PUBLIC SERVICE ADVERTISING IN INDIA: AN EVALUATION THROUGH LITERATURE

Long back a question related to sale was raised and an issue came into existence "Why one can't sell brotherhood like one sell soap?" This statement implies that sellers of commodities such as soap are generally effective, while "sellers" of social causes are generally ineffective. Afterwards the four social campaigns to determine what conditions or characteristics accounted for their relative success or lack of success were examined. They found that more the conditions of the social campaign resembled those of a product campaign, the more successful the social campaign are. However, because many social campaigns are conducted under quite un-market-like circumstances, that’s why the clear limitations in the practice of social marketing was also noted. As a part of social marketing, public service advertising needs to be mentioned as social awareness advertising, which is mainly focused on social issues like national integration, pollution, family planning, care and concern for aged and disabled, awareness campaigns against smoking, drugs, alcohol, etc. The primary purpose of this type of public service advertising is to educate the masses through hard hitting educational messages. Therefore, Public Service advertising is considered as an instrument to promote ideas important to society or to specific groups and shaping the desired attitudes and behavior. In view of the above good number of times the issues related to PSA are misunderstood and the seriousness of the concept is lost. This article attempts to review the history of public service advertising, identify issues addressed through public service advertising in India and enlist the PSA aired by govt. of India. Finally, the research attempts to summarize the recommendations of different authors made to enrich public service advertising through content analysis.