Full disclosure: advertising is more than meets the eye

Abstract

this is the fifth special issue presenting papers from the international Conference on research in advertising (iCoria). it contains a selection of six papers from the 2019 iCoria presentations that were delivered during the conference in Krems, austria. reflecting the presentations at the conference, the papers in this issue cover a wide range of topics and approaches. a common theme is that all papers focus on updating our understanding of advertising as the boundaries between advertising and other types of communications continue to blur. Whereas advertising academia has been critiqued for lagging behind advertising practice when it comes to understanding contemporary issues such as changing advertising media and formats (e.g., dahlen and rosengren 2016; de Pelsmacker 2020), the papers in this special issue suggest that this is no longer the case. in fact, only one of the papers deals with advertising in the traditional sense. in the special issue, three of the papers deal explicitly with how disclosures enable consumers to make sense of “hybrid” content such as product placements and sponsored consumer reviews, whereas the remaining three investigate the impact of various formats or appeals such as spoof placements, posts on social media, and synced advertising on consumer reactions. to us, this shows how advertising researches have broadened their interests, topics, and perspectives and their wish to stay relevant and up to date in a rapidly evolving advertising landscape. We are hopeful that this is a sign of the field moving closer to contemporary advertising practice and being able to offer actionable recommendations (for a recent critique of advertising research in this regard see de Pelsmacker 2020). What is more, the papers offer insights to stakeholders beyond the advertising industry for example in terms of policy implementation and understanding human emotions related to social media in general. to us, this suggests that the relevance of advertising research extend beyond advertising practice. to fully understand advertising, we as scholars must continue to push the boundaries, not only in terms of the type of advertising that we study, but also in terms of what constituencies we address. With increasing levels of co-creation and active participation in the advertising process, scholars must address other dependent variables (e.g., dahlen and rosengren 2016; Eisend and rosengren 2020) as well as address additional stakeholders (e.g., dahlen, rosengren, and Karsberg 2018; Schaefer, terlutter, and diehl 2020). Given the prevalence of advertising in contemporary society and the changing formats, behaviors, and effects associated with it (cf. dahlen and rosengren 2016), advertising is more than meets the eye. We hope that advertising scholars will continue to offer insights – not only on the role of advertising for advertisers, but also for consumers and society in general.