Analysing controversial advertisements

Abstract

The use of commercials to advertise one’s products or services and popularize one’s brand is a common technique most companies, big or small, employ. Given the large influx of brands and the number of alternatives each product has in the market, advertisements have become an even more important tool for businesses to acquire a share in the minds of its target customers. Although there are numerous types of advertisements that are delivered using a variety of audio-visual channels, in principle, all of them are fighting for the user’s attention. A genre of advertisements that has historically done well in achieving this goal is controversial advertisements. Advertisements are a two-edged sword. They do manage to gather eyeballs but not only from its target audience but from the society at large. Advertisements that are controversial face the risk of facing social trial which may significantly hurt the brand. In the project, we aim to understand how controversial advertisements impact customer perception of brands and if at all the change in perception (or the lack of it) has any impact on customer buying behaviour.