American Association for Public Opinion Research

Americans and Advertising: Thirty Years of Public Opinion Author(s): Stephen A. Greyser and Raymond A. Bauer Source: The Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring, 1966), pp. 69-78 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Association for Public Opinion Research Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2747371 Accessed: 09/10/2009 03:18
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AMERICANS AND ADVERTISING: THIRTY YEARS OF PUBLIC OPINION*

BY STEPHEN A. GREYSER AND RAYMOND A. BAUER This historical analysis of American public opinion toward advertising as an institution in our society reveals remarkable stability in basic feelings about advertising and its major institutional elements over the past thirty years. Although there is a general paucity of data from which to generalize, opinions are examined in perspective on issues such as the public's general favorability toward advertising, advertising and the economy, advertising as a persuader, truth and standards of advertising, and advertising's effect on prices. Stephen A. Greyser is Assistant Editor and Research Director, Harvard Business Review; Raymond A. Bauer is Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School and President of the American Association for Public Opinion Research.
B

REATHES there an American so unopinionated that he has

never expressed an opinion about advertising? Probably not, for advertising is a subject that has consistently elicited praise and criticism from the American public. In conjunction with our study of what Americans think about advertising as an institution in our society, we made an historical review of advertising criticism, particularly in twentieth-century America, including an examination of a series of public opinion studies with questions on advertising, dating from the 1930's. Our hope was to learn not only what the public has said it thinks about advertising over this period, but whether the public's opinions have changed over the past three decades.
STREAMS OF CRITICISM

Criticism of advertising is no doubt as old as advertising itself. If oral selling is considered a legitimate precursor of today's advertising, then surely he who first objected to the babbling barker of the Babylonian tradesman was the unknowing progenitor of a long line of critics. Or perhaps, if we consider only written advertising, some
* This article grows from researchon attitudes toward advertising held by businessmen and the public, especially the American Association of Advertising Agencies' Study of the Consumer Judgment of Advertising, to be published by the Harvard Business School Division of Research. In the original gathering of this historical material, the support of the Sperry & Hutchinson Company is gratefully acknowledged.

STEPHEN A. GREYSERAND RAYMOND A. BAUER articulate Pompeiian goes unheralded as advertising's first critic when he commented on the walls painted with announcements for sport or theater. In twentieth-century United States, advertising has reached everhigher peaks with respect both to the volume directed at consumers and its commercial necessity for business. In the wake of the increasing amount and pervasiveness of advertising has come consistent criticism of it. This criticism has comprised three major streams. The first stream attacks advertising's basic economic function and its business role. This particular stream was at a high tide during the Depression years, and linked the idea of advertising as an economic waste and a cost that the American public could not afford to more general ideological condemnation of business, branded goods, and so on. Criticism of the social goals of society, particularly intellectual criticism of the way in which the social order operates, is a separate but related aspect of criticism of our economic system as a whole and its predominant values. A second stream relates to the techniques of advertising as an extension of selling, incorporating both displeasure over any partisan advocacy of a product and concern over possible manipulation of consumers by propagandists and persuaders. Disdain for selling and disapproval of manipulation are both segments of a social criticism of advertising. (Some of the intellectual criticism belongs here too.) The third stream is criticism of advertising content and the amount of advertising. This criticism has been among the most persistent of all, focusing on both advertising's ethical aspects (the truth issue) and its aesthetic aspects (the taste issue). 70
PUBLIC OPINION STUDIES OF ADVERTISING'S INSTITUTIONAL

ASPECTS

While countless studies have been undertaken of consumer reactions to the advertisements of specific products and firms, a search of the literature and of the Roper Public Opinion Research Center's files in Williamstown reveals only a small number of studies focusing on the public's attitudes toward advertising as an institution. Of these studies still fewer have dealt systematically with a variety of aspects of advertising's image or posed these issues to broad segments of the public. Among these are: The 1938-1939 Alpha Delta Sigmastudy directedby ProfessorNeil H. Borden in conjunction with his massive study of The Economic Effects of Advertisingl
1

Chicago, Irwin, 1942; see especially Chap. 26.

