INTRODUCTION With the advent of information technology and massive growth in multimedia concepts, the internet has the ability to support a variety of online advertising formats (Rodgers & Thorson, 2000). According to Wolin, Korgaonkar, & Lund (2002), web advertising's broad format consists of commercial content paid for by sponsors, designed for audiences, delivered by video, print, audio, graphics or animation. All these online advertising formats can be a good source of information for making purchase decision. Further, in every one's life internet becomes emerging media for information and entertainment. Almost all demographic groups of people availing the internet facility and they come across with online advertisements while surng internet. This will ultimately raise a question whether the online advertisements creates any impacts. Though there are many people using internet for information gathering, entertainment, chatting, exchanging information and ideas, buying and selling of products and services, teenagers are mostly attracted by internet sophistications. Hence, this paper signies impacts of online advertisements among the teenagers. Methodology adopted It was decided that case study method using primary data would be appropriate to investigate the objectives and the hypotheses. The instrument used to collect the data was a Questionnaire. The geographical area of Tamil Nadu state was chosen as the Universe. The main reason for choosing Tamil Nadu state is that the investigator is located here and is familiar with the state. More signicantly, Tamil Nadu state has the distinction of being an active commercial centre and a centre of learning of IT and IT related courses. The data was collected by the Field Investigator as well as the Research Assistant themselves which follows systematic sampling technique. Also, Snowball Sampling technique was followed to collect data using questionnaires distributed to identied school and college students by the researcher himself. Accordingly, a total of 2500 questionnaires were administered to sample respondents both by systematic and snowball s a m p l i n g t e c h n i q u e s . I g n o r i n g t h e i n c o m p l e t e questionnaires, 2001 usable questionnaires were used for the present study with a yielding rate of 80.04%. Objectives of the study Ÿ To analyze the general opinion about the online advertisements Ÿ To study the respondents' opinion about Online Advertisements for Commercial Products Analysis and Discussion The general opinion of the teenagers about online advertisements was captured using six different statements and the responses were analyzed using appropriate statistical analysis. The results are discussed below. Analysis on general opinion about online advertisements Initially, the respondents were queried about possession of laptop, frequency of going online, time spent for browsing, general opinion about online advertisement, frequency of clicking online advertisements and the types of online advertisements. Their responses were subjected to frequency analysis and test of signicance using Chi-Square test with the following Null and Alternative Hypothesis. H : 0 There is no signicant difference in the respondents based on possessing a laptop H : 1 There is a signicant difference in the respondents based on possessing a laptop The result is tabulated in Table 1 Table 1 Frequency analysis on possession of laptop by the respondents GENERAL OPINION ABOUT ONLINE ADVERTISEMENTS AMONG THE TEENAGERS – AN EMPIRICAL STUDY Original Research Paper Dr K Pongiannan Assistant Professor in Commerce, Government Arts & Science College, Sathyamangalam – 638 401, Erode District, Tamil Nadu, India X 139GJRA - GLOBAL JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH ANALYSIS Commerce In the electronic component of advertising media, Internet advertising has completed about seven years till now and emerging as a new interactive media for advertising when compare to Radio and TV as an electronic media for advertisement which are 40 years and 15 years old respectively. Around 1.4 million users are added every month and internet is growing at an incredible fast in all the places of world. A recent survey reveals that in India during the year 2000 the number of internet users was 3.1 million and now in the year 2013 India is the second largest country in the world with more than 300 million internet users. This ultimately attracts the markets and advertisers to promote their products at global level. Thus, this paper focussed on analysing the attitude of teenagers about online advertising because internet is surfed by the young people at large. ABSTRACT KEYWORDS : Advertising, Internet, Online, Teenagers Jayakumar Chinnasamy School of Education and Social Sciences, University of the West of Scotland, United Kingdom *Corresponding Author Dr Muzammal Khan Lecturer, School of Business and Creative Industries, University of the West of Scotland, United Kingdom. VOLUME-8, ISSUE-12, DECEMBER-2019 • PRINT ISSN No. 2277 - 8160 • DOI : 10.36106/gjra Dr Sarfraz Ahmed Dakhan Assistant