| This paper discusses an examination of women, aged 34 to 55, and their perspectives surrounding offensive advertising. The method used to conduct such an examination was in-depth interviewing. By adopting an interpretivist and symbolic interactionist perspective, this approach facilitated deep understanding of the lived-experiences that women have with advertising that they consider offensive. Past research in this area has not utilized such qualitative methods; therefore, this study compliments existing literature and assists researchers and advertising practitioners achieve a higher level of understanding than presently exists. A pilot interview was conducted to obtain initial, tentative themes from the data. The categories that emerged were (1) Exchange, (2) Marginalization, (3) Sweeping, and (4) Outward Feelings & Emotionality. Following the pilot interview, 15 women were interviewed and their transcripts were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. This analysis resulted in the construction of a novel conceptualization of the advertising offensiveness construct, which includes conditions and consequences surrounding offensive advertising. Specifically, advertising offensiveness involves individual values, forced exposure, unmet expectations, and three levels of advertising influence. These combined factors, or categories, represent a conceptualization that considers both specific ads and advertising in general. This conceptualization is contrasted against other negative reactions, especially irritation, and is compared to offense experienced in everyday life. This latter relationship is examined in order to build context around the phenomenon of interest. Results are also discussed and applied to future research opportunities.*; *This dissertation is compound (contains both a paper copy and CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following system application: Windows MediaPlayer or RealPlayer. |
