Hye Jin Yoon

Humorous Threat Persuasion in Advertising: The Effects of Humor, Threat Intensity, and Issue Involvement

Using humor to communicate threatening information in advertising can often be observed in practice, but scholars have seldom investigated its effects. Drawing from dual processing models, the current study proposed that response to humor in threat persuasion would depend on the individuals level of issue involvement. This proposition was tested in two experiments. In Study 1, a significant humor and issue involvement interaction effect emerged for threat persuasion ads; low-involvement individuals rated the humor ad more positively than the nonhumor ad, and the opposite was true for high-involvement individuals. With threat intensities varied in Study 2, the results indicated that the effectiveness of various threat intensity and humor combinations depended on the individuals issue involvement. Implications for both theory and practice are discussed.

Integrating Advertising and Publicity

Using several theories, including Information Integration Theory (IIT), Integrated Information Response Model (IIRM), confirmation effect, and contrast theory, this study investigates the combined effects of advertising and publicity under the varied conditions of exposure sequence, publicity valence, and product attribute consistency. Results obtained through a 2 (sequence: ad then publicity versus publicity then ad) X 2 (attribute variation: same attribute versus different attribute) X 2 (valence of publicity: positive versus negative) within-subjects factorial design show that advertising coupled with positive publicity induces confirmation effects regardless of sequence and attribute consistency, whereas negative publicity combined with advertising mostly produces contrast effects, with mixed results depending on the sequence and attribute consistency. Findings and implications are discussed.

Understanding schema incongruity as a process in advertising: Review and future recommendations

Information incongruent to schema has the potential to increase interest, memorability, and persuasiveness in consumers. For this reason, strategies evoking schema incongruity have often been used in advertising. Despite its presence in practice, our knowledge of how and why incongruity works in advertising is limited. The current paper proposes a four-stage process model by integrating Mandlers Schema Incongruity theory and Optimal stimulation level theory to increase our understanding of incongruity in advertising. Each stage will be discussed in detail with a focus on the impact factors that need to be addressed for using a successful incongruity strategy. Implications for marketers and advertisers as well as future research suggestions are provided.

Humor Effects in Shame-Inducing Health Issue Advertising: The Moderating Effects of Fear of Negative Evaluation

Certain health issues such as mental illness and sexually transmitted infections evoke feelings of shame, which typically causes withdrawal coping, making it challenging for campaign planners to effectively communicate pertinent information in intervention messages. In three experimental studies, humor is tested as an advertising strategy that might attenuate the negative effects of shame and increase message persuasion. As an individual factor that correlates with social anxiety and vulnerability to shame, fear of negative evaluation (FNE) is found to be a significant moderator to shame and humor level interaction. Low FNEs favored humor ads over no-humor ads when shame induction was low but favored no-humor ads over humor ads when shame induction was high. This response pattern was in contrast to the patterns found for high FNEs. The results show the strongest humor benefits for socially anxious individuals (high FNEs) with high shame-inducing health issues. Theoretical and practical implications are given.

The Moderating Role of Gender Identity in Responses to Comedic Violence Advertising

Comedic violence advertising has been increasing in the United States, but many studies thus far have been content analytic in nature. To gain a better understanding of who will find comedic violence ads humorous and thus have favorable brand perceptions, two experimental studies were conducted with gender identity as an influential factor. In Study 1, masculine individuals responded more favorably to highly violent and humorous ads than feminine individuals did. Study 2 varied the violence level in the comedic violence ads and found that when violence was low both masculine and feminine individuals responded similarly to the comedic violence ad, but when violence was high masculine individuals responded more favorably than did feminine individuals. Perceived humor was found to be an important mediator of comedic violence ad processing. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are provided.

Not All Nutrition Claims Are Perceived Equal: Anchoring Effects and Moderating Mechanisms in Food Advertising

Despite the increased use of health claims in food advertising, few studies have investigated how specific nutrition claims have differential effects depending on how they are presented. In this context, the current study tests the anchoring hypothesis. Anchoring refers to a common human tendency to evaluate information differently depending on the presence or absence of a numerical “anchor” or reference point. Two (pilot and main) experimental studies explore anchoring effects on audience response to food advertising both directly and moderated by cognitive, motivational, and message factors. The pilot study finds that food product ads employing nutrition claims with an anchor rather than without an anchor generate two results: First, participants perceive the product to have lower fat/lower calorie contents (anchoring hypothesis); second, they prefer the messages with an anchor over those without an anchor. The main study reports that when anchoring is successfully evoked, it produces favorable attitudes toward the ad, favorable attitudes toward the brand, and purchase intention—but only when moderated by health orientation, claim believability, and nutrition knowledge. Practical implications are provided with respect to regulatory guidelines and effective communication strategies for promoting low-fat and low-calorie products in food advertising.

