Liyanage, L.D.2025-10-142025-10-142021-11-11Proceedings of Peradeniya University International Research Sessions (iPURSE) - 2021, University of Peradeniya, P 37978-624-5709-07-6https://ir.lib.pdn.ac.lk/handle/20.500.14444/5351In the modern world, advertising aims at somehow achieving marketing objectives in a competitive marketing environment. Consequently, advertising agencies are tempted to adopt different concepts for advertising. Currently, many advertising agencies use more and more humanitarian concepts in their advertisements, especially after the Covid-19 outbreak. The word ―humanitarian‖ is defined as ―caring or helping to enhance the well- being and happiness of the people‖. The term ―humanitarian‖ is defined in the Oxford dictionary as ―concerned with or seeking to promote human welfare‖. The focus of this study is to explore how humanitarian concepts are used in advertisements to enhance human qualities of the consumer during the Covid-19 outbreak. The hypothesis is that the use of humanitarian concepts in advertising is the most effective way to enhance the human qualities of the consumer as well as to attract the consumer to the advertisement. Here we used qualitative and quantitative research methods. Qualitative data was collected based on content analysis of 05 selected television advertisements. Quantitative data were collected through a questionnaire based on 50 data contributors under a random sampling method. The main conclusion of the study is that the use of humanitarian concepts in advertising is the most effective way to improve the human qualities of the consumer as well as to attract the consumer to the advertisements. The study suggests that if such human qualities can be incorporated into advertising, it will contribute to motivating the Sri Lankan consumer to be attracted to a product or service.en-USCovid-19 outbreakAdvertisingHumanitarian conceptsConsumerPersuasionArticle