Audience-Peer Effects on Contraceptive TV Advertisement Viewings in a Conservative Culture [Abstract]

2022 - International Communication Association Conference, Paris, France.

Abstract

This extended abstract presents an examination of audience-peers effects on the perception of “taboo product” advertisements in a conservative culture. Using naturalistic stimuli consisting of professionally produced contraceptive advertisements, the study measured the level of the perceived offense for four audience-peer conditions. Preliminary analysis revealed significant differences in mean offense scores across all audience-peer conditions, with private and family conditions garnering the highest and lowest perceived offense scores respectively. We posit that these differences could be the result of a face-work mechanism as set out in the Face Negotiation Theory and may have strong implications for sexual health communication design, especially for conservative audiences.