Advertising 1999 Abstracts
Advertising Division
PF&R
A Content Analysis of Black-and-White Advertisements Used in Magazines • Euijin Ann, Michigan State • This study employed content analysis to examine the usage pattern of black-and white (B&W) advertising in magazines. Results showed that (1) B& W ads appeared to be an important type of advertising tactic, (2) of the B&W ads examined, color-highlighted type appeared most often, (3) B&W ads appeared most often in ads for health care, publication, services, and fashion and beauty, (4) most B&W ads employed emotional appeals rather than informational appeals.
Ethical Issues Associated with Qualitative On-Line Research: Toward a Common Platform • Denise E. DeLorme, Central Florida, George M. Zinkhan and Warren French, Georgia • This paper examines the possibility of a unified professional code of ethics which has the potential to provide solutions to ethical conflicts in qualitative on-line research. A national mail survey and replication e-mail survey were conducted with an interdisciplinary sample. Overall, respondents felt that there should be an ethics code, indicated all core value statements presented are important to include, and noted challenges in industry acceptance of a code. The paper concludes by offering guidance in constructing, implementing, and enforcing such a code.
Perceptions of Harmful Female Advertising Stereotypes and Eating-Disordered Thinking among Female College Students: a Q Method Analysis • Robert L. Gustafson and Mark N. Popovich, Ball State and Steven R. Thomsen, Brigham Young • This study employs Q methodology, personal interviews and a self-administered questionnaire to explore how female college students, a population segment with one of the highest incidences of anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders, rank magazine advertisements that feature a variety of potentially harmful female stereotypes. Specifically, the study examines how ads that feature stereotypes promoting the “thin ideal” rank in comparison to other harmful stereotypes. The findings are compared to measures of the subjects’ anorectic cognitions, body anxiety and dieting behavior.
The Emergence of Integrated Marketing Communications: A Theoretical Overview • John M. McGrath, Pittsburgh-Johnstown • This paper traces the origins of the emerging field of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC), critically reviews research literature which is seminal to the field, and discusses the future of IMC, including an opportunity for new research.
Research
Complexity and Blame Focus in Anti-Smoking Television Commercials: The Role of Complexity and Individual vs. Industry Blame on Smokers and Non-Smokers • Michael Antecol, June Flora and Lisa Henriksen, Stanford University, Esther Thorson, Missouri, Annie Lang, Indiana University, Robert F. Potter, Alabama • Two experiments are reported. They address these research questions: (1) how does the structure and (2) the blame focus of anti-smoking ads affect ad-specific responses of smokers and non-smokers? Structure was examined by varying an ad’s global complexity scores. Blame focus was examined by comparing “individual blame” anti-smoking ads to “industry blame” ads. Experiment 1 showed that complexity has an effect on the effectiveness of anti-smoking ads, both at autonomic and self-report levels.
Cyberbrand Development: A Study of the Impact of Self Concept and Web Site Personality Congruity • Kelli S. Burns, Florida • In cyberspace, traditional rules for brand building are currently being tested and challenged. Understanding consumer personality may further the ability of an online advertiser to project the appropriate brand image. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the congruity between a Web site and the user’s personality is related to the user’s evaluation of the site. Strausbaugh’s brand personality instrument was used to measure the personality of 157 undergraduates and two Web sites.
A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Political Advertising in the 1996 Presidential Election Campaign in Taiwan and the United States • Chingching Chang, National Cheng-chi • This study applied Hall’s (1977) culture-context theory and Hofstede’s (1991) individualistic/collectivistic aspects of cultural differences to understand how content and appeals of political advertising in Taiwan and the U.S. differ from each other. The aspects examined included the presence of direct and indirect attacks, the presentation of issues in the ads, types of settings, and the use of metaphors, symbols, and songs. Analyses showed that most of the findings were consistent with cultural expectations.
Advertising vs. Public Service Announcements: The Role of Message Type in Safer-Sex Campaigns and Third-Person Perception • John R. Chapin, Penn State • Fifteen years ago, Davison introduced the third-person effect hypothesis, that individuals believe they are less influenced than others by media messages. Although third-person effect is a perceptual bias, Davison believed that individuals act on such misperceptions. Few studies since have tested the behavioral aspect of the third-person effect. In addition, previous studies reporting differences in third-person effect due to message type (i.e. PSAs vs. advertisements) controls to isolate the effects of message type from content and context.
