Showing papers in "Journal of Advertising in 1990"
TL;DR: The authors developed a 15-item semantic differential scale to measure perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness of celebrity endorsers, which was validated using respondents' self-reported measures of intention to purchase and perception of quality for the products being tested.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to develop a scale for measuring celebrity endorsers' perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. Accepted psychometric scale-development procedures were followed which rigorously tested a large pool of items for their reliability and validity. Using two exploratory and two confirmatory samples, the current research developed a 15-item semantic differential scale to measure perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. The scale was validated using respondents' self-reported measures of intention to purchase and perception of quality for the products being tested. The resulting scale demonstrated high reliability and validity.
2,489 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the attractiveness of a celebrity endorser may only enhance both product and ad-based evaluations if the product's characteristics "match-up" with the image conveyed by the celebrity.
Abstract: This study represents a supportive test of the attractiveness aspect of the “match-up” hypothesis of celebrity/product congruence discussed in depth by Kahle and Homer (1985). The hypothesis implies that the physical attractiveness of a celebrity endorser may only enhance both product- and ad-based evaluations if the product's characteristics “match-up” with the image conveyed by the celebrity. Empirically, it was found that for an attractiveness-related product, use of a physically attractive celebrity (Tom Selleck) was observed to significantly enhance measures of spokesperson credibility and attitude toward an ad, relative to use of a physically unattractive celebrity (Telly Savalas). Alternatively, the physically attractive celebrity was found to have no effect on various spokesperson-, product-and ad-based dependent measures relative to the physically unattractive celebrity for an attractiveness-unrelated product. Implications of these findings for advertising strategy are discussed, and dir...
1,141 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate two selected effects (i.e., cognitive and affective priming) of the contact for print advertisements and find that cognitive context, which primes certain attributes of a product, determined the type of interpretation given to product information in the ad, and thereby guided consumers' evaluations of the advertised brand.
Abstract: An experiment was conducted to investigate two selected effects (i.e., cognitive and affective priming) of the contact for print advertisements. The cognitive context, which primes certain attributes of a product, determined the type of interpretation given to product information in the ad, and thereby guided consumers' evaluations of the advertised brand. The affective context, which triggers emotional reactions among the audience, also influenced brand evaluations. Further, step-down analyses suggested that cognitive priming effects operated mainly through attitude toward the brand, whereas affective priming effects worked primarily via attitude toward the ad. The theoretical and practical implications for understanding advertising effects are discussed.
459 citations
TL;DR: The authors proposed a framework that closely scrutinizes the involvement constructs antecedents, state properties, measures, potential confounds, and consequences of involvement in advertising research, and four emerging research streams in involvement are presented in the context of the framework.
Abstract: Adequately conceptualizing and measuring the involvement construct Has been one of the most controversial topics in advertising research. This task is especially important given the many involvement-driven frameworks (e.g., the elaboration likelihood model) now being advanced in advertising. The present study proposes a framework that closely scrutinizes the involvement constructs antecedents, state properties, measures, potential confounds, and consequences. Four emerging research streams in involvement are presented in the context of the framework. Implications for researchers attempting to manipulate and measure involvement in experimental advertising research are provided.
453 citations
TL;DR: The authors empirically examined the role of a personality trait, public individuation, in furthering our understanding of opinion leadership and found that risk preference, open-mindedness, and mass media exposure, though correlated with opinion leadership, were not important predictors of opinion leaders.
Abstract: This study empirically examined the role of a personality trait, public individuation, in furthering our understanding of opinion leadership. Relevance of this new psychological dimension, and past findings on characteristics of opinion leaders are discussed. Discriminant analysis revealed that, in addition to personal involvement and product familiarity, public individuation was the only other variable which was important in distinguishing opinion leaders from non-leaders. Risk preference, open-mindedness, and mass media exposure, though correlated with opinion leadership, were not found to be important predictors of opinion leadership. Implications for advertisers are discussed.
338 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the role of visually explicit sexual stimuli in the processing of verbal information in a persuasive message, and the resulting effect on traditional outcome measures of recall, attitudes, and behavioral intentions, as well as higher-order cognitive response measures.