AMERICANS AND ADVERTISING George Gallup's "Studies of Consumer Agitation" (1939,

Consumer Attitudes toward Distribution (1946-1947)3
1940)2

71

Professor Kenneth Dameron's Ohio State Consumer Study (1950)4 The Wage Earner Forum's "How the Public Looks at Advertising" (1951)5
Field California Poll's "The Public Looks at Advertising" (1953, 1961)6

Gallup's Redbook "Study of Public Attitudes toward Advertising"7 Universal Marketing Research's study of attitudes toward advertisements
(1960)8

American Association of Advertising Agencies' (AAAA) Study of Consumer

Judgment of Advertising (1964)9

Having reviewed many of the opinion studies made over the past three decades, are there specific institutional facets of advertising that we can examine in perspective, over time? Further, have the public's attitudes toward particular aspects of advertising changed over the past thirty years? And, has the public expressed great concern over particular aspects of advertising? despite the accumulation of a number of studies, Unfortunately, there is a paucity of good data. Variations in the samples selected, in the wordings of specific questions, and in the general thrust of particular questionnaires all affect our ability to make, and the utility of making, a solid analysis of trends in public attitudes toward advertising.

Nonetheless, there are a few areas in which such an effort can be undertaken. The following discussion treats each of these institutional issues in turn, presenting chronologically data both from the studies mentioned above and, in certain instances, from other isolated efforts to probe individual institutional aspects of advertising. The data presented in General favorability toward advertising. Table i indicate that Americans are generally favorable toward advertising. While they may have specific criticisms of advertising, and need only an invitation or opportunity to express them, over all the public is quite favorable to advertising as part of American life. relevant data on Unfortunately, Advertising and our economy. how the public reacts to advertising as an essential part of our economy dates only from after World War II. It would be enlightening to have information comparable to that outlined below from the 1930's, when advertising was under considerable economic attack.
Advertising Research Foundation, New York, 1939-1940. Committee on Consumer Relations in Advertising, Inc., New York, 1947. 4 Reported in Printers' Ink, Mar. 7, 1952. 5 Macfadden Publications, May 9, 1951 . 6 FRC Footnotes, October 1961. 7 Redbook, 1959. 8"An Experimental Study of Public Attitudes toward Advertising," 1960. 9 "An Analysis of the Principal Findings," AAAA, 1965.
2 3

72

STEPHEN A. GREYSER AND RAYMOND A. BAUER TABLE 1

GENERAL FAVORABILITY TOWARD ADVERTISING

(in per cent)

Have you any criticisms of advertising? (Gallup, 1939, 1940)* 1940 1939 Yes, or some criticisms 42 40

In general, do you like or dislike advertising? (Gallup, Redbook, 1959) 75 Like 15 Dislike 10 Can't say General attitude toward advertising (self-coded). (Universal Marketing Research, 1961) 54 Generally favorable 25 Half and half 17 Generally unfavorable 3 Don't know Attitude toward advertising (coded independently). (AAAA, 1964) 41 Favorable 34 Mixed 8 Indifferent 14 Unfavorable 3 Unclassifiable * Note that question wording invites a high proportion of criticism.

TABLE 2
ADVERTISING AND THE ECONOMY

Statement
Advertising tends to stimulate consumers to improve their standard of living (Consumer

Per Cent Agreeing

AttitudestowardDistribution,1946)
Advertising is a necessary part of our economic

75

AttitudestowardDistribution, system. (Consumer 1946)

Advertising has played a large part in creating a high standard of living in America. (Wage Earner Forum, 1951) Advertising helps keep the country prosperous because it creates sales. (Gallup, Redbook, 1959) Advertising is essential. (AAAA, 1964)* Advertising raises our standard of living. (AAAA, 1964)

75

90 81 89 71

* Statements were put in alternate forms to split halves of the sample. Results here are responses to this statement only.

AMERICANS AND ADVERTISING

73

As can be seen in Table 2, since 1946 roughly three-quarters of the American public has seen advertising as an essential economic feature making specific economic contributions, particularly in the form of an improved standard of living. This fact and the general similarity of the questions in this series allow us to say that attitudes in this area have been rather stable. Advertising as a persuader. On this issue, unfortunately, there are very few questions from which to comprise a series. However, despite differences in question wording (especially in the Field California Poll version) and in the samples, it would seem from the data in Table 3 that unfavorable attitudes toward advertising as a persuader have been rather stable over time, much as attitudes have been stable on the favorable economic aspects. TABLE 3
ADVERTISING AS A PERSUADER

Do you think advertising leads people to buy things they don't need or can't afford? (Gallup, 1939, 1940) 1939 1940 Advertising leads people to buy things they don't need or can't afford. (Ohio State Study, 1950) Most advertising just tries to get people to buy a lot of things they don't really need. (Field California Poll, 1953, 1961) 1953

Per Cent Agreeing 80* 81* 80

45

1961 59 Advertising often persuades people to buy things they shouldn't buy. (AAAA, 1964)t 73 * Per cent who answered "Yes" or "In some cases." t Statements were put in alternate forms to split halves of the sample. Results here are responses to this statement only.

