Cultural values depicted in Indian television advertising

Abstract

During the last decade, television has diffused rapidly through Indian society. While this television boom has provided ample opportunities for the Indian government to propagate development communication messages, there has also been some concern regarding the impact of television, especially television advertising, on traditional cultural values. The purpose of the present paper is to examine Indian television advertising, focusing on the portrayal of cultural values. A brief historical perspective on the evolution of Indian television and Indian television advertising is provided. We then apply a modified version of Pollay's coding framework to analyse a sample of 200 Indian television commer cials to identify the predominant cultural values that are being transmitted through Indian television advertising. Results of the study indicate that Indian television advertising is to a large extent, if not predominantly, promoting the values of high-technology and moderniza tion, as well as consumerism.