Advertising – many love it, but many think it is to much

European survey on people?s attitude to advertising

?Too many and too boring? is what the majority of Europeans think of the advertisements that surround them every day. The Spanish feel overwhelmed by the flood of advertising, while Brits feel least bothered by it. People in Italy, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are the most sceptical when it comes to advertisements. These are the findings of a survey carried out by GfK Marktforschung in 21 European countries.

Many Western, Central and Eastern Europeans all agree that they are exposed to far too much advertising and that most of it is not even entertaining. In Spain, as much as 92 per cent of the population complains about there being too much advertising, closely followed by Russia and Italy where 85 per cent feel bothered by advertising. Although around 60 per cent believe that there is too much advertising in Austria, Finland, the UK and Slovenia, people in these countries are less critical than in Spain, Russia and Italy. In the UK and Romania, almost 12 per cent would even like to see more advertising. What people in all countries agree about is that if advertisements are entertaining, they are less likely to feel bothered by them.

Attitude to advertising in Europe1)

Country Too much Ads are Ads are

entertaining informative

Austria 61.8 58.6 81.1

Belgium 74.2 54.9 81.2

Denmark 73.8 51.7 79.2

Finland 58.6 57.8 88.1

France 79.6 57.8 59.4

Germany 78.2 30.5 53.6

UK 54.1 72.7 74.1

Greece 82.5 62.1 66.7

Italy 84.7 28.8 33.5

Portugal 66.4 70.0 76.8

Spain 91.7 46.2 50.7

Sweden 74.4 52.7 69.6

Switzerland 68.0 55.7 69.1

Bulgaria 60.2 61.9 76.1

Croatia 61.3 56.7 75.6

Czech Republic 72.0 23.5 45.8

Poland 80.9 67.0 72.4

Romania 61.5 62.9 81.1

Russia 85.2 35.7 61.0

Slovak Republic 65.4 31.6 45.1

Slovenia 57.2 70.9 86.5

1) In per cent

Source: GfK Marktforschung 2003

Advertising works

The advertising industry uses luxury, glamour and beautiful people to make consumers buy products. In Sweden 91 per cent of the population believes that advertising works, as does 89 per cent in Greece and 87 per cent in Spain. With a share of just over 50 per cent, Italians and Russians are the more sceptical Europeans, closely followed by the Czechs, with 42 per cent, when it comes to believing that the pretend world presented in an ad will make people buy products they do not really need. In Germany around 63 per cent of people will buy a product because of an ad.

ots Original Text Service: GfK Group

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