SCHOOL OF LAW, MUMBAI

A Synopsis Submitted

on

Comparison: Indian Ads vs. American Ads

IN COMPLIANCE TO THE PARTAIL FULFILLMENT OF THE MARKING SCHEME, FOR

TRIMESTER 05 OF 2016-17, IN THE SUBJECT OF Journalism and Mass Communication II

SUBMITTED TO: - SUBMITTED BY:-

Prof. Rakesh Nambiar Abhilasha Pant

A032

BA. LL.B (Hons.)

(Second year)

Received by. On date . Time..

INDEX

NO. TOPIC PAGE NO.

1. INTRODUCTION 3

2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 4

3. METHODOLGY 4

4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS 5

5. HYPOTHESIS 5

6. ANALYSIS 5

7. ROLE OF JUDICIARY 8

8. CONCLUSION 10

9. BIBLIOGRAPHY 12
INTRODUCTION

Advertising is one of the key activities for potential business and is equally important as
producing something using raw materials, or as capital, manpower, planning etc. Publicizing that
the business offers to the targeted customers is called advertising which forms the integral part of
marketing, and an essential precondition for selling. Advertising is done with vast population and
requires organizing and applying human skill and talent.

Indian advertising is talking business today and has evolved from being a small scale business to
a full-fledged industry. It has emerged as one of the major industries and tertiary sector and has
broadened its horizons be it the creative aspect, the capital employed or the number of personnel
involved.

India is the world's second most populous nation. Over a billion people live within its borders,
making it second in size only to China. It is a land where the old and the new, the traditional and
the modern, and the local and the international coexistsometimes comfortably, sometimes not.
In managing brands and targeting consumers, advertising must understand and contend with the
social and cultural diversity of India.

After years of controlling and closing the economy to foreign influence, the Indian government
liberalized the economy in 1991. The years since have witnessed rapid change at virtually every
level of the society and culture. Multinational corporations have moved in, imported goods have
become widely available, and consumption has become rampant. Today it is possible to buy
nearly anything in Indiafrom inexpensive handcrafted bangles to luxury watches, foreign cars,
and designer clothing.

Indian advertising has the enormous job of speaking to one of the world's most diverse
populations. English is the only common language throughout all of India, but it is unknown in
many sectors of the population. Television, radio, and newspapers rely on more than two dozen
languages, thus limiting the communicative reach of many advertisements to certain geographic
regions or some sectors of society. When addressing India's elite, advertising uses English.
When speaking more colloquially to the masses, it uses one of the many local languages. In
northern India, Hindi is widely used in ads but it is not useful in southern India where it is
seldom spoken. Some advertisements combine English and Hindi in a mixture known locally
as Hinglish.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Most of the cross-cultural empirical studies that have been conducted to date compared either
two or more Western industrialized countries or Western and Eastern industrial countries (with a
few exceptions). Studies that conducted cross-cultural content analysis and provide background
information for conceptual analysis were reviewed first. Other related studies that do not fall
under the umbrella of cross-cultural content analysis but are relevant and useful in understanding
the issues of cross-cultural advertising will also be reviewed.

Some books and articles include:

1. Stanton, Etzel, and Walker (1994)

2. Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard (1986)

This list is not exhaustive and any other material or text available and related to the topic in
intended to be used.

METHODOLOGY

This project will be researched purely by searching news reports and books via the Internet.
Online books and journal catalogues will be used to research relevant cases. The methodology
used for the study was content analysis. A few important textbooks too will be utilized for this
project. The project will be based on the data gathered through primary as wells as secondary
sources of data.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following Research questions will be analysed in the project:

1. What are the important elements in Ads?

2. What are the motives and intention of Ads in India and USA?

HYPOTHESIS

The phenomenon of advertising has long been a topic of research in several disciplines such as
mass communication, marketing, sociology, cultural anthropology, social psychology, semiotics
and cultural studies. One area that has attracted a great deal of consideration in several
disciplines during the last two decades is the analysis of mass media advertising content to gain
insights into how cultural factors affect advertising strategies and expressions; how cultural
values, norms and stereotypes are reflected in advertising; how advertising creates meanings and
affects the audience and the larger society over time.

ANALYSIS

Despite or because of its ubiquity, advertising is not an easy term to define. Usually advertising
attempts to persuade its audience to purchase a good or a service. But institutional advertising
has for a century sought to build corporate reputations without appealing for sales. Political
advertising solicits a vote (or a contribution), not a purchase. 1

Usually, too, authors distinguish advertising from salesmanship by defining it as mediated

persuasion aimed at an audience rather than one-to-one communication with a potential
customer. The boundaries blur here, too. When you log on to Amazon.com, a screen often
addresses you by name and suggests that, based on your past purchases, you might want to buy
certain books or CDs, selected just for you. A telephone call with an automated telemarketing
message is equally irritating whether we classify it as advertising or sales effort.

