Abstract:

Advertisements constitute a powerful means of communicating and establishing cultural values throughout all of society. The receivers of these messages respond to them in terms of their vital situation as subjects and as members of social groups . This paper presents a method for the qualitative analysis of the audience's response to the characters, bonds and types of family structures displayed in commercials. The basis for accomplishing the above is the General Systems Theory as a tool for analyzing and correlating the responses of the receivers to the communication objectives of the emitter. The starting point for the analysis encompasses the identification of the psychosocial profiles of the interviews based upon their own self-perception, their experience within a system as a couple and as a family in close interaction with their socio-cultural environment. Upon applying this theoretical framework we have found that the aspirations of the interviewees , regarding both their personal ideals and those as couples and families, closely correlate to their reactions to the family dynamics portray- ed in the commercials. As an example we have included the case study on the spontaneous reactions of a segment of housewives towards two commercials that show different types of family bonds and structures . It was concluded that the expectations and hopes held by consumers with regard to lifestyles and interpersonal relationships can be included within publicity efforts as a positive contribution that serves to motivate in the target audience the search for improved bonds.