The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion After Two Decades: A Review of Criticisms and Contributions • Sejung Marina Choi and Charles T. Salmon, Michigan State • Over the past twenty years, the Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion (ELM) has emerged as one of the most influential theories of persuasion in the fields of communication, psychology, and by extension, advertising. In spite of its prominent contributions, the ELM has been criticized in detail for both theoretical and empirical limitations. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the current status of the model through revisiting the criticisms as well as replies to those criticisms by proponents of the ELM.
Effects of Culture and Self-construals on Comparative Advertising Effectiveness • Yung Kywn Choi, Gordon E. Miracle and Linda Cowles, Michigan State University • This study examines cross-cultural differences in comparative advertising effectiveness by tracing possible links between culture, individual values, and advertising effectiveness. A significant main effect of culture was found and a path model was proposed for illuminating the underlying process between culture and advertising effectiveness. The data were generally consistent with the model. Culture was systematically related to self-construals. However, the relationship between self-construals and advertising effectiveness were different depending on the type of an advertisement.
A Content Analysis of Internet Banner Advertising: Focusing on Korean and U.S. Cultural Differences • Hwi-Man Chung, North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Euijin Ahn, Michigan State University • The Web is emerging as a new advertising medium vying strongly with the more traditional media. Despite the Web’s capability of becoming a potentially powerful medium, there is little empirical studies about the banner advertising in the Web. Previous studies about traditional media have suggested that there are differences among different countries and cultures in terms of advertising types and degree of informativeness.
Qualitative Evaluation of Print Ads by Assessors Using the Creative Product Semantic Scale • Alisa White Coleman, Texas at Arlington and Bruce L. Smith, South Dakota • The purpose of the study was to ascertain whether advertising professionals judge advertising creativity in the same way as college students who have had no advertising training, and whether demographic variables significantly affect judgments about the creativity of advertising. Fifteen print ads were evaluated using the Creative Product Semantic Scale. The judgments of students and professionals were significantly different. There were also significant differences on the basis of demographic variables.
Beefcake, Breadwinner, or Babysitter: A Content Analysis of Male Images in Female-Targeted Magazine Advertising, 1978-1998 • Mikalee Dahle and Jennifer Greer, Nevada-Reno • A content analysis of ads featuring men was undertaken for women’s magazines published in 1978, 1988, and 1998. Ads in 1978 publications tended to feature men in a clear role and related to the product; those in 1988 presented men in no clear role and unrelated to the product (a purely decorative role); and images in 1998 served as the middle ground between the two extremes. Clear trends also emerged across different magazine titles.
The Effect of Idiocentrism and Involvement on Attitude, Cognition and Behavioral Intention with respect to AIDS Appeal Types • Mohan Jyoti Dutta, Minnesota • This study looks at the role played by idiocentrism/allocentrism in shaping consumers’ attitude, cognition and behavioral intention in the context of AIDS appeal types. The level of involvement emerges to be a significant moderating factor that interacts with idiocentrism to shape audience preference. This provides direction for an entirely new dimension of research in public health both from theoretical and applied perspectives. Cultures and sub-cultures may be studied in the context of individualism and its effects that may be observed at a cultural level.
Excessive Drinking by College Students: When Advertising and Ritual Behavior Intersect • Edward R. Frederick and Joyce M. Wolburg, Marquette • This study examines university student drinking as part of campus culture. It uses survey data to explore whether students perceive that student drinking rituals influence their drinking and tests a set of survey items for measuring the impact of student drinking rituals. It found evidence that Community and Order rituals do. It also explored whether alcohol advertising influences student drinking. Results show that attention to television alcohol commercials is related to self-reported drinking behavior.
A Study Of The Facets Of The “Country-Of-Origin” Image And Its Comparison Among Different Countries • Wang, Jang-Sun, Tennessee-Knoxville • “Country-of-Origin” image is an important factor, which affects consumers’ evaluations of foreign products in the international marketplaces. This study aims to compare the CO images of three countries – Japan, South Korea and India-having different levels of economic developments, and to explore the components of CO image. It examines the three CO facets of each country and their interrelationships. Additionally, it is observed if CO effects vary by the patriotism, a critical factor affecting CO.
