The Chairman of the advertising agency, Foote, Cone and Belding, claimed that the launch of the new advertising medium of commercial television, in 1955, was a ’whirlwind’ for his industry. New disciplines, new techniques, and new relationships with the production industry had to be established, and existing campaigns in press had to be transferred to television, an advertising medium that London agencies had no experience with. Also, for the first time, agencies had to work within a regulatory process established by legislation, and policed by the Independent Television Authority. The Authority was tasked with a public service remit to protect citizens both as viewers of television and the consumers of branded goods. The acceptance of viewers, of the commercials on this new television channel. was central to the concerns of both the advertising industry and the regulator. To identify the extent of the impact of commercial television advertising, on the advertising industry, advertising regulation and the viewers, this thesis draws on contemporary research carried out by the BBC, archival material from the regulatory authority and the representative organisations of the advertising industry, and the trade press, and combines this with new interviews with practitioners, working in the advertising and television industries, from 1954-1964. Using material from advertising archives, the thesis also examines the advertising of one important category of advertised goods, washing powders, to identify how the advertising agencies evolved their clients’ advertising, from press, to the new advertising medium of television.

This study examines the similarities and differences in cultural values, creative strategy, information content, formats and styles of appeal in the contemporary magazine advertising in the UK and South Korea. Despite cultural and market differences, no significant differences were found in the use of creative strategy, formats and appeals: a major difference was, however, identified in the level of information content with the sampled Korean advertisements proving to be consistently more informative than those of the UK. Product categories also transpired to be an important determinant of advertising differences. The study further explores the cultural values associated with women and the elderly. Both samples tended to portray women as sexual objects, objects of looking, tyrannized by the slender body ideal; but whereas the Korean advertisements for household electrical appliances were distinctly gendered, focusing on the stereotypical role of woman-as-housewife, the British advertisements were more product-focused. The elderly models used in the British advertisements were portrayed as healthy, independent, fashionable and energetic - images associated with cultural values of `individualism', `independence', `health' and `enjoyment'. By contrast, most of the elderly models in the Korean sample were portrayed as being in familial and generational relationships associated with traditional Confucian values such as 'family', `hyo' (filial duty), `chong' (a Korean notion of harmony and affection) and `han' (a peculiarly Korean form of sadness). This finding seemed to reflect the contrasting characteristics of `individualistic' British culture and `collectivist' Korean culture. Overall, the results showed that a standardized advertising approach was found in `cosmetics' and `clothing' categories, while a localised advertising approach was found in `household electrical goods' and products targeted at the elderly.

This thesis presents an analysis of advertising, encompassing both new game theoretic models of advertising, and econometric models of industry level advertising and sales. In the game theoretic analysis, three related models are developed. A duopoly industry is assumed, and, typically, the firms have four choice variables- price, advertising, the number of local markets to enter and product quality. The aim is to model firms' simultaneous use of advertising as a means of providing consumer information and as a competitive tool. The models are also used to discover under what circumstances firms will prefer to produce homogeneous, rather than quality differentiated products. A feature of the models is that in certain scenarios one of the firms finds that it faces a kinked demand curve for it's product, a result of the two firms selecting to produce products differentiated according to quality. Given the problems of testing the game theoretic models developed, the empirical analysis considers UK industry level data for the food and soft drinks industries. These data are employed to test whether advertising and sales are cointegrated in these industries. Quarterly data are used, as existing literature suggests that any relationship between advertising and sales is likely to be identified within a year. The use of unadjusted quarterly data ensured that unlike earlier research which tested for cointegration between annual advertising and sales, seasonal unit root tests were required.

Humour is a commonly used communication device in advertising. Audiences in every country are familiar with humorous commercials. Although humour is `universal', in the sense that it can be found in every culture, it is always also context and culture-specific in its typical manifestations. These characteristics make the use of humour in international advertising particularly challenging. In a new globalised world of communications, in which technological advances have allowed the development of new media, innovative genres of advertisments (online, virals) and the creation of virtual global communities, it is worth examining the role of humorous advertising in a globalised setting. The thesis explores humorous advertising in two ways: through the views of British advertising practitioners and through work with groups of young professionals, a distinctive and highly relevant advertising-audience, comprising `global' citizens of various countries who at the time of the research lived in London. Two qualitative methods were used, individual semi-structured interviews with the advertising professionals and focus group discussions with the groups selected to represent the views and advertising literacies of a young audience -a contemporary and emerging globally mobile urban elite. The thesis illustrates how advertising practitioners justify the use of humour in advertising and how they judge practices and beliefs that promote or hinder the use of humour in international advertising. It also reveals some of the contradictory attitudes practitioners hold about humour in international advertising and the conflicting interests between advertising professionals and their clients that affect the production of humorous international campaigns. The focus group data analysis provides insights on the role of humorous advertising as `social currency' interculturally. The data suggest some strengths and weaknesses in addressing audiences beyond cultural and national boundaries, and the use of humorous advertising commercials as entertainment commodities beyond their promotional purposes.

