What sucks, young people don't buy either

The remote control has turned television into an interactive medium. The user style of the zapper quickly developed: what you don't like is zapped away - and often enough these are TV commercials. According to the results of the 2001 Youngcom youth study, 35.7 percent of young Germans aged between 13 and 20 always switch the channel when commercials are on. Among 21 to 29-year-olds, 28 percent never watch commercials. 12.7 percent of the younger segment and 11.9 percent of the older segment stated that they rarely zap away. Only 3 and 3.3 percent respectively said they would never switch over because they found advertising interesting.43.5 percent of German tweens do not buy a product if its advertising is annoying. And 15.5 percent of them think that advertising is totally annoying. Nevertheless, 33.7 percent think advertising is good - 30.7 percent think it is bad. Advertising comes off better among teenagers. Here, only 23 percent boycott annoying products, while 38.1 percent think advertising is a good thing.
The youth study conducted by the communications agency Youngcom asked 1000 young Germans about their media behavior. Further information is available from the agency on 0049 893 000 9214 or on the website www.youngcom.de. Stefano Monachesi