Made In Taiwan And The U.S.A.: A Study Of Gender Roles In Two Nations’ Magazine Advertisements • Kim E. Karloff and Yi-ching Lee, California State • While American women can be found in the driver’s seat, literally, in American magazine advertisements, the same cannot be said of Taiwanese women in Taiwan magazine advertisements. And the American image of the lone cowboy means little to Taiwanese ad-makers. Family, however, means mom and dad in both countries. Such are the findings in this study of gender roles in a cross-section of magazines found in the United States and in Taiwan.
Advertising Representation of Female Bravery During the 1990’s and it’s Relationship to Creative Production • Linda Jean Kensicki, Texas-Austin• Through the work of previous scholars and primary focus group research, this study defines bravery as an essential characteristic of the creative individual. In an attempt to address decreased creative production in women, imitation effects on televised commercial content is examined as a possible collaborator in the development of creativity within women. An analysis of over six hundred commercials during the 1990’s found few women working in advertising agencies and almost no instances of female bravery in commercials.
The Impact of Culture on Political Advertising-A comparison between the U.S. and Korean Newspaper Ads • Chun-Sik Kim, Mokwon University and Yoo-Kyoung Kim, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies • This study examines the impact of cultural characteristics on political advertising between the United States and Korea. A total of 446 advertisements from 1963 to 1997 were content-analyzed in this study. Results of the study showed that there were differences of contents and valences of political advertising between the U.S. and Korea. Also, discussions based on study results showed mixed and intertwined arguments against or for the expectations for this study.
The Impact of Market Mavenism and Shopping Orientation on the Consumer’s Use of the Web, Catalogs and Retail Stores as Shopping and Buying Channels • Cheng Kuo, National Chengchi University and Hairong Li, Michigan State University • Through an online survey, information about 999 Internet users was collected and analyzed with a view to examining their channel selection behavior Two path models were proposed and tested to examine the effects of the individual’s demographics, market mavenism and shopping orientation on their use of the Web, catalog, and retail stores as shopping and buying channels. LISREL covariance analysis was used in testing the models. Results from the analyses have indicated that the level of market mavenism and certain shopping orientation indeed affected the respondents’ channel selection.
Information Cues In Renmin Ribao Advertisements (1979-1998) • Susanna W.Y. Kwok, Hong Kong Baptist University • A content analysis of 448 print advertisements in Renmin Ribao from 1979 to 1998 was conducted. The Resnick and Stern evaluation criteria were used to determine the level of advertising information content and to trace its development. The result indicated that both product nature and medium characteristics had a significant effect on the information level of advertisements in China. Nevertheless, the changing information levels over time were conflicting and called for further study.
Communication Effectiveness of Print Advertising Endorsement in Hong Kong • Vivien S. Y. Leung, Hong Kong Baptist University • This study examined the communication effectiveness of advertising endorsement on consumer purchase intention in Hong Kong. Two products, life insurance and wholesome beverage, were chosen to represent product category with high and low consumer involvement. Two of the eight print advertisements using three types of advertising endorser, celebrity, typical consumer and expert, and a no-model (control) advertisement, were randomly distributed to 120 Hong Kong Baptist University students in April 1998.
The Power of Words: Another Look at the Verbal and Visual Components in Print Ads • Yulian Li, Minnesota • This experimental study compares the effects of three types of ads-verbal, visual and verbal-visual combined-on people’s ad attitude, brand attitude, recall and purchase intention. It finds that verbal ads are more powerful and effective than visual ads, and that the visual component in a verbal-visual combined ad may interfere with the effect of the verbal component on people’s brand attitude and purchase intention. It also finds a superior effect of brand attitude over ad attitude.
The Presence of Nostalgia in Television Commercials • Wendy Martin and Wei-Na Lee, Texas at Austin • This paper reports the results of a study examining the use of nostalgia in marketing/advertising communications. A content analysis of 2,208 television ads was performed to examine the use of nostalgia in advertising, including the concentration of ads and products advertised and possible segmentation based on age or sex differences. Nostalgia was used in 8.3% of the ads sampled in this study, as compared to 10% found in an earlier study.
