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Cultural differences in the perception of magazine alcohol advertisements by Israeli Jewish, Moslem, Druze and Christian high school students
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 26 (19901209Elsevier Scientific Publishers Ireland Ltd.
209
215
Cultural differences in the perception of magazine alcohol advertisements by Israeli Jewish, Moslem, Druze and Christian high school students Shoshana -The Israel Society for the Prevention Studies,
Weissa and Michael
of Alcoholism, Technion-Israel
Mooreb
13 Nor&u Street, Ramat-Gan 52464 (IsraeU and bDepartment Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000 (Israeu
of General
(Received May 2nd, 19901
This article describes the Israeli part of an international comparative research project conducted simultaneously in 1988 also in Australia and in the U.S.A., in order to determine the attitudes of high school students from different nations and cultures toward alcohol advertising. The Israeli study used a set of 64 magazine alcohol advertisements from 10 countries and with the help of an open-ended questionnaire examined differences and similarities in the perception of Israeli and foreign advertisements by Jewish, Moslem, Druze and Christian teenagers. Each response was coded twice. The first code indicated the general tone of the response and the second code indicated its theme. The article presents selected general results and conclusions. The results have implications for designing alcohol abuse education messages and can aid alcohol advertisers interested in responsible advertising to find advertising standards suitable to each culture. Key words:
alcohol; advertisements;
attitudes; Jews; Arabs; Israel
Introduction The substantive field of alcohol advertising contains many dimensions. So far, research on alcohol advertising in magazines has dealt with a number of issues of interest to both opponents and defenders of alcohol advertising, focusing mainly on: (Al Content analysis, frequency, volume and targeting of alcohol advertising [l - lo]; (Bl The effect of print advertising on alcohol consumption and related problems [ll171; (Cl Restrictions, regulations and policy [1822]. Additionally, studies have been carried out on other aspects, for example, on tactics of Correspondence to: Dr. Shoshana Weiss, Director, Alcohol Abuse prevention Programs, 13 Nordau Street, Ramat-Gan 52464, Israel. 0 1990 Elsevier 0376.8716/90/$03.50 Printed and Published in Ireland
Scientific Publishers
advertising from the marketing point of view [17], on the influence of the amount of alcoholic beverage advertising in magazines on the editorial content of those magazines [23], on the representation of women in the advertisements [24], on male sex-role stereotyping in advertisements [25] and on alcohol advertisements as cultural indicators, reflecting current cultural stereotypes [26]. The authors of a comprehensive report on alcohol and the mass media [27] write in conclusion: “More attention needs to be paid to the relationship between, on the one hand, media representations of alcohol and, on the other, the actual drinking culture and the climate of opinion on alcohol issues in the social environment”.l In the study reported here, there is an attempt’ to look at the opinions that students from different cultures hold with regard to alcohol advertisements. Israeli and foreign magazines in Israel carry Ireland Ltd.
210
a massive amount of advertising for alcoholic beverages. No restrictions on alcohol advertisements exist in Israel and they appear in youth magazines, too, in spite of the fact that the legal drinking age is 18. Given that alcohol advertisements are an integral part of magazines, there is a need to examine how youths from different cultures feel about them. This article summarizes the Israeli part of an international comparative research project conducted simultaneously in 1988 also in Australia and in the U.S.A. (specifically in California). The aims of the international project have been to determine the attitudes of students from different nations and cultures towards alcohol advertising and to examine the perception of a set of alcohol advertisements on the part of youths from three nations and various cultural groups within those nations. The study is the first to use a single set of alcohol advertisements from 10 countries to examine responses of youth of many ethnic groups and cultures, world-wide. Thus, the study adds an innovative aspect to the alcohol advertisements’ research domain. It can, on the one hand, help prevention specialists to better develop suitable prevention activities and policies for different cultures and, on the other hand, aid alcohol advertisers interested in responsible advertising to find advertising standards suitable to each culture. The goals of the Israeli part in the international research were to compare and contrast differences and similarities among Jewish, Moslem, Druze and Christian youths’ perceptions of Israeli and foreign alcohol advertiseand to compare Israeli youths’ ments perceptions of advertisements to those of other youth cultures in the other countries participating in the project - American and Australian Jewish youths, as well as other ethnic groups. This article refers only to the differences and similarities among the four cultures in Israel. This is the first study in Israel in the alcohol field among Arab youths, who generally (except for Christians) have been brought up abstinent (believing that alcohol is evil) and who are exposed to the same advertisements appearing