Professor, Shukkar IBA University, Pakistan. S. No. Owning a laptop Frequency Percentage Cumulative Percentage Chi-Square (Signicance at 5% Level) 1. Yes 1916 95.8 95.8 1675.443 df=1 p=0.000 2. No 85 4.2 100.0 Total 2001 100.0 140 X GJRA - GLOBAL JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH ANALYSIS It is obvious from Table 1 that majority of the respondents (95.8%) own a laptop and only 4.2% of the respondents do not have a laptop with them. Further, the signicant Chi-Square result (1675.443;p=0.000) reveal that there is a signicant difference in the respondents' based on possessing a laptop with them. Hence, H is rejected and H is accepted at 5% level 0 1 of signicance. Further, the responses for the frequency of going online was analyzed using frequency analysis and test of signicance using Chi-Square analysis with the following Null and Alternative Hypotheses: H :0 There is no signicant difference in the respondents based on their frequency to go online H :1 There is a signicant difference in the respondents based on their frequency to go online The results are tabulated in Table 2 Table 2 Analysis on frequency of going online It is clear from the Table 2, that majority of the respondents (29.9%) have opined that they go online at least once a week, followed by 26.3% of them using online everyday, 24.3% of them go online at least once a month and only 19.4% of them go online more than once a month. Also, there is a signicant difference in the respondents frequency of going online as d e p i c t e d b y t h e s i g n i  c a n t C h i - S q u a r e v a l u e (45.623;p=0.000). Hence, H is rejected and H is accepted at 0 1 5% level of signicance. Further, the analysis on the time spent per session of internet usage is presented in table 5.3. The Null and Alternate hypotheses are : H :0 There is no signicant difference in the respondents based on their time spent per session of internet usage H :1 There is a signicant difference in the respondents based on their time spent per session of internet usage Table 3 Analysis on time spent per session From Table 3, it can be extracted that majority of the respondents (33%) have opined that they spend about 1-2 hours online, followed by 31.3% of them stating that they are always online, 30.9% of them stating that they spend less than 1 hour online and only 4.7% of the respondents have stated that time spent online depends on their work. There is a signicant difference in the respondents' time spent per session of online access as depicted by the signicant Chi- Square value (439.610; p=0.000). Hence, H is rejected and H 0 1 is accepted at 5% level of signicance. The Null and alternative hypotheses for the test of signicance using Chi-Square for the respondents' opinion about online advertisements are as follows: H :0 There is no signicant difference in the respondents' opinion on online advertisements H :1 There is a signicant difference in the respondents' opinion on online advertisements VOLUME-8, ISSUE-12, DECEMBER-2019 • PRINT ISSN No. 2277 - 8160 • DOI : 10.36106/gjra S. No. Frequency of going online Frequency Percentage Cumulative Percentage Chi-Square (Signican ce at 5% Level) 1. Everyday 527 26.3 26.3 45.623 df=3 p=0.000 2. At least once a week 598 29.9 56.2 3. At least once a month 487 24.3 80.6 5. More than once a month 389 19.4 100.0 Total 2001 100.0 S. No. Time spent per session Frequency Percentage Cumulative Percentage Chi-Square (Signicanc e at 5% Level) 1. Less than 1 hr online 619 30.9 30.9 439.610 df=3 p=0.000 2. 1-2 Hrs online 660 33.0 63.9 3. I'm always online 627 31.3 95.3 4. Depends on the work 95 4.7 100.0 Total 2001 100.0 Table 4 Respondents' opinion about online advertisements S. No. Opinion about online advertisements Frequency Percentage Cumulative Percentage Chi-Square (Signicance at 5% Level) 1. Irritating 244 12.2 12.2 553.725 df=3 p=0.000 2. Informative 800 40.0 52.2 3. Useful 724 36.2 88.4 4. Depends on the type of dvertisement 233 11.6 100.0 Total 2001 100.0 Table 4 portrays the frequency analysis on the opinion of the respondents about online advertisements. It is obvious from the table that majority of the respondents (40%) state that online advertisements are informative. Similarly, 36.2% of the respondents have stated that online advertisements are useful followed by 12.2% of them have opined that they are irritating and only 11.6% of the respondents have opined that it depends on the type of advertisements. The signicant Chi- Square value (553.725;p=0.000;df=3) depicts that H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted at 5% level of signicance. The analysis results of the respondents' opinion on the type of online advertisements are presented in Table 5. The Null and Alternative hypotheses are as follows: H : 0 There is no signicant difference in the respondents' opinion on the types of online advertisements H :1 There is a signicant difference in the respondents' opinion on the types of online advertisements Table 5 Analysis on the types of online advertisements S. No. Type of online advertisements Frequency Percentage Cumulative Percentage Chi-Square (Signicance at 5% Level) 1. Banner Advertisements 237 11.8 11.8 517.294 df=5 2. Pop-up advertisements 509 25.4 37.3 X 141GJRA - GLOBAL JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH ANALYSIS VOLUME-8, ISSUE-12, DECEMBER-2019 • PRINT ISSN No. 2277 - 8160 • DOI : 10.36106/gjra 3. Pop-down advertisements 486 24.3 61.6 p=0.000 4. Interstitial advertisements 503 25.1 86.7 5. Logo advertisements 136 6.8 93.5 6. E-mail advertisements 130 6.5 100.0 Total 2001 100.0 It is clear from table 5 that majority of the respondents (25.4%) have come across popup advertisements followed by 25.1% of them stating about Interstitial advertisements and 24.3% of them stating that they have come across pop-down advertisements. 