Does Good Work Pay Off? A Preliminary Study Of Advertising Awards And Financial Growth • Ann Maxwell and Charles Frazer Oregon and Wayne Wanta, Florida • No abstract
Does Reputation Management Reap Rewards? A Path Analysis of Corporate Reputation Advertising’s Impacts on Brand Attitudes and Purchase Decisions • Jongmin Park and Glen T. Cameron, Missouri and Lisa Lyon, Georgia • Claims are made for the importance of corporate reputation as essential to the effective, integrated marketing of a company’s branded products. Based on the Elaboration Likelihood and Combined-Effects Models of persuasion theory, an experiment was conducted to examine the value of one tool in corporate reputation management – the corporate ad or corporate image ad. Using path analysis, findings indicate that the corporate reputation ad had a greater impact on purchase intention under low involvement conditions than under high involvement conditions.
This Page is Brought to You By… An Experimental Test of Sponsorship Credibility in an Online Newspaper • Shelly Rodgers, Glen T. Cameron, Ann M. Brill, Missouri-Columbia • Advertisers are being asked to sponsor pages in online newspapers. E-newspapers and advertisers have anecdotally reported success, however, no study has examined the effects of such sponsorship. This study seeks to remedy that through an experiment that tests the effects of sponsorship on memory and credibility through the manipulation of timing, story type and sponsor type. Findings suggest that there are steps advertisers and e-newspapers can take to optimize the relationship between advertising and news content.
Recall, Liking and Creativity in TV Commercials: A New Approach • Gerald Stone, Donna Besser and Loran Lewis, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale • Three advertising effectiveness dimensions were linked in a local random telephone survey asking respondents’ most disliked or liked commercial. The survey included describing the commercials, brand preference, television viewing hours and demographics. Seniors in advertising judged the ads’ creativity. Among many findings related to past research was the suggestion that people “carry a set” of liked and disliked commercials. The study’s major contribution may be its novel way of identifying memorable ads and assessing creativity.
Who We Are and What We Choose to Read: A Psychological Exploration of Media Use • Fang Wan, Ken Doyle and Mohan Jyoti Dutta, Minnesota • This study expands the advertising literature by demonstrating the usefulness of personality types in identifying patterns of media usage. On a quota sample of the US adult population, ordinal and quasi-interval analyses showed that Introverts used print media substantially more than Extroverts, except for special situations, “Tenderminded Introverts” were the most frequent print media consumers. Discussion addressed the use of this information to improve the cost-effectiveness of media planning.
Everything Old is New Again: The Use of Nostalgia Appeals in Advertising • Jennifer L. Williams and Ronald J. Faber, Minnesota • The use of nostalgia in advertising, as well as in other elements of the culture, has been growing as the end of the millennium approaches. Yet little is known about how nostalgia is portrayed in advertisements. This study provides an examination of the content of 108 television commercials that utilize nostalgia in their appeals. The results support the notion that the definition of nostalgia needs to be expanded to include both negative and positive memories and both personal and historical references.
Teaching
Group Personality and Performance A Model for Managing Advertising Student Teams • Shannon Richard, Marilyn Roberts and John Sutherland, Florida • Effective teamwork and interaction skills are a necessity in today’s world. Students are in need of these skills if they are to become successful team players in the work place. Educators are in need of cues as to which group interaction skills are most essential and how to incorporate them into course content. This paper outlines such essential tools in a model for effectively managing student teams. The group behavior of an advertising campaigns course is evaluated to provide a picture of these tools in action.
Incorporating a Promotional Products Teaching Component into the Advertising Campaigns Course: A Partnership Pilot Program • Denise DeLorme, Central Florida • Since the emergence of IMC, it has become increasingly important for students to have an understanding and appreciation of a variety of marketing communications tools. One industry segment that is sometimes overlooked is promotional products. This paper describes the process of incorporating promotional products into the campaigns course through a partnership pilot program. The program’s three phases are discussed: preparation through six instructional planning steps, implementation involving four major learning activities, and evaluation including five key outcomes resulting from surveys of students. The paper concludes by providing educators with future recommendations.