Abstract: Previous research on the use of either implicit or explicit sexual imagery in advertising has focused mainly on factors such as the gender of the receiver, the product advertised (sexually or non-sexually related), and the type of stimulus presented (double entendre, decorative models, and nudity). Many of the relevant studies have focused on lower-order cognitive processes such as recall and/or recognition. Few, if any at all, examine the higher-order cognitive processes underlying reactions to sexually explicit material. The present study examines the role of visually explicit sexual stimuli in the processing of verbal information in a persuasive message, and the resulting effect on traditional outcome measures of recall, attitudes, and behavioral intentions, as well as higher-order cognitive response measures. In so doing, the study contributes to a greater understanding of sexual- and non-sexual appeals and how they are affected by information level.
252 citations
TL;DR: The interactive role of source expertise, time of source identification, and involvement in advertising effectiveness was examined in an experiment on advertising effectiveness as discussed by the authors, which indicated that the source expertise information was processed more as a central persuasion cue than as peripheral information.
Abstract: The interactive role of source expertise, time of source identification, and involvement was examined in an experiment on advertising effectiveness. In general, findings support an elaborative processing explanation. A three-way interaction among the manipulated variables emerged in the study, which utilized print advertisement stimuli. The findings also suggest that the source expertise information was processed more as a central persuasion cue than as peripheral information. Managerial implications are offered.
204 citations
TL;DR: This paper employed manifest and latent content analysis to assess the extent to which Ms. advertising, over the first 15 full years of its publication has carried out this policy, and found that a substantial proportion of the advertising promotes products generally considered “harmful.
Abstract: The stated advertising policy of Ms. magazine precludes the acceptance of advertisements for products that are “harmful” or advertisements that are insulting to women. This study employs manifest and latent content analysis to assess the extent to which Ms. advertising, over the first 15 full years of its publication has carried out this policy. The findings suggest that a substantial proportion of Ms. advertising promotes products generally considered “harmful.” Also, while the portrayal of women as subordinate to men or as merely decorative has decreased over time, Ms. advertising has increasingly portrayed women as alluring sex objects. Possible reasons for the trends revealed here are discussed.
201 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the notion that comparative ads containing direct references to a well-known competitor are inherently more "involving" than non-comparative ads and found that the comparative format elicits higher levels of message involvement/processing activity than the non-comparing format.
Abstract: This study examines the notion that comparative ads containing direct references to a well-known competitor are inherently more “involving” than noncomparative ads. Utilizing an information-processing perspective, findings indicate that the comparative format elicits higher levels of message involvement/processing activity than the noncomparative format. In addition to perceiving the comparative message as being more relevant, subjects viewing that format paid more attention to, elaborated on, and were able to recall more message points than did subjects exposed to a similar, though noncomparative, ad.
165 citations
TL;DR: This paper used a causal-modeling approach to evaluate an experimental manipulation of female nudity in print advertising, which included a multi-dimensional structure of arousal acting as an intervening factor between the ad nudity stimulus and resulting cognitive impressions of the ad.
Abstract: The present study uses a causal-modeling approach to evaluate an experimental manipulation of female nudity in print advertising A hypothetical model which includes a multi-dimensional structure of arousal acting as an intervening factor between the ad nudity stimulus and resulting cognitive impressions of the ad is proposed The results lend particular insight into the complex underpinnings of the psychophysiological response to female nudity in advertising Important theoretical implications and future research directions are discussed
164 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined parent-child communication patterns and mothers' consumer-socialization tendencies and found that mothers' concept-orientations are related to number of goals, discussing advertising, coviewing, coshopping, children's influence, yielding, and granting children consumer independence.
Abstract: This study examines parent-child communication patterns and mothers' consumer-socialization tendencies. Results indicate mothers' concept-orientations are related to number of goals, discussing advertising, coviewing, coshopping, children's influence, yielding, and granting children consumer independence. In contrast, socio-orientations are related to limits on children's TV exposure and refusing requests.
TL;DR: The authors found that urban themes were used more frequently in Brazilian ads than in U.S. ads during the 1970s and leisure themes were more frequently used in U.,S., than in Brazil during the same period.
