Persuasive effects of E-Vat television advertisements

Abstract

It is a brutal fact that the Philippines is actually facing one of the most crucial periods in history. Filipinos are confronted with so many issues that caused turmoil and even division among them. One of these issues is the passage of RA 9337 or the E-VAT Law. For the government, the reformed VAT law is the solution to the economic crisis since when tax collection improves the deliver of basic services will also improve. Through E-VAT Television advertisements, some basic information regarding the said law was made public. This study traces the factors affecting the knowledge and views of the people towards the E- VAT LAW. This aims to know if these E-VAT advertisements are persuasive enough to convince the people to believe in the essence of the law. It was found out that respondents have a moderate level of knowledge and an uncertain attitude towards the E-VAT law despite the presence of these advertisements. According to the theory of persuasion, there should be attitude change after seeing the persuasive message in this case, the E-VAT TV advertisements. The result of the study showed that many people are in doubt if the government could really carry out all the responsibilities they owe the people. This then poses a question on the impact of the persuasive message to the respondents or the people. Furthermore, two major reasons were viewed as major factors which affected the results of the study. These are the message-related barriers as well as the respondent-related barriers. Message-related barriers include the type of text presented, the credibility, reliability and convincing power of the intended message as well as the attractiveness of the message. On the other hand, the existing knowledge of the respondents that may come from other sources of information regarding the law and their biases and personal predispositions also blocked the persuasiveness of the E-VAT TV advertisements.