Car advertising and young people in the UK: content analysis

More and more people are deciding to live and work in places that effectively lock them into a car-based lifestyle, the social and environmental consequences of which have become a major concern. Since car dependence is difficult to reverse, policy-makers will need to understand why people behave in this way, particularly young people. One possible influence is car advertising, which might help to shape public expectations about what a car is for. In this paper, content analysis is used to pick out themes within the marketing ‘message’ and compare them across different models and advertising media in a systematic way. The themes are arranged within a hierarchical framework, ranging from factual information (‘hard’) to emotive associations (‘soft’). They include aspects of presentation not previously taken into account. The results of the analysis, which covers a sample of 42 advertisements appearing during 2006 in paper press outlets and television programmes most popular among young people in the UK, suggest that the emphasis lies not with the merits of the vehicle as such, but the emotive rewards to be gained from driving it. The authors believe that, intentionally or not, this message is likely to appeal to adolescents.