Religiosity and Egyptian Muslim millennials’ views on offensive advertising

What is it about?

The media regularly covers stories highlighting the fervor with which Muslims take offence to advertisements that are seen to contradict or challenge the tenets of their religion (Islam) and culture. We investigated Egyptian Muslim Millennials’ perceptions post 2011 Egyptian Arab Spring revolution, through a series of focus groups. In contrast to these reports, we find that the landscape is much more nuanced. Largely, Egyptian Muslim millennials describe offense as being annoying or provocative advertisements where the message, theme or execution disregards their intelligence. Furthermore, their parents, access to basic utilities and having a stable living environment command a greater influence than religiosity. To illustrate our findings, we present a new conceptual model that details a dual-process of cognitive, affective and conative activity. Finally, we highlight an environmental paradox and social media parallel existence, that leads to our participants being more accepting of offensiveness - which allegorically the authors call the ‘Narnia paradigm’, drawing from C.S. Lewis’s fictional story ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’.

Featured Image