Keywords

Introduction

We consider the present being the latest history. However, it is also a gate to the future. The twenty-first century has brought with it a lot of new things in all spheres of human knowledge. First, in science and technologies. With all positives and negatives connected with it. And so, as it has been since time immemorial, technical inventions have almost immediately reflected themselves in the world of advertising. Crucial changes occurred in Czechoslovakia, which was split up into the Czech and Slovak Republics in 1993, even during the revolution in 1989. After the fall of communism, our society changed back again to the market economy. Advertising became again a necessary part of the economy. A huge number of new agencies and marketing communication associations (MC) arose. Together with these, also an ethic body of the Czech Advertising Standards Council, a lot of universities with this orientation, and also books, magazines, and journals both translated and original. Apart from these, our advertising was also influenced by the globalization of the market, respectively, when the Czech and Slovak Republics entered the EU. The role of advertising was influenced by changes in the whole field of marketing communication and marketing.

When publishing one of my books [2], I considered the following changes in marketing communication (MC) as the basic ones: start of integrated marketing communication, changes in marketing mix or, more precisely, shifts in the importance of the individual activities of marketing communication, change to global marketing and advertising, technical improvements of the means of advertisement, increase of the importance of social marketing and advertising, and some other facts. Nevertheless, the present responds itself. Integrated communication was more music of the end of the past century and the shift to global marketing goes without saying nowadays. The so-called new forms of marketing communication, such as guerilla, product placement, viral, event marketing, and many other [1] are also “renovated” in a similar way. Technical improvements are gradually reflected mainly to online marketing, to mobile marketing but new forms are appearing, too. They include native advertising, crowdsourcing, content marketing, murketing, and other. There are also “new” forms arising, which do not deserve such term. It is often “much ado about nothing”. They are often only a type of advertising or its combination with another one or with another medium and the authors give it a “magic label” new form of MC. Nevertheless, the current commonly disapproving attitude of the public toward advertising, mainly to its amount on TV, has become a key problem.

Methodology of Research

The object of our research was the attitude of recipients toward current advertising. The aim was, above all, to find out if the current advertising plays more a positive or negative role in society, that is if it helps us or harms us more. The main hypothesis was that “the involved public understand that advertising is still needed but it is necessary to reduce its amount.” The target group consisted of respondents from the group of “specialists”—students of marketing communication in the Czech and Slovak Republics in the number of 206 (approx. half from the Czech Republic and a half from the Slovak Republic)—and, for comparison, also randomly interviewed respondents (194). 400 respondents altogether, out of which approx. 2/3 were women. In our research, we used the qualitative explorative method of interviewing using a questionnaire that had 12 questions + complementary demographic features. When evaluating, due to the extent of the study, we could interpret exactly only that part of the data which is connected with the main hypothesis of our work. The research was made in the first quarter of 2017.

Research Results

Our research was participated by 400 recipients, approx. half from the CR and a half from the SR (282 women and 118 men), a bigger part out of the total number had a complete university education (210 respondents, others secondary education 168, only 2 elementary…), age structure (aged from 18 to 25–206, others aged over 25). When I was founding the first university of advertising in the republic, which was after the revolution, after the fall of communism in 1990, I promoted a motto: As a country cannot exist without a market, even market cannot exist without advertising.

Today, almost 30 years later, 94% (375 respondents) out of the sample (400 respondents) think that a country cannot exist without market. Market without advertising, nevertheless, cannot be imagined only by 65% (259 respondents), on the other hand, 35% (140 respondents) think that it could be possible… (Table 1).

Table 1 Attitude of the public toward helpfulness of advertising 1
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Almost a two-third majority (64%) of the respondents answered “yes” to the question if “advertising helps us with anything”, about one-third (35%) admits that partially, and only one respondent does not think so. Both men and women in both republics answer in corresponding numbers in almost the same way but it is evident that students of marketing communication trust advertising much more (Table 2).

Table 2 Attitude of the public toward helpfulness of advertising 2
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When asking: “what can advertising be helpful for” a group of women (282), more than half of the majority 59% think that it is helpful for buying things, while 20% that it sometimes entertains us, 21% states other reasons, but relatively high percentage (8%) does not even know what it is helpful for. Assistance with buying things is much lower with a smaller group of men (118), which probably arises from the fact that mainly women buy things for the households [3]. Concerning students and others (according to demographics mainly older respondents), it helps more to students or rather to female students (Table 3).

Table 3 Attitude of the public toward the amount of advertising in media
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Nevertheless, as for the amount of advertising in media, almost 90% of the respondents of all categories think that there is too much of it. Only 5.5% of the respondents cannot judge it or think the amount is adequate (Table 4).

Table 4 Attitude of the public toward the individual media
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With the following question: “in which type of media do the respondents dislike advertising most” we approach the reason of a general aversion to advertising, which is television. Advertising on TV is most unpopular with the respondents compared to the six stated types of media or out of the eight offered possibilities. Only 6% of the interviewed state that they do not mind advertising in any medium. It is more puzzling that almost 5% of the respondents mind advertising “everywhere”, that is in all types of media.

In the first place, almost half of the respondents (47%) do not like TV, in the second place there is advertising on the Internet with approx. by less than half of the respondents (21.25%). Then they are followed by billboards in the streets, cinema, radio, and the press with three respondents is insignificant. If we realize that out of the total number of 400 respondents half of them are students (206), it is understandable that the Internet is problematic in the second position. Less understandable is, that TV still interferes even more also with this younger generation which watches it at the very minimum. No distinctive differences between men and women were confirmed. The reason is mainly the amount of advertising on private TV channels (Table 5).

Table 5 Attitude of the public toward the amount of advertising in the programs on private TV channels
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Almost half of the respondents (49%) think that the amount of advertising in the programs on private TV channels is excessive and up to 39% that it is catastrophic. This is almost 90% altogether. Only 5% think that the amount is adequate and 7% cannot judge. And this is catastrophic itself.

Conclusion

This research did not show bigger differences between the opinions of women and men or students of marketing communication and other already employed respondents. Neither were confirmed similar bigger differences between the Czechs and Slovaks. However, the research confirmed that a significant majority of the respondents is always aware of the necessity of the country functioning together with the business, which cannot function without advertising. Based on measured correlations, we revealed that advertising helps the sample mainly with shopping but what impedes is the amount of advertising mainly on TV, then on the Internet, in the streets, etc., that it helps the majority of the respondents with shopping but it sometimes even entertains them. All categories dislike mainly the amount of TV advertising on private TV channels. One of the main reasons, apart from the amount, is interruption of TV programs by TV advertisements.

The making hypothesis: “Involved public understand that advertising is still needed but it is necessary to reduce its amount” according to the given questions, has undoubtedly been confirmed. This refers, especially, to TV advertising.

We would like to stress three most important results in particular. 99% of the respondents who are aware of the fact that advertising is still useful at least in something, 90% that there is too much of advertising and mainly on TV, and that its amount on private TV channels is excessive or catastrophic—88%. The situation with a TV must be definitely dealt with in practice. If we realize that still the majority of financial means is spent on TV advertising in the Czech and Slovak Republics, it remains a mystery who the advertisers and advertising agencies produce this costly matter for…. Disrespecting the opinion of the watchers can do even more harm to the efficiency of TV advertising. Apart from that, this situation tends to cause even more harm to the attitude of the recipients to advertising in general. Last but not least, it will cause harm to the whole audience share of the key medium which TV in Czechia and Slovakia still is.