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Too Many Ads, Too Boring
Europeans feel they are exposed to far too much advertising and that most of it is not even entertaining, according to a survey carried out by GfK Marktforschung in 21 European countries.
'Too many and too boring' is the verdict of the majority of Europeans on the advertisements that surround them every day - whether they are in Western, Central or Eastern Europe. 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.
In Spain, as much as 92 per cent of the population complains about there being too much advertising, closely followed by Russia and Italy, each on 85 per cent. In Austria, Finland, the UK and Slovenia the figure is around 60%. There are a few however who would like to see more advertising - almost 12% in each of the UK and Romania.
Few people object to ads when they are entertaining. It used to be widely held in the UK at least that 'the ads are better than the programmes', and the survey found that 73% in the UK say that they find advertisements entertaining, well above the European average. In two thirds of the surveyed countries, the figure is less than 60 per cent. A high proportion find ads boring in the Czech Republic, Italy, Germany, Slovakia and Russia. Other countries more likely to regard ads as entertaining are Slovenia (71%) and Portugal (70%).
A majority in most countries accept that advertisements 'convey useful information about the products they are advertising', with the three exceptions being the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Italy. German respondents were fairly sceptical about this (54%) whereas Finns and Slovenians top the ratings (more than 80%).
Most Europeans agree that celebrities make ads more appealing. Once again it is the Italians (47%), Slovaks (35%) and Czechs (30%) who are most doubtful.
More people generally believe that advertising works than support the other propositions - possibly a grudging acceptance or a belief that other people are more easily swayed than themselves? In Sweden 91% of the population believe that advertising works, as do 89% in Greece and 87% in Spain. Once again Italians, Russians and Czechs are the most sceptical - only 42% of Czechs believe that people will buy a product because of an ad.
The survey was carried out by GfK Marktforschung throughout Europe via GfK's Euro bus network, with 1,000 respondents interviewed by telephone or face-to-face in each country. Countries covered are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia and the UK.
Further information is available from Peggy Zirnstein, GfK Marktforschung GmbH, email peggy.zirnstein@gfk.de
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