How Media Planning Professionals See Changes in the Marketplace Affecting the Teaching of the Media Planning Course • Carla V. Lloyd, Syracuse University, Jan S. Slater, Ohio University and Brett Robbs, Colorado • Those involved with today’s media-planners, buyers, sellers and distributors must cope with these changes daily, while anticipating the changes yet to come. Not only has the landscape changed, so have the players. Technology is fueling immense competition, creating an overly crowded marketplace vying for limited advertising dollars and waning consumer attention. Media planning professionals, who must navigate through all this change to find ways to deliver clients’ messages to consumers, work during a time that is perhaps like no other in media’s history.
A Practical Exercise of Teaching Ethical Decision Making to Advertising Students • David L. Martinson, Florida International University • Students too often do not understand the important role that ethics plays in their personal or future professional lives. The Hastings Center suggests that the first two steps in teaching ethics center around stimulating the moral imagination in order that individuals will be able to recognize ethical issues. In this paper the author presents a practical exercise that moves ethical decision making out of the strictly theoretical.
Contract Teamwork: A Tool for Tearing Down Ivory Towers • Sally McMillan, Tennessee-Knoxville • How can teamwork be implemented effectively in university-level advertising classrooms? This paper reviews literature on the nature, structure, and function of teams and processes for managing teamwork. Based on this literature an innovative approach to contract teamwork is introduced. The author provides information on implementation and evaluation of that approach with suggestions for improving and expanding contract teamwork in advertising classrooms.
Special Topics
Branding Religion: Christian Consumers’ Understandings of Christian Products • Eric Haley, Candace White, Anne Cunningham, Tennessee • Recent years have witnessed a boom in Christian marketing, both the marketing of Christian products and the use of “Christian-owned” as a loyalty building tool for businesses. Despite the enormous growth in Christian retailing, researchers have paid little attention to the phenomenon. This study offers an entree into the subject by examining how self-described Evangelical Christians, who are the primary consumers of Christian products, make sense of their purchase and use of Christian products.
Testing An IMC Evaluation Model: The Impact Of Brand Equity And The Company’s Reputation On Revenues • Yungwook Kim, Florida • This paper is trying to establish the relationships among variables in corporate communications, especially between advertising and public relations, and to establish an evaluation model for integrating the effects of communication activities in the context of integrated marketing communication (IMC). For testing, a new approach for integrating the effects of communication activities was introduced and the IMC evaluation model was specified. The proposed model was tested with existing secondary data.
Driving Toward Equality: Automobile Advertising and Gender Views, 1920-1940 • Erika J. Pribanic, Alabama • Automobiles have long been considered a masculine area. In Taking the Wheel, Virginia Scharff wrote, “The automobile was born in a masculine manger, and when women sought to claim its power, they invaded a male domain.”’ This theme is often parodied in the modern television sit-com Home Improvement: the car is powerful, dirty, masculine, and off limits to women. The automobile’s inherent masculinity reaches back to the Victorian age, when women were considered too feeble-minded and flail-bodied to even leave their homes, let alone drive automobiles.
Not on Target: Effects of Gender-Targeted Web Sites on Liking and Visit Intent • Shelly Rodgers, Cynthia M. Frisby, Missouri-Columbia • This experiment addresses the effects of gender-targeted web sites on likability and visit intent. A 3 (male vs. female vs. neutral web site) x 2 (gender) between-subjects factorial design was used. Findings suggest that neutral sites are preferred over gender-specific sites. In fact, both genders rated the neutral site as more likable than either the male or female sites. Intent to revisit the neutral site was also more likely for both genders.
An Exploratory Study Of The Synergy Among Ad Attention, Promotional Offers And The Use Of Grocery Buyer Cards In Building Customer Loyalty • Mary Alice Shaver, Hyun-Seung Jin and Carol Pardun, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This study measures the impact of having a grocery card on using advertising and responding to promotions on shopping habits and customer loyalty. A statewide survey of 589 adults found that, while heavy users of grocery cards do pay more attention to advertising and plan shopping to take advantage of advertised specials and promotions, this behavior does not result in loyalty to the store as defined by regular shopping.
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