1. Critically review the debate between the strong and weak theories with regard to the
effectiveness of advertising bans.
Kumar & Mittal (2002) defined advertising as controlled, identifiable information of products
and services which persuades customers through mass communication media. Therefore, it can
be said that advertisings main aim is to create awareness of products among customers and
persuade them to purchase them.Nowadays tobacco advertising is banned in almost every
country around the world and alcohol advertising could be seen as heading in the same
direction. Even though there are certain restrictions on advertising alcohol, it is still legal to do
so in most countries around the globe. Public health advocates claim that tobacco advertising
does increase smoking, although there is a significant amount of literature that finds that there
is little or no effect of tobacco advertising on smoking (Chaloupka, Saffer, 2000). This causes us
to look into the question of will banning advertising in certain sectors really be effective and
cause consumers to stop buying a product? There are two theories of advertising that
organisations could use when creating an advertising campaign, these are the strong theory and
the weak theory. Each theory is used to communicate to audiences in different ways. The strong
theory is used to try and entice new consumers to buy a product and communicates a strong
and obvious message. Whereas the weak theory is very subtle and is used more by
organisations who are trying to keep already loyal consumers. Each theory will be looked at
more closely throughout this paper and the effectiveness that they have on advertising bans - in
particular smoking and alcohol bans - will be critically reviewed.
The first tobacco advertisement was published in 1789 in a New York Daily newspaper. At this
time advertising was a new and emerging concept and because of the unknown negative impact
of tobacco on consumers’ health, advertising for tobacco was not seen as any different as for
other products. Throughout the years, research papers were published that linked tobacco to
cancer and other diseases and with pressure from the federal trade commission and the U.S.
congress, tobacco advertising was slowly on its way to becoming banned. In 2005, all forms of
tobacco advertising became banned in almost every country around the world.
Advertising is an important method of competition in industries that are highly concentrated
such as the tobacco industry. These types of industries try to compete through advertising
instead of through price (Saffer, Chaloupka, 2000). Although public health advocates (Roemer,
1993) claim that tobacco advertising does increase smoking, there is significant literature that
finds little or no effect of tobacco advertising on smoking (Hoek, 1999). It can be seen that
advertising is the main way that tobacco companies can entice consumers to buy their products.
Even though there are many different opinions on whether advertising actually effects the
consumption of tobacco, it was noted that in 2005 when the worldwide ban on tobacco came
into force, 50% of USA citizens quit smoking (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
2005).
Theories suggest that the effect of advertising bans will increase as the number of banned media
increases. With the introduction of these bans there is likely to be a significant relationship
between the number of bans and the consumption of products (Saffer, Chaloupka, 2000). This
shows that as more and more advertising bans come into place it is likely that many

2. organisations could see their products not selling as fast as before and therefore sales could be
likely to suffer.
In 1954 Wilbur Schramm developed the basic model of communication. His model was different
as he emphasised the process of encoding and decoding the message. Schramm envisioned this
process as a two-way communication between the sender and receiver. In comparison to
models that were already around, Schramm incorporated the study of human behaviour in the
communication process (Schramm, Roberts, 1971). The basic model of communication has 6
parts; these are source, encoder, message, channel, decoder and receiver. Each of these parts is
vital to the communication process.
First of all there is the source which would be the advertising company who want to send out a
message to consumers. The encoder is also the person who is sending out the message and will
decide what is to be communicated and to who. The message is then sent out across the desired
channel which could be television, radio, newspapers and is finally decoded by the consumer
and therefore the message has been received. Schramms model added in an additional part
called ‘feedback’ which allowed the initial source to be able to find out and review if the
message that they had originally sent was successful (Schramm, 1954).
In regards to tobacco advertising, the message that was communicated to consumers from the
company Camel Cigarettes was a risky one. The source and encoder being the tobacco company
itself decided to create a message that was aimed to appeal to young adults and children and
advertised the message that they should begin smoking was sent through channels such as
television and print adverts and these were picked up by the desired target market.
Strong theory sees advertising as a dynamic force operating as an engine for brand innovation
and other types of change in the market-place (Ferrel, Hartline, 2005). The strong theory
assumes that advertising is capable of affecting a degree of change in knowledge, attitudes, and
behaviours of target audiences. This theory appears to have been universally adopted as a
foundation for commercial activity. Strong theory holds that advertising can persuade someone
to buy a product that he or she has never previously bought. It assumes that consumers are
unintelligent and can be persuaded by strong advertising to go out and buy any product.
Under strong theory, advertising is believed to be capable of increasing sales at the brand and
product type levels. These rises in sales are achieved through the use of manipulative and
psychological techniques that are developed against consumers who are passive, possibly due
to apathy and are generally incapable of processing information intelligently.
The main model that is used when taking a strong approach to advertising is the AIDA model
which stands for attention, interest, desire and action. The model suggests that in order for an
advertisement to be affective it needs to attract the consumer’s attention through effective
advertisement. If consumer response to advertising is positive, the model proceeds to the next
step, Interest, where consumer expresses interest in the particular brand. Then, in the step of
Desire, the consumer theoretically manifests an active buying behavior. In the last step, Action,
the want for the product transforms into actual buying behavior.
An example of strong theory advertising would be the advertisement for L’Oreal shampoo.
Throughout the advert, the consumer is being told that they need this product and that it will
bring many benefits to the consumer’s lives. The advert is telling the consumer what it the