in Hebrew and foreign magazines as are Jewish teenagers (alcohol advertisements do not appear in Arabic). Subjects and methods
Respondents The research sample consisted of 418 Israeli students, 217 males, 201 females, studying in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades (range of ages 15- 181 of schools in the north of Israel, where most of the Israeli Arabs are living. The schools were chosen to represent a wide range of types: a Jewish agricultural boarding school, a Jewish comprehensive school in a developing town, a Jewish academically-oriented private school in a big city, an Arab comprehensive school in a large Moslem and Druze village and an Arab comprehensive school in a large Moslem, Druze and Christian village. The respondents included 118 Jewish students (47 males, 71 females), 85 Christian students (34 males, 51 females), 48 Moslem students (32 males, 16 females1 and 167 Druze students (104 males, 63 females). A pilot sample used for constructing and testing the research instrument, consisted of 34 Jewish and 24 Arab students. Responses of this group are not included in the results. Materials
Israeli magazines were searched for alcohol advertisements. Fourteen full page color advertisements of beer, wine and distilled spirits appeared in the years 1985- 1988. They included: four Maccabee beer advertisements, one Budweiser” beer advertisement, two Tuborgb beer advertisements, one Gold-star beer advertisement, two Fantasy wine advertisements, one Monfort wine advertisement, one De Kuyper’ liqueur advertisement, one Dominion brandy advertisement and one Hallelujah liqueur advertisement. “Budweiser is made in Israel Anheuser-Busch. bTuborg is made in Israel under eries Ltd. of Denmark. cImported alcoholic beverage.
under
license
granted
license
by Tuborg
by
Brewer-
211
An additional 50 foreign advertisements were used: 21 from the U.S.A. and 16 from Australia included a variety of types (beer, wine, liqueur, wine cooler, liquor, champagne domestic and imported1 of the major companies, providing a representative sample of recent advertisements in these countries. Thirteen advertisements were from seven other countries: one from China, three from England, three from France, two from Japan, one from Kenya, two from Spain and one from West Germany. These advertisements were included in order to diminish the problem of mixing two English-speaking countries’ advertisements (U.S.A. and Australia) with those of a country which uses a very different-looking alphabet (Israel). These 13 advertisements, using languages and characters other than English and Hebrew provided students with a mix of many different languages and made the Hebrew advertisements look more natural to the English-reading students. Although this increased the total number of advertisements to 64, it simultaneously lowered resistance to the Israeli advertisements in the U.S.A. and Australia, cut down on questions and put all the advertisements into the context of “international alcohol advertising” as opposed to “alcohol advertisements in English and Hebrew”. Procedure Since there was a need to survey students in the classroom situation, during September November 1988 classes for the research were identified and adequately dark rooms for the presentation of 35 mm slides were located. The need for an entire 50-min period per class was explained to the teachers, who did not prepare the students in any way for the study. When students arrived to the dark room, the projector with the 64 slides was ready. Students completed an anonymous background questionnaire about age, grade, gender, cultural group. They were shown a Hebrew “samslide” (which was not an alcohol ple advertisement) for 30 s and spoke their initial thought or impression out loud. Participants were then informed that the advertisements
originated in 10 different countries and were printed in several languages and the 64 alcohol advertisements began to appear on the screen for 30 s each. For each slide, students were asked to write their initial impression in one or two “thematic” words of their own choice, as a response to the single open-ended question “What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you see the advertisement?“. The captions in the foreign advertisements from the nine countries were read for them and translated simultaneously to Hebrew or Arabic. Coding The authors coded the Israeli students’ responses. Each response was coded twice. The first code indicated the general tone of the response and the second code indicated the theme of the response. The general tone of the responses included six categories: (11 Positive: The response has a positive tone or a desirable outcome to the respondent either directly (examples: happiness, fun) or indirectly (Santa Claus, sailing). “Indirectly positive” assumes that the response is positive to the respondent. Negative: The response has a negative (2) tone, or an undesirable outcome to the respondent either directly (stupid, silly) or indirectly (racist, alcoholism). “Indirectly negative” assumes that the response is negative to the respondent. Neutral: The response has a neutral tone (3) or outcome or it is unclear whether it is positive or negative to the respondent (medieval times, drinking red wine). Mixed: The response is mixed, ambivalent (4) in its tone (messy but enticing, happy drunks). No response. (0) Illegible response. (9) The themes of the responses included 12 categories partially adopted from previous studies 1461: (Al
Sex: directly (examples: seduction, or indirectly (leggy, kissy).
