Attitudes to Advertising: A Review of British and American Research

Abstract

This article compares British and American literature on public attitudes to advertising in general. Overall levels of approval are examined, as is research identifying and describing attitudinal dimensions. The review highlights the complexity and ambivalence of attitudes to advertising in both countries, and the lack of research seeking to understand rather than to measure these attitudes. Differences in attitudes also emerged between the two cultures, meriting concern at the heavy reliance on American surveys—and theories—in the general field of advertising.