11.8%,6.8% and 6.5% of the respondents respectively have come across banner advertisements, logo advertisements and Email advertisements. Also, there is a signicant difference in the respondents opinion on the different types of online advertisements as depicted by the signicant Chi-Square value (517.294;p=0.000). Hence, H is 0 rejected and H is accepted at 5% level of signicance. 1 Finally, the respondents' responses on the frequency of clicking online advertisements were analyzed using frequency analysis and chi-square test with the following Null and Alternative hypotheses: H :0 There is no signicant difference in the respondents' frequency of clicking online advertisements H :1 There is a signicant difference in the respondents' frequency of clicking online advertisements The results are tabulated in Table 6 S. No. Frequency of clicking online advertisements Frequency Percentage Cumulative Percentage Chi-Square (Signicance at 5% Level) 1. Once in a week 202 10.1 10.1 50.096 df=2 p=0.000 2. Only when I'm free 976 48.8 58.9 3. Always 196 9.8 68.7 4. Only for product which I need 627 31.3 100.0 Total 2001 100.0 Table 6 Analysis on the frequency of clicking online advertisements It is clear from table 6 that majority of the respondents (48.8%) have stated that they click online advertisements only when they are free. But 31.3% of the respondents have stated that they will click on online advertisements only for those products which they need followed by 10.1% of them stating that they will click online advertisements once in a week and only 9.8% of the respondents have opined that they will click on online advertisements always. The signicant Chi-Square value (50.096;df=2;p=0.000) imply that H is rejected and H is 0 1 accepted at 5% level of signicance. The Null and Alternative hypotheses for the respondents' opinion on frequently available online advertisements are as follows: H :0 There is no signicant difference in the respondents' opinion on frequently available online advertisements H :1 There is a signicant difference in the respondents' opinion on frequently available online advertisements Table 7 Frequency analysis on the frequently available online advertisements S. No. Frequently available online advertisements Frequency Percentage Cumulative Percentage Chi-Square (Signicance at 5% Level) 1. Commercial Products 757 37.8 37.8 811.464 df=3 p=0.000 2. Social Advertisements such as AIDS awareness, deforestation etc 194 9.7 47.5 3. Harmful advertisements such as alcohol, drug use etc 175 8.7 56.3 4. Misleading advertisements 875 43.7 100.0 Total 2001 100.0 Table 7 portrays the frequency analysis on the frequently available online advertisements. It is clear from the table that majority of the respondents (43.7%) have opined that misleading advertisements are frequently available online. 37.8% of the respondents have stated that advertisements about commercial products are frequently available on the internet, followed by 9.7% stating social advertisements and 8.7% of them stating harmful advertisements are frequently available on the internet. Further, the opinion of the respondents are statistically different as depicted by the signicant Chi-Square value (811.464; p=0.000). Hence, H is 0 rejected and H is accepted at 5% level of signicance. 1 Analysis on the respondents' opinion about Online Advertisements for Commercial Products The respondents' opinion about the online advertisements on commercial products was analyzed using frequency analysis and test of signicance using Chi-Square test. The results are tabulated below. Initially, the inuence of commercial product advertisements that are displayed online was analyzed and the result is tabulated in Table 8. The appropriate Null and Alternative Hypotheses are: H :0 There is no signicant difference in the respondents' opinion on the inuence of commercial product online advertisements on online H : 1 There is a signicant difference in the respondents' opinion on the inuence of commercial product online advertisements on online Table 8 Inuence of commercial product advertisements on the online Table 8 depicts the frequency analysis on the opinion of the respondents about the inuence of commercial product advertisements on the online. It can be extracted from the table that majority of the respondents (67.3%) have stated that the online advertisements