Abstract: Do Brazilian and U.S. advertisers employ different themes in print advertisements? If so, what can we conclude about cross-cultural differences in values? In our study of automobile ads that appeared in the business magazines of Brazil and of the U.S. during the 1970s, we found that (1) urban themes were used more frequently in Brazilian ads than in U.S. ads, (2) leisure themes were used more frequently in U.S. ads than in Brazilian ads, (3) work themes appeared as frequently in Brazilian ads as in U.S. ads, and (4) work themes appeared more frequently in U.S. ads as the 1970s progressed. Thus, our study suggests that values differ between the business subculture of Brazil and that of the United States. Importantly, our latter two findings disaffirm the theories of many historians and sociologists. Because the application of historical and sociological theories may produce erroneous advertising decisions, we advise advertisers to research carefully each national market before using a “standardize...
TL;DR: In this paper, two different dimensions of offensive advertising were identified: offensive products and offensive execution, where offensive products are products related to consumer problems which social norms dictate should not be discussed in public.
Abstract: The advertising literature contains some evidence that offensive advertising is multidimensional in nature, but little is known about the character of these dimensions. In an exploratory study of TV advertising, two different dimensions of “offensive” were identified. These dimensions were labeled Offensive Products and Offensive Execution. This distinction is important both for the study of the construct as well as for advertisers who are faced with decisions on advertising execution. The Offensive Products dimension contains those products related to consumer problems which social norms dictate should not be discussed in public. The Offensive Execution dimension, the dimension over which the advertiser has more control, consists of those ads which are perceived to be offensive by the nature of the execution or themes and/or topics of the ad and not the product itself.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors of the top three advertising journals, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal for Advertising, and Current Issues and Research in Advertising, were evaluated. But, there has been no study that has covered the complete histories of the leading advertising journals.
Abstract: The research productivity of a discipline should be reviewed and reported upon periodically. Especially important in such a “disciplinary review” is an assessment of institutional contributions, as well as contributions of individual authors. A number of such research assessments have been made in the last twenty-five years; however, there has been no study that has covered the complete histories of the leading advertising journals. This paper documents all primary articles in the Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Advertising, and Current Issues and Research in Advertising from their inaugural issues through the end of 1988. More than 1,500 articles and 2,500 authors are included in this study, which presents the institutions and authors who contribute most frequently to these top three advertising journals.
TL;DR: Watson's work was to help rationalize the advertising process, but at the same time, spoke directly to the admirers of science, legitimating a reality in which decision making based upon "scientific" methods assumed a role of prominence.
Abstract: This article, a cultural history, attempts to answer the question of how John B. Watson's presence at J. Walter Thompson “made sense” from the standpoint of the actors involved. At the time Watson joined the agency, he had achieved a national reputation as a psychologist, a researcher, and the leader of behaviorist psychology. His doctrine, which recognized prediction and control as the goal of psychology, meshed well not only with broader Progressive concerns of social control, but more particularly with the goals of the business community, and at J. Walter Thompson, with the goals of Stanley B. Resor. Watson's presence at the agency became a “mechanism” through which Resor could implement his philosophy into advertising practice. Watson's work was to help rationalize the advertising process, but at the same time, spoke directly to the admirers of science, legitimating a reality in which decision making based upon “scientific” methods assumed a role of prominence.
TL;DR: Literary concepts from genre studies of classical allegory are adapted to analysis of advertising formats as mentioned in this paper, and four basic allegorical elements are described to distinguish the forms, and two advertisements are analyzed to reveal the function of each in relation to product class, message appeal, copy structure, and media selection.
Abstract: Literary concepts from genre studies of classical allegory are adapted to analysis of advertising formats. Two classical forms—reification and typology—are discussed, and their importance for advertising summarized. Four basic allegorical elements are described to distinguish the forms, and two advertisements are analyzed to reveal the function of each in relation to product class, message appeal, copy structure, and media selection. Advertising consequences are proposed in terms of brand strategy appropriate to message type (informational or transformational), executional appeal (nostalgia and bizarre), and desired response (attention or empathy). Future research issues are suggested.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the usefulness of a basic distinction between two types of evaluative processing in explaining memory for advertising and find that between-brand processing leads to increased performance on recall tasks, while within-label processing appears to facilitate successful performance of brand name recognition tasks.
Abstract: This study considers the usefulness of a basic distinction between two types of evaluative processing in explaining memory for advertising. The results of empirical tests suggest that between-brand processing leads to increased performance on recall tasks, while within-brand processing appears to facilitate successful performance of brand name recognition tasks. Analysis of the effects of the processing tasks on brand name recall and recognition, dissociations across these tasks, and recognition errors suggests that this distinction in processing types can help us to better understand memory for advertising phenomena. The implications of the findings for future advertising research into the effects of processing differences and the relationship between retrieval tasks are discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, the relative information value of direct response, product/store image, and institutional ads contained in eighteen magazines was compared using Resnik and Stern's fourteen-item information scale.