orgy)
212
(B) (Cl (D) (El (F) (G) (H) (I) (J) (K) (L)
Romance and love (moon light, together). Violence, death, danger (risky activity, suicide). Sports (racing cars, skiing). Foreignness - distance in time or place (1950’s, British). Relaxation (slow, vacation). Food and drink - the latter as thirst quencher only (thirsty, dinner). Wealth, affluence, success (rich, the good life). Pleasure, happiness (good mood, warmth). Party, entertainment, non-sexual friendship (birthday, dance). Power, strength, non-violent force Icourage, energy). Others - response does not refer to any of the above themes (freedom, nature) and illegible responses.
When two responses were written, the first word or expression was coded. A reliability check was carried out on the responses provided by 10% of the sample, randomly selected. Percents of agreement between two independent coders were 92 and 85 for the general tone and for the themes, respectively. Selected results and conclusions /Al Comparisons within the entire set of slides (i.e., all the Israeli and all the foreign advertisements) with respect to tone of response For purposes of all analyses categories 3 and 4 were combined, and category 9 was omitted. Category 4 contained uniformly about 1% of the responses. Category 9 contained between 1% and 50/o, averaging 3% across all categories. The model for multiple contingency x2 Total
= x2 ABCD + x2ACD + x2AD
analysis is:
+ x2 ABC + x2 ABD + x2AB + x2AC
where A is the response tone (no response, posi-
tive, negative or neutral); B is Israeli vs. foreign advertisements; C is culture (Jewish, Christian, Moslem, Druze); D is respondent’s gender. According to the significant 4-way (ABCD) interaction in Table I, every variable had a significant effect on the responses. In spite of this, in every case, Israeli advertisements were viewed as more positive and as less negative, than foreign advertisements. There were less neutral attitudes towards the Israeli advertisements and they were left less often without response, except for female Moslem and Druze respondents, among whom there was an equally and exceptionally high “no response” rate to both Israeli and foreign advertisements. Among both Jewish and Moslem respondents, females regarded advertisements as more positive and as less negative, than males. Not so in the other two cultures: on the one hand, in every culture females left more advertisements unanswered; on the other hand, they were less often neutral or equivocal than males. For males, positive attitudes towards advertisements (both Israeli and foreign), decreased from Jews to Christians to Druzes to Moslems. For females the order was Jews > Christians > Moslems > Druzes. Though the change in negative attitudes was less orderly, there was an increase in negative attitudes from Jews to others, with Moslem respondents being most negative. With the exception of Christian respondents, females viewed all advertisements less negatively than males.
Table I.
x2 Summary, tone of response.
Source
x2
d.f.
Total ABC
2614.80 32.29
45
ABD ACD AB AC AD ABCD
3.70 1622.29 264.02 533.76 131.27 27.47
9 3 9 3 9 3 9
P< _ 0.01 NS 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01
213
(B) Comparisons within the entire set of slides with regard to content category Illegible responses were omitted from all analyses of content category. The model was identical to the above. In Table II the significant ABCD interaction again indicates that all three variables influenced the content category of a response. “No ranged from 4% among Jewish response” males viewing Israeli advertisements, to 19% among Druze females viewing either Israeli or foreign advertisements. Another category was established for responses not falling into any of the 11 categories. The percentage of such resranged from 20 (Jewish females ponses responding to Israeli slides) to 41 (Christian females responding to foreign slides). Both “no response” and “other response” were more frequent toward foreign than Israeli advertisements. There were fewer “no response” and “other responses” among Jews than among respondents from the other three cultures. The following content categories were more frequent toward Israeli advertisements than toward foreign ones (disregarding culture and gender): Sex, Romance, Relaxation, Pleasure, Party. Alcohol advertising links alcohol with attributes and qualities that the misuse of alcohol usually diminishes and destroys. It misrepglamorous resents drinking as and consequences-free. The following appeared more often toward foreign advertisements than toward Israeli ones: Violence, Foreignness, Power.