Truth and standards of advertising. Numerous questions in the surveys bear on the matters of truth in advertising and advertising's standards. About half the American public seems to find fault with the truth content of advertising. Table 4 shows this to be true for
1934, 1939, 1946, and 1964. While the question wording and basic ap-

proaches of the inquiries may vary, the results seem to hold steady at about the 50 per cent mark. However, concerning the standards of advertising, Americans generally think that things are improving; this
was so in 1939, 1940, 1946, and 1964. The wide optimism concerning

the trend in advertising standards is paradoxical in light of the con-

74

STEPHEN A. GREYSER AND RAYMOND A. BAUER TABLE 4

TRUTH AND STANDARDS IN ADVERTISING

(in per cent) A. Truth and Standards in General Most advertising statements are based on reasonable facts or exaggerated claims. Which do you find most often to be the case? (Sales Management, Sept. 1, 1938) Reasonable Exaggerated 1934 51 49 1938 42 58

On the whole, do you believe advertising today is truthful? (Ladies Home fournal, May 1939) Yes 51

How much advertising is misleading? (Consumer Attitudes toward Distribution, 1946) Practically all At least half Less than half Practically none 8 35 35 6

Advertisements present a true picture of the product advertised. (AAAA, 1964)* Generally or partially agree B. Truth and Standards Today and Yesterday Is advertising more or less truthful than 5 years ago? (Gallup, 1939, 1940) More Less 1939 46 21 1940 50 19 47

Present day advertising is much better than that of 4-6 years ago. (Consumer Attitudes toward Distribution, 1946) Yes No Doubtful Don't know 62 8 20 10

Advertising today is more truthful than it was three years ago. (Ohio State Study, 1950) More truthful 41 15 Less truthful Would you say that today's standards are higher, lower, or about the same, compared with ten years ago? (AAAA, 1964) Higher About the same Lower Don't know 58 18 10 14

* Statements were put in alternate forms to split halves of the sample. Results here are responses to this statement only.

75 tinuing complaints about truth in advertising by half of the public. This is especially so when one considers the general American tendency to believe that trends in other zones of life are deteriorating.10 One must consequently interpret opinion data cautiously in the truth and standards areas, and examine the issues jointly rather than singly, as in Table 4. Advertising's effect on prices. This theme has been very frequently studied over the years, and more relevant attitude-trend data exist on it than on any of our other topics. Unlike the situation with respect to several of the issues above, we have data on this topic from the 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, and 1960's, and are fortunate to have one major subseries where the same form of question on this issue was put to a nationwide panel six times from 1938 to 1951. At least two conclusions can be drawn from examining the data in Table 5. First, in studies in each of the four decades under scrutiny here, a majority of the public believed that advertising costs result in increased consumer prices, although there are exceptions. (In each case, in Table 5, the percentage of judgments favorable to advertising comes first.) This is apparently a particularly sensitive area for advertising; in studies where the public gives its views on a number of issues related to advertising, they tend to be more anti-advertising on this issue than on others."' Second, the proportion of consumers holding this attitude has increased somewhat in recent years, although it is still below the level of the 1930's. This is perhaps most clearly revealed in the trends shown in the Psychological Corporation and Field California Poll series. Furthermore, the AAAA study, which in 1964 used two forms of the question on split halves of the sample ("advertising results in lower prices"; "advertising results in higher prices") shows a slightly higher percentage of the public saying that advertising results in higher prices than saying lower prices. This dual-statement formulation is perhaps the best barometer of opinion on the topic to date.
CONCLUSIlON

AMERICANSAND ADVERTISING

It would seem clear from the above that even professional researchers can have problems in developing questions to yield meaningful data, especially data that will be comparable and readily interpretable in view of previous research. However, despite variations in
10 See, for example, Hazel Gaudet Erskine, "The Polls: Some Thoughts about Life and People," Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1964, pp. 517 ff. 11 That it is anti-advertising to agree that advertising increases prices has long been assumed. It is possible that many people might agree that advertising raises prices, but might simultaneously agree that benefits such as national brands are worth the added cost.

