A Study on Female Adolescents Attitudes towards Depiction of Women in Indian Advertisement

Advertisements can be defined as the use of media to create positive product imagery or positive product associations or to connect the product with desirable traits, activities or outcomes. Advertising is everywhere and has become a vehicle for ideology -reflecting ideas, beliefs, and opinions that are a reflection of a society within the culture. The signs that are contained in the advertisements and its message generate the ideology. Advertising are ever-present cultural form that both reflects and moulds our lives. An advertisement does not transmit product information but also social symbolic information that facilitates the shaping of cultural tendencies within society. The study was focused on female adolescence attitude towards depiction of women in Indian TV advertisement. Adolescents are particularly chosen because they are new, inexperienced consumers and are prime targets of many advertisements. They are in process of learning their values and roles and developing their self-concepts. The adolescents are first exposed to ad content (Ad Content refers to the types of appeals in Indian TV advertisements). The results indicate that majority of the respondents wanted to see women in different roles in future advertisements. They wanted advertisers to show women as independent, self-confident, empowered individuals than fashionable and glamorous one.