It is obvious, that the students provided additional categories of alcohol advertisements to those which appear in the literature, for example: Power - Strength, Violence - Death - Danger. Thus, on the one hand, alcohol advertising does create a climate in which dangerous attitudes towards alcohol are presented as normal and appropriate and on the other hand it associates drinking with driving and with other high-risk activities. Furthermore, some advertisements associate alcohol with access to power. It is ironic that an addicting drug should be offered to the public as such. Sex was the modal response in most cases. It was replaced by Pleasure in the responses of Moslem and Druze females toward both Israeli and foreign advertisements and in the responses toward foreign advertisements of Christian males and females. Jews saw more Sports in all advertisements than the others did. With the only exception of Jewish males, everyone saw more Wealth and Success in foreign advertisements than the Israeli ones. Generally, males saw more Sex in both Israeli and foreign advertisements and females saw more Romance. (Cl Analysis of Israeli advertisements with regard to tone of response Responses to each of the 14 Israeli advertisements were analyzed, using multiple contingency analysis with the model: x2 Total = x2 ABC + x2 AB + x2 AC
Table II. Source Total ABC ABD ACD AB AC AD ABCD
df:21=9+3+9
X2 Summary, content category. X’
df
P<
5318.19 224.87
180
-
15.20 1777.25 1134.54 1688.64 328.63 149.05
36 12 36 12 36 12 36
0.1 ,“:8; 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01
Though the AB (response tone by gender) and the AC (response tone by culture1 effects were not significant in every case (13 and 7 times, respectively), the triple interaction (ABC) effect was significant (P < 0.0011 in every one of the 14 Israeli advertisements. Therefore, it may again be concluded that both gender and culture significantly influenced the tone of the response to the Israeli advertisements.
214
(D) Analysis of the Israeli advertisements regard to content category In these analyses the model is: x2 Total = x2ABC
with
+ x2AB + x2AC
df: 34 = 36 + 12 + 36 Degrees of freedom were slightly different for slides in which one or more content category was missing (expected value of zero). Again, the triple interaction was significant in every case. Analysis of foreign advertisements and detailed analysis of each individual advertisement with regard to tone of response and content category, as well as specific conclusions, can be obtained from the authors. In addition to the above conclusions, it is clear that the Israelis responded to foreign advertisements - types which do not (yet) exist in Israel (for example: content categories of Violence or Power) and to products which do not (yet) exist here (for example: wine coolers). It is very likely that the themes they saw in the foreign advertisements and the different products will eventually show up in Israel. Therefore, it is possible that a part of the study is actually several years ahead of the advertising trends in Israel and thereby can be predictive. Moreover, It may help to alter the path of those trends by its ability to exert pressure on the industry. It may aid preventive activities by its ability to emphasize this issue in the framework of alcohol education [28 - 291. Through the study social scientists and alcohol problem prevention specialists can better understand the dynamic of culture as it relates to society’s perception of the role of alcohol. Additionally, this type of study lends itself to replication in other nations, thereby bringing together the world community of alcohol problem prevention scientists. Finally, alcohol advertisers interested in responsible advertising are able to use the study both as a guide to avoiding advertising pitfalls and as a way to find acceptable advertising standards which can be justified in the various cultures. This is an important point, advertising unfortunately, alcohol since remains a very powerful alcohol educator.
Advertisers should not create advertising that portrays activities which are dangerous when combined with alcohol use. References 1 2
8
9 10
11 12 13 14
15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22
23
M. Minkler, L. Wallack and P. Madden, J. Pub. Health Policy, 8 (19871164. D.E. Strickland and T.A. Finn, J. Drug Issues., 14 (1984) 449. S. Walfish et al., Int. J. Addict., 16 (19811941. D.E. Strickland, T.A. Finn and M. Lambert, J. Stud. Alcohol., 43 (1982) 655. R.G. Smart and M. Krakowski, J. Alcohol. Educ., 18 (1973116. W. Breed and J.R. DeFoe, J. Drug Issues., 9 (1979) 511. J.R. DeFoe and W Breed, J. Am. College Health Assoc., 27 (19791195. C. Atkin and M. Block, Content and Effects of Alcohol Advertising, Report 1. Overview and Summary of project, National Technical Information Services, Publ. No. PB82- 123142, Springfield, VT, 1982. D.E. Strickland, J. Stud. Alcohol., 45 (1984) 87. S.Y. D’Amelio, Alcohol advertising in an Australian Women’s Magazine: 1973- 1983, Western Australian Alcohol and Drug Authority, 1985. C.K. Atkin, J. Hocking and M. Block, J. Communication, 34 (19841157. R.G. Smart, J. Stud. Alcohol., 49 (1988) 314. C.K. Atkin, K Neuendorf and S. McDermott, J. Drug Educ., 13 (19831313. D.I. Smith, Consumption and advertising of Alcoholic Beverages in Australia 1969- 1986. Paper presented at the Third National Drug Education Workshop, Fremantle, Western Australia, 1988. M. Katzper, R. Ryback and M. Hertzman, J. Drug Issues., 8 (19781339. J.C. Bourgeois and J.C. Barnes, J. Advert. Res., 19 (1979119. M.J. van Iwaarden, Public health aspects of the marketing of alcoholic drinks, In: M. Grant ted.), Alcohol Policies, WHO Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen, 1985. R.G. Smart and R. Culter, Br. J. Addict., 71(1976113. A.C. Ogborne and R.G. Smart, Br. J. Addict., 75 (1980) 293. J.F. Mosher. Abstracts & Reviews in Alcohol & Driving, 2 (1981117. L. Wallack, Hygie, 4 (1985) 23. C. Winick and M.P. Winick, Drug education and the content of mass media dealing with ‘dangerous drugs’ and alcohol, in R.E. Ostman ted.), Communication Research and Drug Education, Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, CA, 1976. J.W. Tankard and K. Pierce, Journalism Q., 59 (19821 302.