‘Thinking and feeling’ products and ‘utilitarian and value-expressive’ appeals in contemporary TV advertising: A content analytic test of functional matching and the FCB model

Using the Foote, Cone and Belding (FCB) grid model and functional matching effects as theoretical frameworks, this study analyzed 1356 primetime TV commercials to assess the extent to which there is a functional match-up between think and feel product types and utilitarian and value expressive message appeals in contemporary TV advertising. Additionally, the use of sales promotion techniques in those TV commercials relative to the FCB models think/feel and involvement dimensions was analyzed. Results reveal that utilitarian appeals were used more in commercials for think products while value expressive appeals were used more in spots for feel products. Presence of sales promotions in the TV commercials was found to differ by product involvement rather than by the prediction of the functional matching hypothesis. The results suggest that contemporary TV advertising practice is more complicated than conceptualized in the four quadrants of the FCB model (i.e. relative to the integration of product, message, and sales promotion techniques). Discussion and implications of the results are presented.

Comedic violence in advertising: the role of normative beliefs and intensity of violence

Interest in the use of comedic violence in advertising has risen, but the research on this topic has been limited. Past studies have found positive effects of comedic violence in ads, with higher levels of violence increasing positive responses. However, given that the violence depicted in these ads is a violation of social norms, following the Social Norms Theory, it is proposed that individual norm beliefs about violence in advertising could be a significant factor in influencing ad outcome. Using an online panel of general consumers across two experiments, this study revealed that norm beliefs had a positive influence on comedic violence ad responses. In addition, when violence intensities of the ads were varied, individuals with lower norm beliefs responded more positively to low violence ads than high violence ads, whereas individuals with higher norm beliefs did not exhibit different responses to the two violence intensities. Mediation analyses were conducted to test for the underlying mechanisms. As comedic violence advertising may offend audiences, the findings provide targeting and design implications for advertisers interested in this strategy.

Do Humour and Threat Work Well Together? The Moderating Effect of Need for Cognition in Humourous Threat Persuasion Advertisements

Using humour to communicate threatening information in advertising has often been observed in practise, but seldom been tested in research. Integrating the humour and threat persuasion literature, the current research tested the effects of humourous threat persuasion and need for cognition (NFC) as a measure of ones processing motivation and capacity. A significant three-way interaction between humour, threat level, and NFC emerged where low NFC participants responded more positively to the no-humour condition than the humour condition with low threat and more positively to the humour condition than the no-humour condition in the high threat advertisement. The opposite was observed for high NFC participants. Implications for both theory and practise are provided.Using humour to communicate threatening information in advertising has often been observed in practice, but seldom been tested in research. Integrating the humour and threat persuasion literature, the current research tested the effects of humorous threat persuasion and need for cognition (NFC) as a measure of one’s processing motivation and capacity. A significant three-way interaction between humour, threat level and NFC emerged where low-NFC participants responded more positively to the no-humour condition than the humour condition with low threat, and more positively to the humour condition than the no-humour condition in the high-threat advertisement. The opposite was observed for high-NFC participants. Implications for both theory and practice are provided.

Association Ambiguity in Brand Extension

A research method is developed to effectively identify associations that significantly influence the perceived fit of brand extensions. Contrary to extant brand extension studies that mainly focus on the fit of associations, the current study considers the ambiguity of associations. The proposed measure of association ambiguity, defined as the level of uncertainty based on the perceived conflict of a particular association in a brand extension indicated by the similarity and intensity level of perceived association distance to the parent brand and extension category, was tested and validated using several brand extension cases. Identifying an associations level of ambiguity and the magnitude of its impact on the perceived fit will allow advertisers to adjust their advertising messages and increase consumer receptiveness toward brand extensions. Implications for advertising practitioners and future research are discussed.