Public Service Advertisement and its impact on youngsters- Creativity, Innovation and Sustainability in the era of disruption

Abstract

Public Service Advertisements (PSA’s) are the means to motivate public in taking a prolific action for the betterment of the society. Unlike commercial advertisements, PSAs need to be really attractive and appealing to reach the interest level and only then comes their chance to be persuasive and effective to its target audience. To bring in any attitudinal change in youth coined as special-audience, it is imperative (1) to study the impact of PSAs on the youngsters and further (2) to study how youth perceive these PSAs. If the public awareness initiatives are impactful and appealing to the youngsters, it will bring huge impact in the country as a whole. Especially the PSAs featuring “Save Water” and “Drive Safe”, the social issues taken for the study need a viral and snowball effect, to reach out to the mass especially the youth. The sample size of 300 youngsters from Gujarat, have been considered. The results have shown youths preference towards an emotional content and also positivity in the message. Results state that youth believe in self-help over others-help, proving their independence and portraying their ‘begin with them’ type attitude. The study further shows the perceptual favourability. But surprisingly for Drive-Safe campaign, today’s youth are over the death statistics, rather are more practical and proactive and are concerned about the dangers associated with rash driving. For “Save Water”, PSAs are means to enhance their know-how to save water, measures to fairly use and preserve. The prevailing ads do make them feel the onus of acting for future.