Impact of COVID-19 on TV advertisements: informational, transformational & narrative analyses of post-COVID-19 TV advertisements

Abstract

ABSTRACT The research studies the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the message strategies of TV advertisements. Taylor’s Strategy Wheel and narrative transportation theory are used as frameworks to study the impact of the pandemic. The consumers’ lived experiences, behaviors, habits, and preferences have been impacted by the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns, and the restrictions on the movements. The research study analyses TV advertisement (n = 993) from various Indian TV channels to understand the use of various message strategies by various industries in projecting this new normal of the post-pandemic world. The results show that the informational strategy with the storytelling technique of the narrative transportation theory was used by most advertisers. Interestingly, the majority of new advertisements (n = 455, 60%) did not refer to the COVID-19 pandemic in their message and did not consider the pandemic as part of their long-term brand communication strategy.