This thesis contributes toward the better understanding of the use and effect of visual metaphor in print advertising through an integrative framework. Two overall research questions are answered in this context. Firstly, why is visual metaphor in advertising such an important phenomenon that is worth further research? Secondly, how does visual metaphor engage the consumer and elicits favorable responses to different print advertisements? Two studies were conducted to answer these questions. Study one, a content analysis on 320 print advertisements answered the first overall research question. This study provided a comprehensive assessment of the use of visual metaphor in print advertising. Results showed that visual metaphor is strongly present in print advertising and that this presence shows an increasing trend over time. Study two answered the second overall research question through two experiments. The first experiment compared the effect of different types of visual metaphor on different consumer responses. Results from this experiment showed that replacement metaphor had the most positive effect on effectiveness of the ad. Furthermore, replacement metaphor together with fusion metaphor had the most positive effect on attitude toward the brand and purchase intention. Verbo-pictorial metaphor on the other hand scored the lowest with regards to its effect on the three aforementioned responses. The effect of replacement metaphor on effectiveness of the ad, attitude toward the brand and purchase intention was positively mediated through elaboration and subjective ad comprehension. Objective ad comprehension also positively mediated the effect of replacement metaphor but only on effectiveness of the ad and purchase intention. The same results applied to verbo-pictorial metaphor. However, the mediation effects in this case were negative. Findings, also uncovered that ads that compare two metaphorical objects which are conceptually similar particularly in terms of their functional characteristics are better comprehended. Therefore, a specific visual structure may vary in its effect and hence effectiveness depending on the nature and character of this conceptual similarity as perceived by consumers. The second experiment tested the moderating effect of ad viewing time on consumer response to visual metaphor in advertising. Results, however, did not support the hypothesis related to this moderating effect. Finally, comparing the content analysis and experimental findings provides valuable insights for advertising practitioners. Practitioners can better frame their advertisements and make more effective use of the different types of visual metaphor for this purpose. Therefore, this thesis has also important practical implications.

This research investigates new creative executions in advertising. The researcher examines the difference between non-branded ads (ads with no logo), branded ads (ads which show the product’s logo) and degraded Ads (ads which where degraded by pixelation) within the major dimensions of creativity, which are conceptualised as divergence (novelty) and relevance (usefulness) on the following variables: attitude toward the ad (Aad) and purchase intentions (PI). The researcher argues that non-branded Ads (without a logo) generate curiosity, since more thinking is required to determine the product brand. Therefore, the researcher assumes that non-branded Ads will generate more processing (as more elaboration is required to identify the brand). The elaboration processing constructs (amount of attention, curiosity, depth of processing and motivation to process the ad) combined with creativity will affect PI and Aad positively. The results of three experiments shows that non-branded ads on low information gap are not effective and shouldn’t be executed. Degraded ads and non-branded ads of moderate and high information gap had significant effect on PI and Aad. Balancing the positive effect with brand identification, the rates of brand identification fall as the information gap increased. Therefore, non-branded ads of low information gap are not suitable for advertising as they generate similar levels of PI to branded ads, they also carry the risk of mistaken brand identification. Non-branded ads of moderate information gap and degraded ads are found suitable for mass advertising as their effect on PI and Aad was significantly positive while the brand identification of these adds was high. Non-branded ads of high information gap ads had more positive effect on PI and Aad than moderate information gap ads but the brand identification was very low. Therefore, they were found suitable for direct advertising. Four processing elements have been identified and investigated: curiosity, amount of attention, motivation to process the ad and depth of processing the ad. Results reveal that divergence and processing elements were found to mediate the direct effect of the independent variables (information gap, brand visibility, execution tool) and their relationship with PI and Aad. Relevance had no effect on the mediation process. Results of the three experiments on brand identification from non-branded and degraded ads indicates that generation effect through pictorial images can occur. Also, results indicate that ads degraded through pixelation will result in higher levels of both Aad and PI compared to branded and non-branded ads. Results also reveal that rates of brand identification are higher for degraded ads compared to non-branded ads. In summary, based on the experimental work, different creative execution techniques in advertising may significantly influence PI and Aad. However, divergence is indeed an important element of creativity. Relevance, undoubtedly is important to ad effectiveness but appears to be an insignificant and separate construct from creativity in the case of the creative execution of non-branded and degraded ads.

