Documenting the changing cultural values in TV advertising in Ireland from 1960s to 1980s

Abstract

Utilising adaptations of Richard Pollay’s 1983 methodology for measuring the cultural values that are contained in advertising texts this study conducts an interpretive content analysis of 214 TV adverts archived by the Irish Film Institute and funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland under the ‘Irish Adverts Project’. Findings show that throughout the decades surveyed the dominant cultural value referenced in these adverts is Enjoyment/Leisure; followed by Success/Status, with the third most prominent cultural value being Modernity/Technology. Given that Ireland in the 1960s was emerging from decades of inward-looking, protectionist policies and was growing in confidence (economically, politically and culturally), advertising appeals that focused on topics such as holidaying overseas, social status and technology align with the cultural changes Ireland was experiencing; although the full picture for people in Ireland in these years is more mixed. The results of the analysis thereby arguably add some credence to the claim that advertising acts a ‘distorted mirror’, reflecting a marketable version of society back to itself.