Breaking Social and Religious Stereotypes through Audio/Visual Advertisement and Audience Perception

Abstract

There have been recent instances where some of the advertisements invoked the wrath of many social media users. While majority of the irked social media users called it a blatant disregard to the religious sentiments of the majority, the others saw it as breaking the religious and cultural stereotypes. The news about the boycott of such products and vigourous demands for pulling down of such advertisements were taken up by the mainstream media. This magnified the focus on this issue leading to more social media outburst. While there was a perception that majority of the people chagrined at the way advertisements showed some facets of the culture were majorly paid social media trolls, it becomes important to know how the perceptions fare at the ground level in the real world that’s beyond the virtualities of the social media. For this purpose, this survey based study was conducted on the respondents who had watched selected advertisements that aimed to break the cultural stereotypes. The survey was conducted using google forms tools and the findings hint towards the majority belief that belives that such advertisements are not insults to the culture but a much needed churning to break the stereotypes that continue to put a segment of the society at a disadvantage. Furthermore the study finding reveal that the perception amongst the male and female respondents differ significantly.