subsequently, they become more assertive and neutral.

The reception of commercials is a shallow and passive process.

The viewers are not predictable. One cannot state their needs and likes (we cannot
unequivocally describe their attitudes towards commercials)

One cannot equalize the attitude towards commercials and the choice of
advertised products.

The commercial enriches the consumer environment and gives some knowledge
on the products but it does not evoke emotions and desires among its viewers.

The popularity of advertised products signalizes the axiological orientation of
society and points the ways of the development in a field of production and
marketing.

The progressive process of escaping from market offers suggested in TV
commercials. The number of people who does not buy advertised products is
increasing.

The viewers are influenced by an artificial awareness that commercials do not
work on them. They want to keep their reflection of being independent
consumers.
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
The attitudes connected with negation of commercials, ignoring them are an
outcome of a fear of consumerism and loss of identity.

The level of education of viewers influences their attitude towards commercials.
The higher level of education of a viewer, the stronger criticism over the media
and commercials as a source of information about the world.

The attitude of a viewer includes certain stereotypes connected with gender, age
or their job.

The increasing awareness regarding commercials of Polish products and their
high value is noticeable.

The picture is an element of the commercial to which viewers pay special
attention.

The most convincing are spots in which celebrities take part.

The rules that cause the process of remembering of commercial slogans were not
stated.

Extreme emotions are caused by commercial targeted at children. The viewers
perceive this kind of commercials as a threat of developing consumer attitude and
conflicts between parents and their offspring.

Viewers appraise the message of commercials in light of their informative value.
They do not verify them in light of ethics.
The comparison of attitudes and conclusions connected with perception of commercials
from 2000/01 and the data from 2010 is innovative. It allows to describe the evolution of
attitudes towards the issue of commercial, types of motivation that influence the decision
on purchasing the products. It is worth stressing that respondents behaved independently
and managed to give answers which are unexpected. Being anonymous, they criticized
commercials as well as the persuasive character of media with the reference to culture in
general.
The collected material highlights the authentic experiences and opinions of people to
whom television and commercials are “a daily manner”. Their general knowledge on the
commercials, with subjective experiences may be of crucial importance in dealing with
influence of television on everyday life of average humans. It can be interesting for
authors of commercials to appreciate undefined factors of perception of commercials
beyond the percentage scales of typical research.
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The respondents are categorized not only on behalf of the demographic and social
categories. They represent various lifestyles, truths, individual tastes. The analysis of
their attitudes towards commercials and their contents may increase the level of
knowledge about consumption of goods, ways of codifying of commercial contents,
lifestyles shaped by commercials or finally the awareness of people under the persuasive
mechanisms of commercials.
Arguments in shaping commercial strategies on the basis of the knowledge and opinions
of citizens of an average town may be priceless. They may influence the shape and
content of the future commercials that should be based on equal discourse, not on
manipulation or authoritarian imperatives and subliminal sociotechniques.
In the conclusion of the thesis the need to introduce media education as an indispensable
element of aware education on media, building adequate competences connected with
holistic perception of media texts was stressed. The receiver should be an equal partner
and an active participant of culture, not only a passive consumer of images, pictures or
products isolated by the media.
The conducted research and their description are not the compendium of knowledge.
They may be treated as an opinion in the discussion on the TV commercials, its
receptions on different levels and a deepened afterthought referring to media and its role
in a human’s life.
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