about commercial products inuences them to click for more details. On the other hand, 32.7% of the respondents have opined that the online advertisements about commercial products do not inuence them to click it for more information. Further, there is a S. No. Opinion Frequency Percentage Cumulative Percentage Chi-Square (Signicance at 5% Level) 1. Yes 1347 67.3 67.3 240.004 df=1 p=0.000 2. No 654 32.7 100.0 Total 2001 100.0 VOLUME-8, ISSUE-12, DECEMBER-2019 • PRINT ISSN No. 2277 - 8160 • DOI : 10.36106/gjra 142 X GJRA - GLOBAL JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH ANALYSIS signicant difference in the respondents' opinion as depicted by the signicant Chi-Square value (240.004; p=0.000). Hence, H is rejected and H is accepted at 5% level of 0 1 signicance. The Null and Alternative hypotheses on the attractiveness of online advertisements about commercial products are: H :0 There is no signicant difference in the respondents' opinion on the attractiveness of online advertisements about commercial products H :1 There is a signicant difference in the respondents' opinion on the attractiveness of online advertisements about commercial products Table 9 Frequency analysis on the attractiveness of online advertisements about Commercial products S. No. Attractiveness of online advertisements about commercial products Frequency Percentage Cumulative Percentage Chi-Square (Signicance at 5% Level) 1. Yes 1341 67.0 67.0 231.765 df=1 p=0.000 2. No 660 33.0 100.0 Total 2001 100.0 It is clear from Table 9 that majority of the respondents (67%) have stated that online advertisements about commercial products are attractive. But 33% of the respondents have stated that the online advertisements about commercial products are not attractive. Also, there is a signicant difference in the respondents' opinion about attractiveness of online advertisements about commercial products as portrayed by the signicant Chi-Square value (231.765; p=0.000). Hence, H is rejected and H is accepted at 5% level 0 1 of signicance. The Null and Alternative hypotheses on the inuence of commercial product online advertisements to buy are: H :0 There is no signicant difference in the respondents' opinion on the inuence of commercial product online advertisements to buy H :1 There is a signicant difference in the respondents' opinion on the inuence of commercial product online advertisements to buy S. No. Inuence of commercial product online advertisements to buy the product Frequency Percentage Cumulative Percentage Chi-Square (Signicance at 5% Level) 1. Yes 1255 62.7 62.7 129.476 df=1 p=0.000 2. No 746 37.3 100.0 Total 2001 100.0 Table 10 Inuence of commercial product online advertisement to buy the product Table 10 presents the frequency analysis on the inuence of commercial product online advertisements to buy the product. Table 10 depicts that majority of the respondents (62.7%) have agreed that the online advertisements about commercial product inuence them to buy the product. But, 37.3% of the respondents have stated that they are not inuenced by the online advertisements on commercial product. Further, there is a signicant difference in the respondents' opinion as depicted by the signicant Chi-Square value (129.476; p=0.000). Hence, H is rejected and H is accepted at 5% level 0 1 of signicance. The Null and Alternative hypotheses on the respondents' opinion about their ability to differentiate harmful and useful advertisements are: H :0 There is no signicant difference in the respondents' opinion on their ability to differentiate harmful and useful advertisements H : 1 There is a signicant difference in the respondents' opinion on their ability to differentiate harmful and useful advertisements Table 11 Frequency analysis on the ability to differentiate between harmful and useful advertisements S. No. Ability to differentiate between harmful and useful advertisements Frequency Percentage Cumulative Percentage Chi-Square (Signicance at 5% Level) 1. Yes 633 31.6 31.6 269.978 df=1 p=0.000 2. No 1368 68.4 100.0 Total 2001 100.0 Table 11 presents the frequency analysis on the respondents' ability to differentiate between harmful and useful advertisements. It is clear from the table that majority of the respondents (68.4%) have stated that they can differentiate between harmful and useful advertisements in the online advertisements about commercial products. The signicant Chi-Square value depict that H is rejected and H is accepted 0 1 at 5% level of signicance. The Null and Alternative hypotheses on the respondents' responses on various items displayed on online commercial advertisements are: H :0 There is no signicant difference in the respondents' responses on various items displayed on online commercial advertisements H : 1 There is a signicant difference in the respondents' responses on various items displayed on online commercial advertisements Table 12 Respondents' responses on various items displayed on online commercial advertisements S No. Queries Response Frequency Percentage Chi-Square (Signicance at 5% Level) 1. If you see an advertisement on