Advertising is a reflection of the total environment of the society; hence advertisers are expected to respond to the changing needs and expectations of their potential audience. To find out the changing trend of themes, the study emphasized the objectives of developing the broad framework for classification of themes and accordingly analysing the pattern of advertisments. This was a pilot study and it points to the need for further research. This study covered a period of ten years, 1971-80. Attention was confined only to one basic advertising component, namely the theme. Detailed information of all display ads appearing in selected issues of the Reader's Digest and The Economics Times have been recorded according to product/service classification. The data thus collected has been analysed by the thematic classification, Utilitarian (UT); Focussed (FT); Informative (IN); Non-Specific (NS); Achievement Orientation (AO); Descriptive & Projective (DP); New Product/Service, Scheme or Idea (NU); Contributory to Economy and Industry (EI). Findings of the study reveal that largest number of advertisements appeared in 1974 and the lowest in 1977. 'IN', "NS', and 'FT' themes were the most frequent themes, in that order. The 'UT' theme is becoming more popular. The 'AO', 'DP', after 1976, and the 'EI', after 1974, showed a declining trend. A full study should be representative with respect to the print media while having the same objectives. A useful extension could be to develop and test hypotheses regarding effectiveness of the themes which in turn could be related to the specific objective of advertising.
