Changing Representations of Economic Responsibility in Pakistani Television Advertising

Abstract

This study examines how economic responsibility is represented in
Pakistani television advertising across two broadcast eras. It draws on
a qualitative, paired diachronic comparison of four television
commercials from the 1980s and the 2010s–2020s, organised into two
product domains (toothpaste and life insurance). The analysis focuses
on discursive framing to assess whether economic risk is constructed
as a structural condition or repositioned as a matter of private
anticipation and self-management. The paired design supports
analytical generalisation across comparable domains rather than
statistical representativeness. Findings indicate a consistent shift across
both domains. Earlier advertisements foreground price, affordability,
and inflation, positioning thrift as a rational response to visible
economic strain. In contrast, contemporary advertisements emphasise
planning, composure, and disciplined foresight. Economic
responsibility becomes embedded within routine domestic
coordination and anticipatory conduct, while explicit reference to
structural economic pressure recedes from the narrative foreground.
The study contributes to Pakistani media scholarship by demonstrating
how commercial discourse participates in reorganising moral
expectations of economic behaviour. It extends existing discussions of
responsibilisation by showing that, in this context, responsibility is not
fully individualised but relationally organised within family life. By
offering a diachronic analysis grounded in Pakistan’s socio-economic
conditions, the article shows how televised advertising recalibrates the
visibility of economic strain and normalises anticipatory discipline as
a marker of responsible conduct.