AUTHOR
Andersson, Sara; Pettersson, Åsa

DATE
2004-06-04

DEPARTMENT
Business Administration and Social Sciences / Industrial marketing and e-commerce

SUMMARY
In today’s society people faces thousands of different types of commercials and advertisements everyday. It is impossible for the audience to pay attention and remember all of them. Due to this marketers stretch the limits more and more in order to break through the advertising clutter and to be noticed among the audience. In some cases they cross the limit of what is considered acceptable and the advertisements are perceived as provocative and inappropriate. This has lead to the purpose of this thesis, which is to gain an understanding of how provocative advertising is perceived by the Swedish youth. It deals with provocative advertising, how it is perceived, if it is successful in gaining attention and the risks that might occur when using provocative advertising appeals.

The scope of this study was narrowed by focusing on Swedish University students and their perceptions of provocative advertising in printed form. This study has a qualitative approach and was conducted with a mainly descriptive purpose. The chosen research strategy was a case study and the primary data was collected through two focus groups interviews. The findings of this study shows that provocative advertising in many cases is perceived as inappropriate and goes beyond what is considered acceptable. Further the study shows that provocative advertising is better in gaining youth’s attention and is remembered better than other advertising appeals. One possible risk with this type of advertising is that it can be perceived as highly inappropriate which might lead to brand avoidance among the audience and thereby decreased sales.

ISSN 1404-5508 / ISRN LTU-SHU-EX--04/197--SE / NR 2004:197