- Title: Investigating the Adherence to Ethical Values in Commercial Advertising for Selling Food to Children and Young People
- Student: Nasrin Haddad
- Supervisor: Dr. Mahdokht Boroujerdi Alavi
- University: IRIB
- Degree: Master’s
- Major: Commercial Advertising
- Defense Date: 1390
Abstract:
Television and its products, as one of the most effective mass media, can play a dual role; they can reinforce and institutionalize ethical values or, through their improper function, reinforce and spread anti-values.
The present research was conducted with the aim of investigating the extent to which ethical values are observed in commercial advertising (advertisements prepared for selling food to children and young people), and semiotic method has been used to achieve this goal. The objective of this research is: to examine how ethical values are presented and to determine the type of values promoted in these ads.
First, all Iranian television commercials broadcasted from Channel 1 of IRIB in 1388, targeting children and young people (with the approach of selling food to them), were collected from the Commercial General Directorate of IRIB. After removing duplicate ads, a selection of the remaining ads was analyzed regarding the values represented in them.
Thus, the statistical population in this research consists of commercial ads broadcasted from Channel 1 of IRIB in 1388, targeting children and young people with the purpose of selling food to this age group.
The sample size includes 16 broadcasted ads (with the above characteristics) in 1388 from Channel 1 of IRIB. The research samples were selected based on purposive and non-random sampling.
The results of this research show that the main values transmitted to the child and young audience through the examined ads have been negative values. Their creators, using various measures such as semantic contagion by resorting to cartoon and speaking characters, a dream-based world, and displaying the product in the guise of a savior, intended to influence the subconscious of the child and young person by stirring and stimulating emotions, convey their message, and in a word, attract the audience’s attention and trust.
