People who complain about advertising: the aficionados, guardians, activists and seekers

Abstract

Globally, the five countries who have the highest annual advertising expenditure have seen their expenditure almost double in the last 10 years even though some advertisements may be ‘unacceptable’(that is, unfair, misleading, deceptive, offensive, false or socially irresponsible) to consumers. We investigated consumer complaint responses specifically within the area of advertising in Australia which has the second highest advertising expenditure as a percentage of GDP in the world. Our findings indicate that complainants can be classified into one of four typologies based on identified underlying factors: Advertising Aficionados; Consumer Activists; Advertising Moral Guardians; and, Advertising Seekers. Further, the predictive model presented is significantly related to enable the elements within the population who would be complainants to be identified.