The social history preserved in advertisements is like an archaeological record. It is not a simple,
faithful chronology of society but an assortment of bits and pieces on which the passage of social
life is inscribed. By their very nature, advertisements are fleeting and ephemeral. Once they
serve their intended purpose, they are typically discarded and quickly replaced. But some ads
survive, preserved in old newspapers and magazines, on wire and tape recordings, and in
kinescopes and videotapes.

These preserved advertisements can be studied in the present for what they reveal about our
collective past. From them, we learn not only about the techniques of past advertising but also
about the society that produced them and the lives of the people who wrote, read, and heard their
messages.

Comparative analysis of advertising from Western industrialized countries and Eastern

developing countries may reveal specific similarities or differences in manifest cultural values,
norms and stereotypes in line with, or divergent from, those of Western nations. 2

Such information can be used to address the question of cultural imperialism and the debates
over whether and how advertising reflects, reinforces and affects cultural values of its target
audience. On the other hand, findings about gender role portrayals in advertising may reveal how
gender roles are changing in these societies, and to what extent the images of the gender in
advertising are keeping pace with social change.

1
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/249785
2
Ancient Indian History and Civilization By Sailendra Nath Sen
Collectivist cultures tend to emphasize being in good physical shape and time spent with family
and friends as their dominant values, whereas the notion of freedom and personal time valued in
individualist societies implies relaxation and time spent by oneself. Ads of individuals dancing or
doing sports are more prominent on HC websites than LC websites, whereas in LC countries
individuals tend to be portrayed in more relaxed situations or situations connoting holiday
activities, such as a trip to the lake or listening to music.3

The research shows that there were significant differences in many aspects of advertising
elements and expressions in India and the US. However, the findings also indicated that there
were some similarities in certain aspects of advertising expressions in both countries, which may
have been because of either same reasons or different reasons. For example, high use of imagery
in both countries because of different reasons in India and US. While in India it was due to large-
scale illiteracy in US it was due to the fact that message speed needs to be very short.4

From a sociological point of view, the analysis of variable portrayals of women provides
useful insights into how gender role norms are manifested in advertising of the two cultures.
Despite the differences in the level of portrayals, it is evident that advertising of both cultures
still portrays women stereotypical roles. Although considerable changes have taken place within
both cultures in terms of gender roles following the womens liberation movement, the images of
women in advertising are not keeping pace with social changes. 5

Comparatively, the Indian advertisements are more conventional than their US counterparts. This
can be attributed to the fact that the womens liberation movements were slow to develop in
India. This is also partly due to the fact that Indian culture is high power distance meaning that
power is more unequally distributed, roles of men and women are more clearly distinguished and
the pressure to maintain these distinctions is quite strong. On the other hand, because of a more
traditional orientation in society, advertising in India does not use sexual portrayals o f women as
much as US ads.

3
http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/2886/14/14_summary.pdf
4
www.iimb.ernet.in
5
http://www.indianmirror.com/indian-industries/advertising.html
ROLE OF JUDICIARY

In India, the field of advertising is subject to a multiplicity of laws in the absence of a

comprehensive statutory mechanism that would lay down ground rules in clear terms for
advertising in the country. As advertisements aim to influence or persuade customers into buying
products that they promote, many a times advertisements illegally use false statements and
misrepresentations about their products in violation of customers right to know exactly what
they are purchasing.

There are several laws in India that relate to advertising. A snapshot of some of these enactments
is provided hereunder-