76

STEPHEN A. GREYSER AND RAYMOND A. BAUER TABLE 5

ADVERTISING'S EFFECTON PRICES (in per cent)

Stores could sell for less money if they didn't advertise so much. (University Toledo, 1935)* No Yes Uncertain or don't know 46 39 15

of

Do you believe that you are paying a premium for widely advertised goods, because of the large amount of money spent for advertising by the manufacturer of these goods? (Advertising Age, 1936)* No Yes 49 51

One pays more for advertised articles than for those distributed without advertising. (Sales Management, 1936)*

No
Yes Uncertain

22
53 25

Do you think products that are advertised widely cost more than products that are not advertised? (Ladies Home Journal, 1939)*

No
Yes

49
51

Do you believe that widely advertised mass production articles cost more because they are advertised? (Sales Management, 1939)* No Yes 64 36

Manufacturers could sell their products for less if they did not spend so much on advertising. (Borden, 1938-1939)* No Yes Uncertain 50 37 14

Do you think that advertising increases or decreases the cost of things you buy? (Gallup, 1939, 1940) 1939 Decreases Increases Don't know 15 72 13 1940 17 69 14

Advertising may cause the consumer to pay less for a product than if it were not advertised because it increases sales and makes it possible to cut the cost of production and marketing.t (Consumer Attitudes toward Distribution, 1946) Yes 52

No
Doubtful

18
20

No answer

10

AMERICANS

AND

ADVERTISING

77

TABLE 5 (continued) The consumer must pay more for goods because of advertising. (Consumer Attitudes toward Distribution, 1946) No Yes Doubtful No answer 33 39 17 11

Do you think advertising increases the cost of the items you buy? (Ohio State Study, 1950) Yes (Remainder unreported) 65

On cigarettes, for example, they spend thousands of dollars for advertising. If they cut out the advertising, they could pass the savings on to the consumer. (Wage Earner Forum, 1951) No Yes Don't know 40 58 2

Do you believe advertising makes the things you buy cost more or less in the long run? (Psychological Corporation, 1938-1951) 1938 Less More Neither Don't know 24 40 17 19 1941 29 37 15 19 1944 19 34 25 22 1946 33 37 13 17 1949 30 39 19 12 1951 26 46 19 9

In your opinion, does advertising increase or decrease the cost of things you buy? (Gallup, Redbook, 1959) Decrease Increase No difference Don't know 11 57 20 12

Advertising makes things cost more than they would without advertising. (Field California Poll, 1953, 1961) 1953 No Yes Don't know 41 57 2 1961 32 64 4

In general, advertising results in lower/higher prices. (AAAA, 1964)t Lower Higher Don't know 40 45 15

* Reported in Neil H. Borden, The Economic Effects of Advertising, Chicago, Irwin, 1942, p. 790. t An incredibly worded item! t Statements were put in alternate forms to split halves of the sample.

78

STEPHEN A. GREYSER AND RAYMOND A. BAUER

question wording and samples, there seems to be no reason to believe that Americans are particularly more, or less, critical of advertising today than they have been in the past. The general stability of opinion over time is marked, with respect to both favorable and unfavorable attitudes. This stability is reinforced by the general findings of the AAAA study, showing that Americans make distinctions between those aspects of advertising they endorse and those they disparage: few say they are basically opposed to advertising, and few give advertising across-the-board approval. When we examine these data in conjunction with other historical research, we find that sentiment toward advertising as a basic economic institution in our society seems to reflect the prevailing economic context of the times. During the Depression and immediate post-Depression eras, economic issues were salient, and the costs of advertising were among those clarioned as "excessive" during the heyday of the so-called "consumer movement." When war came, winning the struggle became the supreme objective; in addition, the unavailability of many products resulted in a greatly reduced volume of product or brand advertising. Both these factors tended to diminish wartime antiadvertising sentiment. The postwar era saw not only an end to price controls but the advent of television: economic matters again loomed relatively important to the public, and television became the most intrusive advertising medium ever. Both these factors tended to increase consciousness of, and negative sentiment toward, advertising. Yet, in spite of all these general tendencies, the public's basic feelings toward advertising and its major institutional elements have remained remarkably stable over the years. While consumers will criticize individual aspects of advertising, they accept it as part of American life and are on the whole favorable toward it.