• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, May 2, 2004

Europeons Want More Entertaining, But Fewer Ads

According to a survey by GfK Marktforschung on people's attitudes and preferences regarding advertising, the majority of Europeans think the advertisements that surround them every day are "Too many and too boring".

Many Western, Central and Eastern Europeans all agree that they are exposed to far too much advertising and that most of it is not even entertaining. In Spain, as much as 92 per cent of the population complains about there being too much advertising, closely followed by Russia and Italy where 85 percent feel bothered by advertising. But in the UK and Romania, almost 12 percent would like to see even more advertising. People in all countries, though, agree that if advertisements are entertaining, they are less likely to feel bothered by them.

In 14 of the 21 countries where the survey was carried out, less than 60 percent of respondents thought that advertisements are entertaining. 71 percent of people in Slovenia and 70 percent in Portugal see advertising mostly as entertainment.

Attitude to advertising in Europe (% respondents)

	Too much Adv	Ads are entertaining	Ads are informative
Austria	61.8%	58.6%	81.1%
Belgium	74.2	54.9	81.2
Denmark	73.8	51.7	79.2
Finland	58.6	57.8	88.1
France	79.6	57.8	59.4
Germany	78.2	30.5	53.6
UK	54.1	72.7	74.1
Greece	82.5	62.1	66.7
Italy	84.7	28.8	33.5
Portugal	66.4	70.0	76.8
Spain	91.7	46.2	50.7
Sweden	74.4	52.7	69.6
Switzerland	68.0	55.7	69.1
Bulgaria	60.2	61.9	76.1
Croatia	61.3	56.7	75.6
Czech Republic	72.0	23.5	45.8
Poland	80.9	67.0	72.4
Romania	61.5	62.9	81.1
Russia	85.2	35.7	61.0
Slovak Republic	65.4	31.6	45.1
Slovenia	57.2	70.9	86.5

Source: GfK Marktforschung 2003

More than 50 per cent of the population in 18 of the 21 European countries surveyed indicated that advertisements also provide handy hints about new products. Well over 80 per cent of people in Finland and Slovenia said that thanks to advertisements they are particularly well informed.

Over 80 per cent of Portuguese respondents believed that ads for anything from wine gums to cars are more popular if a celebrity from TV or radio is advertising the product. In Croatia and Slovenia well over 75 percent believe this to be true. 47 percent of the Italians, 35 percent of the Slovak people, and 30 percent of the Czechs are most doubtful about the higher popularity of ads featuring celebrities.

In Sweden 91 percent of the population believes that advertising works, as does 89 percent in Greece and 87 percent in Spain. However, just over 50 per cent, Italians and Russians are the more sceptical Europeans, closely followed by the Czechs, with 42 per cent, when it comes to believing that the pretend world presented in an ad will make people buy products they do not really need.