215 24 25 26
P. Marsteller and K. Karnchapee, J. Psych. Drugs., 12 (198011. J. Donovan, Addictions, 3 (1974112. C. Tigerstedt, Notes on the development of the Finnish middle class and the case of beer advertisements in the 80’s. in P. Paakkanen and P. Sulkunen teds.), Cultural Studies in Drinking and Drinking Problems
27
28 29
- Report on a Conference, Social Research Institute of Alcohol Studies, Report No. 176, Helsinki, 1987. J. Partanen and M. Montonen, Alcohol and The Mass Media, WHO Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen, 1988. M. Moore and S. Weiss, J. Drug Educ., 15 (19851263. S. Weiss and M. Moore, J. Drug Educ., 18 (19881267.
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215
Cultural differences in the perception of magazine alcohol advertisements by Israeli Jewish, Moslem, Druze and Christian high school students Shoshana -The Israel Society for the Prevention Studies,
Weissa and Michael
of Alcoholism, Technion-Israel
Mooreb
13 Nor&u Street, Ramat-Gan 52464 (IsraeU and bDepartment Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000 (Israeu
of General
(Received May 2nd, 19901
This article describes the Israeli part of an international comparative research project conducted simultaneously in 1988 also in Australia and in the U.S.A., in order to determine the attitudes of high school students from different nations and cultures toward alcohol advertising. The Israeli study used a set of 64 magazine alcohol advertisements from 10 countries and with the help of an open-ended questionnaire examined differences and similarities in the perception of Israeli and foreign advertisements by Jewish, Moslem, Druze and Christian teenagers. Each response was coded twice. The first code indicated the general tone of the response and the second code indicated its theme. The article presents selected general results and conclusions. The results have implications for designing alcohol abuse education messages and can aid alcohol advertisers interested in responsible advertising to find advertising standards suitable to each culture. Key words:
alcohol; advertisements;
attitudes; Jews; Arabs; Israel
Introduction The substantive field of alcohol advertising contains many dimensions. So far, research on alcohol advertising in magazines has dealt with a number of issues of interest to both opponents and defenders of alcohol advertising, focusing mainly on: (Al Content analysis, frequency, volume and targeting of alcohol advertising [l - lo]; (Bl The effect of print advertising on alcohol consumption and related problems [ll171; (Cl Restrictions, regulations and policy [1822]. Additionally, studies have been carried out on other aspects, for example, on tactics of Correspondence to: Dr. Shoshana Weiss, Director, Alcohol Abuse prevention Programs, 13 Nordau Street, Ramat-Gan 52464, Israel. 0 1990 Elsevier 0376.8716/90/$03.50 Printed and Published in Ireland
Scientific Publishers
advertising from the marketing point of view [17], on the influence of the amount of alcoholic beverage advertising in magazines on the editorial content of those magazines [23], on the representation of women in the advertisements [24], on male sex-role stereotyping in advertisements [25] and on alcohol advertisements as cultural indicators, reflecting current cultural stereotypes [26]. The authors of a comprehensive report on alcohol and the mass media [27] write in conclusion: “More attention needs to be paid to the relationship between, on the one hand, media representations of alcohol and, on the other, the actual drinking culture and the climate of opinion on alcohol issues in the social environment”.l In the study reported here, there is an attempt’ to look at the opinions that students from different cultures hold with regard to alcohol advertisements. Israeli and foreign magazines in Israel carry Ireland Ltd.