Abstract: Resnik and Stern's (1977) fourteen-item information scale was used to compare the relative information value of direct response, product/store image, and institutional ads contained in eighteen magazines. Content analysis of 8,470 ads revealed that direct response ads tend to differ significantly from both product/store image and institutional ads in terms of the number of information cues they contained as well as the kinds of information conveyed. Specifically, as one moves from lower levels of information content to higher levels, the proportion of direct response ads shifts from significantly smaller to significantly larger proportions when compared to both product/store image and institutional ads. Further, direct response ads were found to be more likely to exhibit nine of the fourteen kinds of information cues examined.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors asked for descriptions of the standards, guidelines and day-to-day concerns from US commercial broadcast stations, asking the policies, procedures and nature of standards for deriding which commercials are acceptable for broadcast.
Abstract: Media owners and managers possess great power to select (and reject) advertising submissions Regardless of the directives (or absence) of any self-regulation code, no television station must accept any commercial advertising it does not wish to carry This study requested descriptions of the standards, guidelines and day-to-day concerns from US commercial broadcast stations, asking the policies, procedures and nature of standards for deriding which commercials are acceptable for broadcast
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe and interpret the verbal content of television advertising as it circulates in everyday life, and use it as play, an integral part of social discourse.
Abstract: Based on ethnographic research, this article describes and interprets the verbal content of television advertising as it circulates in everyday life. The research approaches the use of advertising content as play, an integral part of social discourse. The verbal play described in the article considers the individual's desire to entertain, to play for no gain, but also goes beyond, to consider how individuals take the literal meaning of commercial content and transform it in an effort to impact social relationships.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the findings of an exploratory survey of dental practitioners, which provides baseline data on the proportion of dental professionals who advertise, and on the level of their advertising expenditures.
Abstract: While interest in the advertising activities of professionals has grown over the past decade, evidence of their advertising behavior has been limited primarily to sporadic, anecdotal pieces in the trade literature. This article presents the findings of an exploratory survey of dental practitioners. It provides baseline data on the proportion of dental professionals who advertise, and on the level of their advertising expenditures. Great heterogeneity is found within the profession. The probability of using advertising and the amount spent on advertising vary with the characteristics of both the practice and the individual practitioner.
TL;DR: This article examined the effects of taking thought measurements immediately after ad exposure on several aspects of post-exposure cognitive structure about the advertised brand and found that thought measurement influenced subsequent measures of confidence in belief, attitude, and intention variables, and the strength of association between beliefs and attitude/intention measures.
Abstract: This study examined the effects of taking thought measurements immediately after ad exposure on several aspects of post-exposure cognitive structure about the advertised brand. The results suggest that thought measurement influences subsequent measures of confidence in belief, attitude, and intention variables, and the strength of association between beliefs and attitude/intention measures—and particularly so for audiences high in message-response involvement. However, thought measurement produced no direct effects on traditional measures of ad effectiveness such as beliefs and attitudes about the advertised brand. Implications of these results for future advertising research utilizing the thought-measurement methodology are discussed.
TL;DR: In this paper, a large-scale advertising contesting study was analyzed to assess the overall level of recall of listed thoughts at a delay, and to determine the types of listed thought that were particularly retrievable.
Abstract: Data from a large-scale advertising contesting study were analyzed to assess the overall level of recall of listed thoughts at a delay, and to determine the types of listed thoughts that were particularly retrievable. Female heads-of-household viewed a series of television commercials and listed thoughts about each. One week later, the respondents, who were recontacted by telephone, were able to recall the content of half of their listed thoughts. More importantly, comparisons of the recall rates for listed-thought categories supported theory-based predictions about the responses that should be particularly retrievable. Thoughts that contained evaluative content mere significantly more likely to be recalled than neutral thoughts, and unfavorable thoughts were slightly more likely to be recalled than favorable thoughts. Also, thoughts about the self were more likely to be recalled than thoughts that did not contain self-relevant content. This greater retrievability of self-relevant thoughts was tr...