A Study of Sri Lankan Television Commercials as a Factor of Shaping Consumer Mentality

Abstract

Television is one of the main media of handling public opinion as a tool of manipulation in the context of today`s economy. The advertising arm in television media is playing a huge role to fulfil business objectives of television channels as well as business industry. Companies are controlling not only conscious but also unconscious factors in consumers’ mind to compel them to buy goods. This research was done by hypothesising that Sri Lankan people get persuaded to select and buy the goods in keeping with the television advertisement by remembering the advertisement. The research was done in Colombo, Galle and Anuradhapura between April and May 2017. It used five selected television advertisements from the pilot study and the sample size was 150 participants. Interviews were conducted and content analysis of the advertisements was done using Marxist, Psychological, Semiological and Multimodal techniques. According to the findings, the television is the most effective and closest medium for the effective advertising still in the period of growth of new media. There is a discussion about skipping television ads by viewers, but still Sri Lankan television viewer has more influence from television advertising and the viewers remember the advertisements when they are buying goods. One interesting finding of this study is, the price is the main factor related to purchasing behaviour although the power of advertisements gets attention and motivates viewers towards goods. Overall the main conclusion in this study is, the television advertisements affect the orientation of consumers’ mindset.

Keywords: television, advertisements, consumer, remembering