210
a massive amount of advertising for alcoholic beverages. No restrictions on alcohol advertisements exist in Israel and they appear in youth magazines, too, in spite of the fact that the legal drinking age is 18. Given that alcohol advertisements are an integral part of magazines, there is a need to examine how youths from different cultures feel about them. This article summarizes the Israeli part of an international comparative research project conducted simultaneously in 1988 also in Australia and in the U.S.A. (specifically in California). The aims of the international project have been to determine the attitudes of students from different nations and cultures towards alcohol advertising and to examine the perception of a set of alcohol advertisements on the part of youths from three nations and various cultural groups within those nations. The study is the first to use a single set of alcohol advertisements from 10 countries to examine responses of youth of many ethnic groups and cultures, world-wide. Thus, the study adds an innovative aspect to the alcohol advertisements’ research domain. It can, on the one hand, help prevention specialists to better develop suitable prevention activities and policies for different cultures and, on the other hand, aid alcohol advertisers interested in responsible advertising to find advertising standards suitable to each culture. The goals of the Israeli part in the international research were to compare and contrast differences and similarities among Jewish, Moslem, Druze and Christian youths’ perceptions of Israeli and foreign alcohol advertiseand to compare Israeli youths’ ments perceptions of advertisements to those of other youth cultures in the other countries participating in the project - American and Australian Jewish youths, as well as other ethnic groups. This article refers only to the differences and similarities among the four cultures in Israel. This is the first study in Israel in the alcohol field among Arab youths, who generally (except for Christians) have been brought up abstinent (believing that alcohol is evil) and who are exposed to the same advertisements appearing
in Hebrew and foreign magazines as are Jewish teenagers (alcohol advertisements do not appear in Arabic). Subjects and methods
Respondents The research sample consisted of 418 Israeli students, 217 males, 201 females, studying in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades (range of ages 15- 181 of schools in the north of Israel, where most of the Israeli Arabs are living. The schools were chosen to represent a wide range of types: a Jewish agricultural boarding school, a Jewish comprehensive school in a developing town, a Jewish academically-oriented private school in a big city, an Arab comprehensive school in a large Moslem and Druze village and an Arab comprehensive school in a large Moslem, Druze and Christian village. The respondents included 118 Jewish students (47 males, 71 females), 85 Christian students (34 males, 51 females), 48 Moslem students (32 males, 16 females1 and 167 Druze students (104 males, 63 females). A pilot sample used for constructing and testing the research instrument, consisted of 34 Jewish and 24 Arab students. Responses of this group are not included in the results. Materials
Israeli magazines were searched for alcohol advertisements. Fourteen full page color advertisements of beer, wine and distilled spirits appeared in the years 1985- 1988. They included: four Maccabee beer advertisements, one Budweiser” beer advertisement, two Tuborgb beer advertisements, one Gold-star beer advertisement, two Fantasy wine advertisements, one Monfort wine advertisement, one De Kuyper’ liqueur advertisement, one Dominion brandy advertisement and one Hallelujah liqueur advertisement. “Budweiser is made in Israel Anheuser-Busch. bTuborg is made in Israel under eries Ltd. of Denmark. cImported alcoholic beverage.
under
license
granted
license
by Tuborg
by
Brewer-
211
An additional 50 foreign advertisements were used: 21 from the U.S.A. and 16 from Australia included a variety of types (beer, wine, liqueur, wine cooler, liquor, champagne domestic and imported1 of the major companies, providing a representative sample of recent advertisements in these countries. Thirteen advertisements were from seven other countries: one from China, three from England, three from France, two from Japan, one from Kenya, two from Spain and one from West Germany. These advertisements were included in order to diminish the problem of mixing two English-speaking countries’ advertisements (U.S.A. and Australia) with those of a country which uses a very different-looking alphabet (Israel). These 13 advertisements, using languages and characters other than English and Hebrew provided students with a mix of many different languages and made the Hebrew advertisements look more natural to the English-reading students. Although this increased the total number of advertisements to 64, it simultaneously lowered resistance to the Israeli advertisements in the U.S.A. and Australia, cut down on questions and put all the advertisements into the context of “international alcohol advertising” as opposed to “alcohol advertisements in English and Hebrew”. Procedure Since there was a need to survey students in the classroom situation, during September November 1988 classes for the research were identified and adequately dark rooms for the presentation of 35 mm slides were located. The need for an entire 50-min period per class was explained to the teachers, who did not prepare the students in any way for the study. When students arrived to the dark room, the projector with the 64 slides was ready. Students completed an anonymous background questionnaire about age, grade, gender, cultural group. They were shown a Hebrew “samslide” (which was not an alcohol ple advertisement) for 30 s and spoke their initial thought or impression out loud. Participants were then informed that the advertisements