This study examines how characteristics of performance, relationship investments, general beliefs about relationships and conditions about the internal and external environment are associated with client tolerance toward their experiences in client-advertising agency relationships (CAR), particularly at the service encounter. A critical incident technique is adopted, collecting both negative incidents and positive incidents. The generic aspects of CAR above were conceptualised from a literature review incorporating buyer-seller behaviour, interorganisational relationships, and CAR research. The literature review was refined by qualitative research, involving depth interviews with 14 agencies and 11 client organisations. Respondents were key informants who had decision-making responsibility for their relationships. The depth interviews collectively sought to identify the range of negative and positive critical incidents experienced by clients and their agencies. Additionally, the points of contact between client and agency were identified from which critical incidents were experienced, together with characteristics considered to influence tolerance. These characteristics were screened to identify 32 independent variables and 5 investment variables for a postal survey of clients. The purpose was to identify the main predictors of tolerance. A unique feature of the study was the development of grouping variables designed to measure tolerance, based on seven dependent variables. The amount of incidents experienced per respondent were accounted for in making decisions about tolerance. Discriminant analysis was used to identify predictor variables for each set of grouping variables. This showed that a number of performance variables, investment criteria, client beliefs and environmental conditions were associated with tolerance. Performance predictors included consistent work processes, proactivity and stability of key account management. Additional predictors included beliefs in compatible working styles and less effort in making changes by clients, supporting the view that processes may become more important under stressful times because they facilitate governance. Procedures and processes might also reflect the need to ensure fairness in relationships.

The author has been concerned with a study of "The Measurement of Advertising Effectiveness" since 1972. During the course of this study, some 11 reports have been produced. In accordance with Regulation 14.9 of CIT's Regulations governing the submission of material for higher degrees, these reports are submitted, together with an exposition of the material contained within them. The exposition which is presented here attempts to describe the contents of the reports in the overall context of the study of which they were a part. Hence, this exposition contains: a description of the study; a description of the overall methodology employed; a summary of the contents of the reports; and, an appraisal of the study's methods and outputs. No precedent exists for such expositions and the author has chosen the form and content which he believes will best allow the contents of the reports to be appreciated.

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The research explores how pre-adolescent girls interact with representations of femininity in advertising messages, through an in-depth, mixed-methods and mainly qualitative approach with a purposive sample of primary school girls (age 8-11). The study evolves through three major stages: preliminary, main and follow-up. In the preliminary stage, the use of questionnaire, group sessions and projective techniques provided standardised information about girls’ life context, body image, personality, media habits and their embodiment of femininity (N=37). In the main stage, two rounds of peer-to-peer phenomenological interviews prompted by adverts elicitation were used to gain insight into girls’ response and interaction with adverts (N=31 first round; N=21 second round). In the final stage 16 participants took part in follow-up interviews, for clarification and amplification of themes emerging from the analysis. The phenomenological interviewing provides insights into girls’ reception of adverts in their own terms and their own words, while the contextualisation of participants’ advertising experiences is able to illuminate on contextual factors affecting girls’ critical abilities towards ideals of femininity presented in advertising and other media. Through a process of triangulation and systematic focused comparison, the analysis reveals how girls’ response to idealised portrayals of femininity in adverts is deeply intertwined with their broader media consumption. The main emerging results indicate that there is a fundamental difference in the way different sub-groups of girls perceive and respond to representations of femininity in adverts and media. In particular, by grouping the girls according to their lower or higher embodiment of stereotypical femininity, the analysis suggests a correspondence between girls’ stance towards femininity portrayals in adverts and their actual embodiment of femininity. From the context of a group of girls who consistently displayed higher critical skills, positive body image and a more fluid and diverse embodiment of femininity,'the analysis seems also to suggest a 'protective’ or 'buffering' influence exerted by certain contextual factors which are mainly located within the family. The original contribution to knowledge of the study is not in providing definite conclusions about advertising effects, but a valid basis to comprehend participants’ interaction and negotiation with different media’s portrayals of femininity in view of their particular world and frame of reference.