Bruce G. Vanden Bergh

The multidimensional nature and brand impact of user-generated ad parodies in social media

What is the impact of ad parodies on the brands they spoof? This question arises from the recent confluence of heightening comedic interest in parodying advertising and the growing trend of amateurs creating their own ad parodies in social media. This article reports on a multi-phase study investigating the key dimensions of ad parodies and how they influence brand attitudes, attitudes towards the parodies, and intention to pass along the parodies. Four primary dimensions of ad parodies were discovered: humour, truth, mockery and offensiveness. Humour and truth were positively related to attitudes towards the parodies and intention to pass them along, while offensiveness was negatively related to attitudes towards the parodies. However, the dimensions of ad parodies had no impact on brand attitudes. The results demonstrate that, although advertisers should be aware of this trend, they can take comfort in consumers’ ability to distinguish between brand messages and entertainment.

Sound Advice on Brand Names

Sometimes words as well as names get their meaning from what they are associated with in our minds. Collins calls this the ”Juliet Principle” after Shakespeare’s famous line, spoken by Juliet to Romeo, “that which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”l And at other times it is the way a word sounds or its phonetic symbolism that gives it its primary meaning. Collins calls this the “Joyce Principle” in reference to Joyce’s use of phonetic symbolism in works like Finnegun’s Wake.* Marsteller makes humorous reference to the effect of how names sound when he says that the advertising agency name Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn sounds “like a trunk bouncing down a flight of stairs.”3 Schloss takes the “Joyce Principle” one step further to the land of brand names and wonders why words that start with or contain K and P sounds are funny (e.g., chickens, pickles, cucumber, ’ Leslie Collins. “A Name to Conjure With.” Europrun Jour-

An Information Content Comparison of Magazine Ads across a Response Continuum from Direct Response to Institutional Advertising

Abstract Resnik and Sterns (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.

Internal Agency Relationships: Account Services and Creative Personnel

Abstract A mail survey was conducted among a sample of account and creative services personnel working in advertising agencies nationwide to determine areas of conflict in working relationships between these two groups. Additionally, respondents were asked to perform the same critical analysis of their colleagues within their own departments. Analysis of responses from 256 agency employees indicate that some disagreement between account management and creative services exists. Creative services personnel tended to be more critical of account management than account managers were of creative people. Results are explained by the differing perspectives of the generalist (i.e., account managers) and specialist (i.e., creative services) that must be brought together in an agency to produce effective advertising.

How Many Creative Alternatives to Generate

Abstract This study empirically tested the assumption that the more creative alternatives generated, the better the chance of developing the most effective campaign creative strategy. A panel of four professional creative people from a branch of a “top-twenty” advertising agency judged positioning statements generated by four groups of advertising students. Various analyses of the data tended to confirm the assumption.

How Source Affects Response to Public Service Advertising.

Advertising Council produces highest evaluation but lowest behavioral response of three sources used for PSAs

Creativity is …: A metaphoric model of the creative thought process

This study applied a three-part metaphoric model of thinking to illuminate the creative thought process in developing marketing communications. The Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique was used to categorize metaphorical statements about the creative process. Analysis found that these statements fit the models tripartite structure of perception, movement, and object manipulation. These results suggest alternative paths for developing creative concepts, and also suggest a framework for understanding how best to use various techniques at different stages of the creative process.

Effects of Product Puffery on Response to Print Advertisements

Abstract A comparative treatments experiment designed to test the relative effects of product puffery in a print advertisement against the effects of accurate and understated print advertisements in a product trial situation was executed. The results indicate that the use of puffery leads to several negative effects. The use of puffery was found to produce a negative change in (1) evaluations of the particular advertisement and sponsoring company; (2) message credibility; and (3) intent to purchase the advertised product. Understatement of product value, however, was found to produce a positive effect on these variables once subjects had used the product.

The Temptation to Puff: Puffery in Automotive Advertising, 1930 to 1980

W When is the temptation to use puffery’ the greatest? Recently, Shimp and Preston indicated that the use of evaluative content in advertising has increased substantially as the consequence of “intensified regulation” which “has apparently diminished the incidence of gross forms of misleading and false advertising.”2 By deduction, it might also be said that puffery’s use has increased. Shimp and Preston provide some support for this “upsurge,” but none of a longitudinal nature that might test the notion that the use of puffery rises when regulation is intensified or subsides under relaxed regulatory conditions. Kintner’s interpretation of FTC policy suggests that the opposite of Shimp and Preston’s observat ion could occur. Kintner cautions advertisers that although puffery is still a legal defense, “current policy is undoubtedly adverse to it.”3 Thus, one might predict an overreaction by advertisers to the tightening of regulatory policies. They might not only try to eliminate deception from their ads, but also any content that might have the potential to be interpreted by the FTC as deceptive, such as puffery. This study examines the use of puffery in magazine ads for automobiles between

Is Believability of Puffery Affected by Brand Credibility

forecasts. Of the 152 forecasts, 129 or 85% were verifiable through public documents or questionnaires. Twenty-three forecasts, or 15%, were not verifiable due to lack of a response to letter inquiries and the absence of public data. Of the 129 items which were ultimately verifiable, 51% were judged to be “accurate,” and 19% were said to be “partially accurate.” The remaining 30% were judged inaccurate, either by reference to documents or in the opinion of persons close to the event. If a n item was only partially accurate, we attempted to determine the nature of the inaccuracy. For example, USN& WR reported on May 22, 1978: (51.1%)