originated in 10 different countries and were printed in several languages and the 64 alcohol advertisements began to appear on the screen for 30 s each. For each slide, students were asked to write their initial impression in one or two “thematic” words of their own choice, as a response to the single open-ended question “What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you see the advertisement?“. The captions in the foreign advertisements from the nine countries were read for them and translated simultaneously to Hebrew or Arabic. Coding The authors coded the Israeli students’ responses. Each response was coded twice. The first code indicated the general tone of the response and the second code indicated the theme of the response. The general tone of the responses included six categories: (11 Positive: The response has a positive tone or a desirable outcome to the respondent either directly (examples: happiness, fun) or indirectly (Santa Claus, sailing). “Indirectly positive” assumes that the response is positive to the respondent. Negative: The response has a negative (2) tone, or an undesirable outcome to the respondent either directly (stupid, silly) or indirectly (racist, alcoholism). “Indirectly negative” assumes that the response is negative to the respondent. Neutral: The response has a neutral tone (3) or outcome or it is unclear whether it is positive or negative to the respondent (medieval times, drinking red wine). Mixed: The response is mixed, ambivalent (4) in its tone (messy but enticing, happy drunks). No response. (0) Illegible response. (9) The themes of the responses included 12 categories partially adopted from previous studies 1461: (Al
Sex: directly (examples: seduction, or indirectly (leggy, kissy).
orgy)
212
(B) (Cl (D) (El (F) (G) (H) (I) (J) (K) (L)
Romance and love (moon light, together). Violence, death, danger (risky activity, suicide). Sports (racing cars, skiing). Foreignness - distance in time or place (1950’s, British). Relaxation (slow, vacation). Food and drink - the latter as thirst quencher only (thirsty, dinner). Wealth, affluence, success (rich, the good life). Pleasure, happiness (good mood, warmth). Party, entertainment, non-sexual friendship (birthday, dance). Power, strength, non-violent force Icourage, energy). Others - response does not refer to any of the above themes (freedom, nature) and illegible responses.
When two responses were written, the first word or expression was coded. A reliability check was carried out on the responses provided by 10% of the sample, randomly selected. Percents of agreement between two independent coders were 92 and 85 for the general tone and for the themes, respectively. Selected results and conclusions /Al Comparisons within the entire set of slides (i.e., all the Israeli and all the foreign advertisements) with respect to tone of response For purposes of all analyses categories 3 and 4 were combined, and category 9 was omitted. Category 4 contained uniformly about 1% of the responses. Category 9 contained between 1% and 50/o, averaging 3% across all categories. The model for multiple contingency x2 Total
= x2 ABCD + x2ACD + x2AD
analysis is:
+ x2 ABC + x2 ABD + x2AB + x2AC
where A is the response tone (no response, posi-
tive, negative or neutral); B is Israeli vs. foreign advertisements; C is culture (Jewish, Christian, Moslem, Druze); D is respondent’s gender. According to the significant 4-way (ABCD) interaction in Table I, every variable had a significant effect on the responses. In spite of this, in every case, Israeli advertisements were viewed as more positive and as less negative, than foreign advertisements. There were less neutral attitudes towards the Israeli advertisements and they were left less often without response, except for female Moslem and Druze respondents, among whom there was an equally and exceptionally high “no response” rate to both Israeli and foreign advertisements. Among both Jewish and Moslem respondents, females regarded advertisements as more positive and as less negative, than males. Not so in the other two cultures: on the one hand, in every culture females left more advertisements unanswered; on the other hand, they were less often neutral or equivocal than males. For males, positive attitudes towards advertisements (both Israeli and foreign), decreased from Jews to Christians to Druzes to Moslems. For females the order was Jews > Christians > Moslems > Druzes. Though the change in negative attitudes was less orderly, there was an increase in negative attitudes from Jews to others, with Moslem respondents being most negative. With the exception of Christian respondents, females viewed all advertisements less negatively than males.
Table I.
x2 Summary, tone of response.
Source
x2
d.f.