1. Consumer Protection Act, 1986- Section 6 of the Act grants consumers the right to be
informed about the quality, quantity, potency, purity, standard and price of goods or
services, as the case may be so as to protect the consumer against unfair trade practices.
Section 2(r) of the Act, under the definition of the term "unfair trade practice", covers the
gamut of false advertisements including misrepresentations or false allurements. Redress
against such unfair trade practices pertaining to false advertisements may be sought under
the Act.
2. Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation
of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003- Section 5 of
this Act, inter alia, prohibits both direct & indirect advertisement of tobacco products in
all forms of audio, visual and print media.
3. Cable Television Networks (Regulations) Act, 1995 and Cable Television Networks
(Amendment) Rules, 2006- Section 6 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulations)
Act, 1995 provides that no person shall transmit or re-transmit through a cable service
any advertisement unless such advertisement is in conformity with the advertisement
code prescribed under the Cable Television Networks (Amendment) Rules, 2006.
However, the aforesaid provision does not apply to programmes of foreign satellite
channels which can be received without the use of any specialized gadgets or decoder.
Rule 7 of the Cable Television Networks (Amendment) Rules, 2006 lays down the
 Advertising Code" for cable services which are formulated to conform to the laws of the
country and to ensure that advertisements do not offend morality, decency and religious
susceptibilities of the subscribers.
4. Doordarshan/ All India Radio (AIR) Advertisement Code- Doordarshan and AIR, both
under the control of Prasar Bharati (a statutory autonomous body established under the
Prasar Bharati Act), follow a comprehensive code for commercial advertisements which
control the content and nature of advertisements that can be relayed over the agencies.
5. Drug and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act, 1954- This Act purports
to regulate the advertisements of drugs in certain cases and to prohibit the advertising for
certain purposes of remedies alleged to possess magic qualities and to provide for matters
connected therewith.
6. Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940- Section 29 of the Act imposes penalty upon whoever
uses any report of a test or analysis made by the Central Drugs Laboratory or by a
Government Analyst, or any extract from such report, for the purpose of advertising any
drug. The punishment prescribed for such an offence is a fine which may extend up to
five hundred rupees and/ or imprisonment up to ten years upon subsequent conviction.
7. Emblems and Names (Prevention of improper use) Act, 1950- This piece of legislation
prohibits the use of any trade mark or design, any name or emblem specified in the
Schedule of the Act or any colorable imitation thereof for the purpose of any trade,
business, calling or profession without the previous permission of the Central
Government.
8. Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006- Section 53 of this Act provides a penalty of up to
Rs. 10 lakhs for false and misleading advertisements relating to the description, nature,
substance or quality of any food.
9. Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986- This Act is aimed at
prohibiting indecent representation of women through advertisements or in publications,
writings, paintings, figures or in any other manner and for matters connected therewith or
incidental thereto (Section 3 and 4 of the Act).
10. Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994-
Advertisement in any manner regarding facilities of pre-natal determination of sex
available at any genetic counseling centre, laboratory, clinic or any other place is
 prohibited under this Act and has been made a punishable offence under the Act (Section
22).
11. Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act, 1956- Section 3 of the Act, inter alia,
imposes penalty for advertising or making known by any means whatsoever that any
harmful publication (as defined in the Act) can be procured from or through any person.
12. The Representation of People Act, 1951- The display to the public of any election matter
by means of cinematograph, television or other similar apparatus in any polling area
during the period of forty-eight hours ending with the time fixed for the conclusion of the
poll for any election in the polling area is prohibited under the Act (Section 126).
13. Indian Penal Code, 1806- The IPC, vide an array of provisions, prohibits obscene,
defamatory publication, publication of a lottery and/ or statements creating or promoting
disharmony/ enmity in society.

Needless to say, the foregoing laws are in addition to applicable IPR laws and other relevant
laws in general.6

To sum up, it can be said that multiple laws pertaining to advertisement in general and those
relating to specific sectors cause utter confusion in the minds of the manufacturer/ service
provider as well as the consumers. Further, none of the existing laws particularly address the
issues of advertisements in cyberspace. The absence of a single statutory regulatory body further
aggravates the problem. A comprehensive law/ regulation on advertising in all forms of media
which shall provide clarity in the matter and act as a one-stop window for all matters relating to
advertising is highly desirable.

CONCLUSION

From the standpoint of international marketing and advertising professionals, such cross cultural
understanding is very important in order to be able to devise successful localized advertising that
would reflect the cultural values and norms of its proposed audience. In broader sense, a

6
http://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/commercial-law/advertising-laws-in-india-law-essays.php
localized approach is more valuable and advantageous not only to the international marketer
(more useful and effective in getting its message across) but also to the larger host society (its
culture is not adversely affected by alien values, beliefs, and lifestyles).

The research finding clearly emphasizes importance to localized solutions as compared to

standardizations. The issue of cross cultural analysis of advertising has also become significant
in dealing with a recent debate over outsourcing a service like advertising to other regions. It
tries to answer the question whether a service like advertising and advertising professional who
are deeply influenced by the culture of a particular region, will be able to deliver in case of being
pitched for international clients on assignments for different regions, alien to their cultures.

the findings of this study provide useful insights into the nature of advertising in Indian and the
US over a period of time. The results show which rudiments and characteristics of advertising
are different or similar between the two countries.

From the point of view of international promotional communiqu, such cross- cultural
understanding is vital in order to be able to formulate successful localized advertising or public
relations communication that would appeal to or mirror the cultural principles and models of its
intended audience.

In a broader sense, a localized approach is advantageous not only to international communicators

but also to the larger host the public. The findings of this study are especially applicable and
timely in light if the fact that now western and eastern culture has come into greater contact due
to a momentous increase in international trade. This augmented contact between the west and the
east has created a need for an improved perceptive of international promotional communication.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Desmarais, F. (2007). Issues in cross-cultural studies of advertising audiovisual material.

PRism 4(3):
2. Niaz Ahmed (1996), Cross-Cultural Content Analysis of Advertising from the United
States and India
3. Emmanuel C. Alozie (2003), Critical Analysis of Cultural Values Found in Nigerian
Mass Media Advertisements, SMILE: Studies in Media and Information Literacy
Education, Vol 3, No 4, Pages 1-12
4. Edward C. Miller, Thomas Griffin, Peter Di Paolo, Ed Sherbert (2009), The Boundaries
Of Business-The Impact Of Cultural Differences On The Effectiveness Of
Advertisements On The Internet: A Comparison Among The United States, China, And
Germany, 2009 ABR & TLC Conference Proceedings, Oahu, Hawaii, USA
5. http://www.winadvisorygroup.com/High-contextLow-context.html
6. Singh Nitish, Analyzing Cultural Sensitivity of Websites: A Normative Framework
7. A Cultural Analysis of American and Indian advertisements by Dr, Sanjeev Bansal