Sex and violence reduce TV ad recall

'The
bottom line – profits –actually determines what programs are shown on TV. If advertisers refused to sponsor them, violent and sexually explicit TV programs would be extinct.'

Sex and violence
reduce TV ad recall

Researchers: Results may lead to cleaner shows

By Ilene Raymond

   Remember any ads from the last time you watched “The Man Show”?
    If not, you aren’t alone.
    In an important study examining the impact of program content on viewers’ memory of TV ads, viewers watching violent or sexually explicit shows were 67 percent less able to recall commercials immediately following and 60 percent less able to remember ads 24 hours later.
   By contrast, those watching shows without sex or violence recalled many of the brands advertised during the course of the shows. They also were better able to recall the ads 24 hours later when questioned by phone.
   Further, the study found that violent and sexual imagery impaired memory for both men and women. And this was so regardless of whether the viewer liked the show containing the sex and violence.
Findings of the study, which was funded by the Paxson Communications, parent of PAX, appear in the June Issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology. The research was conducted by psychologist Brad J. Bushman, Ph.D. and Angelica M. Bonacci of Iowa State University and involved 324 adults, ages 18 to 54, who were randomly assigned to watch neutral, violent or sexually explicit television programs.
   Neutral programming, taken from the PAX channel, included shows like “Candid Camera” and “Pet Mistakes”, while violent shows from other sources included “Millennium”, “World Wrestling Federation Monday Night Nitro” and “La Femme Nikita.
    Sexual shows ranged from “Man Show” to “Howard Stern” and “Strip Mall.”
   Nine ads for products with broad market appeal, such as soft drinks, cereal and laundry detergents, were inserted in each show. None of the ads contained sexual or violent themes.
   Immediately after viewing their program, participants took an unannounced quiz to see how many brand names they recalled from the commercials. Viewers were contacted the next day by telephone and again asked to remember the advertised brands.
   Immediate ad recall was highest among those who watched neutral programming. They remembered an average of 3.14 ads, compared to those who watched shows with violent (2.09 ads) or sexual (1.72 ads) content.
Delayed recall followed a similar pattern, with viewers of neutral programming able to identify an average of 4.61 ads, compared to those who viewed commercial messages sandwiched in violent (3.01 ads) or sexual (2.76 ads) shows.
   In a 2001 review of 12 previous studies involving 1,772 participants on the effect of TV violence on ad recall, researchers found that violence cut into the amount of memory available to recall ads.
    Results of the prior studies crossed demographic lines, occurring in women and men, children and adults and in those who did and did not like televised violence.
    Aware that both sexual and violent content command attention, and finding no research on the effect of TV sex on ad recall, the Iowa researchers set out to see if sexual content might affect memory for commercial images in a similar manner as violence.
   “One possible reason why sex and violence impair memory for commercials is that people pay attention to sex and violence, reducing the amount of attention they give to commercials,” says Bushman.
   A second possibility is that sexual and violent content spur additional sexual and violent thoughts.
    “Thinking about sex and violence, rather than commercials, could also reduce commercial memory.”
Bushman concedes more research is needed to find out what is driving this effect.
   While the authors say they embarked on the study with no preconceived agenda, they speculate that their findings, taken together with those of past studies that replicate the effect of violence on commercial memory, may deter advertisers from advertising on certain types of programming.
   “It is unlikely that moral appeals from parents and others will influence the TV industry to reduce the amount of violence and sex on television,” says Bushman.
   “The bottom line – profits –actually determines what programs are shown on TV. If advertisers refused to sponsor them, violent and sexually explicit TV programs would be extinct."

-Ilene Raymond is a writer living in the Philadelphia area.

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