3. problem and only through buying their product can this problem be resolved. Throughout the
adverts, the consumer is continually being persuaded and told that they need to go out and buy
the product which is exactly how the strong theory of advertising is to be used.
The weak theory differs to the strong theory in a number of ways. The weak theory is based
upon the idea that consumers pattern of brand purchases is based more on habit than by the
consumer’s exposure to advertising. The main model which is based upon the weak theory of
advertising is Ehrenberg’s ATR model, which stands for awareness, trial and reinforcement
(Barry, 1987).
The ATR model is based on the process of how the weak theory is to communicate with the
consumer. First the consumer must be made aware of what of the product or service is so that
they become enticed to purchase. Then there is the trial period which involves a first time buyer
of the product trying it out and deciding if they like the product or not. Finally, there is
reinforcement which provides awareness and reassurance to the consumer, whether they are a
first time user or a repeat consumer. Having trialed the product, the customer feels reinforced
or even reassured about the purchase through further advertising (Lancaster, Massingham,
2011).
In contrast to strong theory, weak theory believes that consumers are selective in determining
which advertisements they observe and only perceive those that promote products that they
either use or have some prior knowledge of. This means that in most cases they already have
some awareness of the characteristics of the advertised product. The weak theory is based upon
the advertiser’s belief that consumers are intelligent and are trying to target those who are
barely persuaded to buy a product because of advertisements (Ehrenberg, 1997).
When taking the weak theory approach, the amount of information actually communicated is
limited. This type of advertising is not potent enough to convert people who hold reasonably
strong belief that are counter to those portrayed in an ad. Advertising is employed as a defence,
to retain customers and perhaps increase their usage. Weak theory is mainly used to reinforce
existing attitudes which ultimately should entice consumers to buy and therefore result in
higher sales.
An example of weak theory advertising would be the Marks and Spencers adverts for their food
products. M&S advertise on the television but never actually confront the consumer and tell
them to go out and buy the product. The advertisement speaks for itself and through using
images and words that will respond well with the consumer, they are creating awareness for
their products and inviting the consumer to either have a first time trial or reinforcing the
thoughts that previous consumers may have felt when they first purchased the product.
Both the strong and the weak theory could be heavily affected if advertising bans were more
common throughout advertising.
The advantages of the strong theory are that through strong advertising advertisers are able to
manipulate consumers using psychological techniques. These advertisements are being used to
change consumers opinions and attitudes and if the advertising campaign follows the strong
theory then the adverts should be aggressive and almost in the faces of consumers (E. St. Elmo
Lewis, 1898). Using strong theory, companies are able to promote their product or service
effectively and are able to entice new consumers to using their products. One disadvantage of

4. the strong theory is that it’s based upon the idea that consumers are unintelligent and so even if
the advertisements are strong consumers still may not take notice and in the end the
advertisement would fail.
The advantages of the weak theory are that through advertising it is hopeful that consumers
who have purchased those specific brands products in the past will be reminded and enticed to
purchase that brand once again. Through weak theory advertising it is hopeful that the adverts
generate positive attitudes from the audience and it is more hopeful that through word of
mouth, new consumers will try the brand (Becker, Murphy, 1993). The disadvantage of the
weak theory is that through this type of advertising it will be difficult for the brand to target
new consumers. The type of advertising is soft and due to the lack of in depth information
throughout the adverts, new consumers perhaps are not enticed to try out the product.
In regards to the effectiveness of advertising bans and how these would affect the strong and
weak theory of advertising, it could be said that for strong theory, advertising bans could create
a massive problem. If brands were unable to advertise due to laws, a company would not be
able to promote a new product to consumers and therefore sales would be low. For weak
theory, although bans could bring problems, they are in a better position that those who adopt
the strong theory. Brands who adopt the weak theory could still create adverts that
communicate to loyal consumers and hope that through these consumers, new ones would
appear.
In the future, if alcohol advertising where to the same route as tobacco advertising has gone.
Through published research, it is not believed that consumption of alcohol would decrease such
as tobacco has. There are many methods alcohol companies can take that would still promote
their products, such as lowering prices and therefore it could be said that through banning
alcohol advertisements, it is unlikely that the decrease that was seen in tobacco consumption
with be the same in alcohol consumption (Ellickson, et al, 2005).
In conclusion, advertising bans do have an effect on the consumer’s consumption of certain
products. The strong and weak theories have both been reviewed and it is clear that the strong
theory may be affected by advertising bans more than the weak. A consumer’s pattern of brand
purchases is driven more by habit than by exposure to promotional messages (Ehrenberg,
1997). From what Ehrenberg said, if advertisements have no effect on consumer’s behaviour
when buying then advertising bans should not pose a massive problem when it comes to
advertising. The future for alcohol advertising could go the same way as tobacco but it is likely
that the banning of this advertising will not have the same effect on consumers as what banning
tobacco did.

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