Total ABC
2614.80 32.29
45
ABD ACD AB AC AD ABCD
3.70 1622.29 264.02 533.76 131.27 27.47
9 3 9 3 9 3 9
P< _ 0.01 NS 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01
213
(B) Comparisons within the entire set of slides with regard to content category Illegible responses were omitted from all analyses of content category. The model was identical to the above. In Table II the significant ABCD interaction again indicates that all three variables influenced the content category of a response. “No ranged from 4% among Jewish response” males viewing Israeli advertisements, to 19% among Druze females viewing either Israeli or foreign advertisements. Another category was established for responses not falling into any of the 11 categories. The percentage of such resranged from 20 (Jewish females ponses responding to Israeli slides) to 41 (Christian females responding to foreign slides). Both “no response” and “other response” were more frequent toward foreign than Israeli advertisements. There were fewer “no response” and “other responses” among Jews than among respondents from the other three cultures. The following content categories were more frequent toward Israeli advertisements than toward foreign ones (disregarding culture and gender): Sex, Romance, Relaxation, Pleasure, Party. Alcohol advertising links alcohol with attributes and qualities that the misuse of alcohol usually diminishes and destroys. It misrepglamorous resents drinking as and consequences-free. The following appeared more often toward foreign advertisements than toward Israeli ones: Violence, Foreignness, Power.
It is obvious, that the students provided additional categories of alcohol advertisements to those which appear in the literature, for example: Power - Strength, Violence - Death - Danger. Thus, on the one hand, alcohol advertising does create a climate in which dangerous attitudes towards alcohol are presented as normal and appropriate and on the other hand it associates drinking with driving and with other high-risk activities. Furthermore, some advertisements associate alcohol with access to power. It is ironic that an addicting drug should be offered to the public as such. Sex was the modal response in most cases. It was replaced by Pleasure in the responses of Moslem and Druze females toward both Israeli and foreign advertisements and in the responses toward foreign advertisements of Christian males and females. Jews saw more Sports in all advertisements than the others did. With the only exception of Jewish males, everyone saw more Wealth and Success in foreign advertisements than the Israeli ones. Generally, males saw more Sex in both Israeli and foreign advertisements and females saw more Romance. (Cl Analysis of Israeli advertisements with regard to tone of response Responses to each of the 14 Israeli advertisements were analyzed, using multiple contingency analysis with the model: x2 Total = x2 ABC + x2 AB + x2 AC
Table II. Source Total ABC ABD ACD AB AC AD ABCD
df:21=9+3+9
X2 Summary, content category. X’
df
P<
5318.19 224.87
180
-
15.20 1777.25 1134.54 1688.64 328.63 149.05
36 12 36 12 36 12 36
0.1 ,“:8; 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01
Though the AB (response tone by gender) and the AC (response tone by culture1 effects were not significant in every case (13 and 7 times, respectively), the triple interaction (ABC) effect was significant (P < 0.0011 in every one of the 14 Israeli advertisements. Therefore, it may again be concluded that both gender and culture significantly influenced the tone of the response to the Israeli advertisements.
214
(D) Analysis of the Israeli advertisements regard to content category In these analyses the model is: x2 Total = x2ABC
with
+ x2AB + x2AC
df: 34 = 36 + 12 + 36 Degrees of freedom were slightly different for slides in which one or more content category was missing (expected value of zero). Again, the triple interaction was significant in every case. Analysis of foreign advertisements and detailed analysis of each individual advertisement with regard to tone of response and content category, as well as specific conclusions, can be obtained from the authors. In addition to the above conclusions, it is clear that the Israelis responded to foreign advertisements - types which do not (yet) exist in Israel (for example: content categories of Violence or Power) and to products which do not (yet) exist here (for example: wine coolers). It is very likely that the themes they saw in the foreign advertisements and the different products will eventually show up in Israel. Therefore, it is possible that a part of the study is actually several years ahead of the advertising trends in Israel and thereby can be predictive. Moreover, It may help to alter the path of those trends by its ability to exert pressure on the industry. It may aid preventive activities by its ability to emphasize this issue in the framework of alcohol education [28 - 291. Through the study social scientists and alcohol problem prevention specialists can better understand the dynamic of culture as it relates to society’s perception of the role of alcohol. Additionally, this type of study lends itself to replication in other nations, thereby bringing together the world community of alcohol problem prevention scientists. Finally, alcohol advertisers interested in responsible advertising are able to use the study both as a guide to avoiding advertising pitfalls and as a way to find acceptable advertising standards which can be justified in the various cultures. This is an important point, advertising unfortunately, alcohol since remains a very powerful alcohol educator.
Advertisers should not create advertising that portrays activities which are dangerous when combined with alcohol use. References 1 2
8
9 10
11 12 13 14
15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22
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