internet about drug/alcohol what will you do? Click on it immediately 695 34.7 412.258 df=2 p=0.000 Click on it when elders are not near 283 14.1 Close it immediately 1023 51.1 2. If you see an ad on internet about your favorite actor/ actress what will u do? Click on it immediately 977 48.8 831.436 df=2 p=0.000 Click on it when elders are not near 965 48.2 Close it immediately 59 2.9 VOLUME-8, ISSUE-12, DECEMBER-2019 • PRINT ISSN No. 2277 - 8160 • DOI : 10.36106/gjra X 143GJRA - GLOBAL JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH ANALYSIS Table 12 represents the respondents' responses on the different queries related to online advertisements about commercial products. It can be extracted from the table that majority of the respondents (51.1%) have opined that they will close the online commercial advertisement about drug/alcohol. Further 48.8% (majority) of the respondents have stated that they will click immediately the online advertisements that contain picture of their actor/actress. Also, 95.4% of the respondents have agreed that they will click immediately on the online commercial advertisements about cosmetic products. Similarly, 96.6% of the respondents have stated they wi l l c l ick immediately on the onl ine advertisements containing costumes. 98.8% of the respondents have stated that they will click immediately on the online commercial advertisements containing accessories. But 93.9% of the respondents have stated that they will close immediately the commercial online advertisements about health products. But 88.2% have opined that they will click immediately on the commercial online advertisements about educational products. 59.2% of the respondents have opined they will click immediately the online commercial advertisements about movie/song/games. Finally, 41.4% of the respondents have stated that they will close immediately the online advertisements containing dirty pictures. Further, the Chi-square value is signicant for all the queries portraying signicant difference in the opinion of the respondents for all the queries. Hence, H is rejected and H is 0 1 accepted at 5% level of signicance. CONCLUSION Thus, this paper gives a vivid picture of general opinion about online advertisements among the teenagers. Although, the sample size is more than that required to imply the results as a whole, a few questions has given maximum responses to be neutral. Further, the opinion and attitude changes from time to time may result in a different nding in future. But, the nding from the study has paved way for implications and policies that will enhance the quality of online advertisements and thereby stop ruin of the youngsters. Further, it is also recommended to implement a regulatory body to monitor the advertisements that are available on the internet so as to make it more effective and less harmful. Hence, it is concluded that the online advertisements can be used for right purposes and it is in the hands of the government/parents and the society as a whole to either educate the youngsters to demarcate right from wrong or to completely avoid such felonious advertisements. REFERENCES 1. Rodgers, S. & Thorson, E. (2000), The Interactive Advertising Model: How Users Perceive and Process Online Ads. Journal of Interactive Advertising 1(1), pp. 26-49. Retrieved December 26, 2006 from http://www. jiad. org/vol1/no1/rodgers/rodgers.pdf. 2. Wolin, L.D., Korgaonkar, P., and Lund, D. (2002), Beliefs, attitudes, and behaviour towards Web advertising. International Journal of Advertising, 21, 87-113. Retrieved December 9, 2006 from the Communication & Mass Media Complete database. 3. If you see an ad on internet about cosmetics what will u do? Click on it immediately 1908 95.4 3463.469 df=2 p=0.000 Click on it when elders are not near 49 2.4 Close it immediately 44 2.2 4. If you see an ad on internet about costumes what will u do? Click on it immediately 1932 96.6 3601.682 df=2 p=0.000 Click on it when elders are not near 66 3.3 Close it immediately 3 0.1 5. If you see an ad on internet about accessories such as shoe/belt/chains/clips/bands what will u do? Click on it immediately 1971 98.5 3824.072 df=2 p=0.000 Click on it when elders are not near 11 0.5 Close it immediately 19 0.9 6. If you see an ad on internet about health products such as health drinks/food what will u do? Click on it immediately 119 5.9 3313.559 df=2 p=0.000 Click on it when elders are not near 3 0.1 Close it immediately 1879 93.9 7. If you see an ad on internet about educative products such as CD/books what will u do? Click on it immediately 1764 88.2 1165.282 df=2 p=0.000 Click on it when elders are not near 0 0 Close it immediately 237 11.8 8. If you see an ad on internet about entertainment such as movie/song/games what will u do? Click on it immediately 1185 59.2 68.046 df=2 p=0.000 Click on it when elders are not near 0 0 Close it immediately 816 40.8 9. If you see an ad on internet showing dirty pictures what will u do? Click on it immediately Click on it when elders are not near Close it immediately 351 17.5 224.612 df=2 p=0.000 821 41.0 829 41.4