Karen Whitehill King

Measuring Trust In Advertising

Despite extensive interdisciplinary research, trust has been the subject of little systematic study in advertising, though investigations have incorporated and measured the construct. This study was conducted to develop a reliable and valid measure of the trust-in-advertising construct, using a three-stage, nine-step research design. The design produced the ADTRUST Scale, a 20-item Likert-formatted measure, and revealed that trust in advertising is a multidimensional construct (i.e., it has cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions) with four distinct factors: reliability, usefulness, affect, and willingness to rely on. The ADTRUST Scale sufficiently represents the four trust factors; exhibits high reliability and concurrent, convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity; and reflects a combination of (1) consumer perception of reliability and usefulness of advertising, (2) consumer affect toward advertising, and (3) consumer willingness to rely on advertising for decision making. The operational and practical significance of the results are discussed and suggestions for future research are presented.

Trust in Different Advertising Media

Trust has been investigated by behavioral and social scientists from different disciplines. Despite the interdisciplinary research, studies of advertising trust are not abundant in the literature, though both academic and trade investigations have incorporated and measured the construct. This study was conducted to examine consumer trust in different advertising media and the relationship of that trust to media credibility. Results indicate that (1) advertising media are neither especially trusted nor distrusted by consumers; (2) there is variation in consumer trust across different advertising media; (3) trust in specific ad media is differentially associated with education and income; and (4) trust in advertising media and media credibility are correlates, though trust in advertising is distinct and separate from the credibility construct.

Fear Arousing Anti-Drinking and Driving PSAs: Do Physical Injury Threats Influence Young Adults?

Abstract Few researchers have sought answers to questions of anti-drinking and driving public service announcement (PSA) effects, even though there is an ever-increasing, widespread public concern about youthful drinking drivers on the nations highways. Building upon the general body of research on fear and persuasion, this experiment was undertaken to address the question of whether physical injury threats of varying intensity (i.e., high threat, moderate threat, low threat) and injury outcome focus (injury to self versus injury to others) produce differences in fear arousal among young adults and how fear, if aroused, affects cognitive, evaluative, and behavioral responses to anti-drinking and driving PSAs. As hypothesized, more fear was aroused by the high threat PSAs than the low threat PSAs. However, fear arousal did not carry-over to the cognitive, evaluative, or behavioral responses of young adult subjects to the PSA treatments. No differences were found across the treatments in support argumentat...

Checking the Pulse of Print Media: Fifty Years of Newspaper and Magazine Advertising Research

ABSTRACT This article examines the state of newspapers and consumer magazine print advertising as reflected in the public research literature over the past 50 years. Its purpose is not to present a scientific and in-depth analysis of every research article on newspaper and magazine advertising published since 1960 but (1) to identify key findings that advance the interface between the academic study and practice of advertising and then (2) to develop research-based recommendations to guide future researchers. Articles were categorized into major content areas (readership, recall and recognition, executional/stylistic components, social issues, cross-media comparisons, engagement, and media models), and key findings are reported. Future research issues are suggested to advance advertising research on the two media analyzed.

Factors influencing consumers' attitudinal and behavioral responses to direct-to-consumer and over-the-counter drug advertising.

Using a model developed from the research literature, the authors compared consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral responses to direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising (DCTA) and over-the-counter nonprescription drug advertising (OTCA) of drugs. Adults 18 years of age and older who had taken any prescription drugs in the past 6 months completed online survey questionnaires. Variables measured included demographics (age, gender, race, education, and income), health-related characteristics (health status, prescription and over-the-counter drug use, health consciousness, and involvement with prescription or over-the-counter drugs), perceived amount of attention and exposure to DTCA and OTCA, attitudinal outcomes (skepticism toward DTCA/OTCA and attitude toward DTCA/OTCA), and behavioral outcomes triggered by DTCA and OTCA. The findings indicate that exposure to drug advertising is one of the most significant predictors of attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Some audience factors such as health status, involvement with drugs, health consciousness, drug use, income, and age also were differentially associated with consumer responses to drug advertising.

Local Advertising Decision Makers' Perceptions of Media Effectiveness and Substitutability

In this article, we report the results of a survey designed to answer 6 questions on perceived media effectiveness and substitutability within the context of local advertising. Results from questionnaires completed by 130 local advertising decision makers reveal that (a) daily newspapers and radio are perceived as the most effective media for local advertising; (b) media interchangeability in local advertising is limited to a particular set of media options, namely, daily newspapers and radio; and (c) patterns of media effectiveness and substitutability do not vary substantially by the type of local advertiser or the amount of money spent in daily newspaper advertising. Four implications are suggested by the results.

Selecting Media for National Accounts: Factors of Importance to Agency Media Specialists

Abstract Building on previously published research, a multi-stage study of large agency media specialists was conducted to document the importance of nineteen selection factors used to evaluate media for national advertising accounts. In Stage 1, indepth interviews were conducted to identify relevant media selection factors; in Stages 2 & 3, a questionnaire was pretested and mailed to a sample of media vice-presidents, media directors, and media planners with 162 U.S. agencies; and in the final stage, follow-up interviews were conducted to determine the veracity of data interpretation. Analysis found six distinct decision clusters, that systematically differ in degree of importance to media specialists regardless of their personal, professional, or agency backgrounds. The results suggest that media selection decisions are primarily driven by a mediums ability to reach a specific target audience, regardless of whether the selection decision is made for local advertising, advertising in general, or for nat...

Black and White Models and Their Activities in Modern Cigarette and Alcohol Ads

This article compares model characterizations and activity portrayals of blacks and whites in modern cigarette and alcohol advertising. An analysis of 418 cigarette and alcohol ads appearing in eleven magazines from June 1990 through June 1991 revealed a world in which blacks and whites smoke and drink separately, seldom encountering one another. Despite this segregation, black and white portrayals are similar in terms of sexual suggestiveness and involvement in erotic or romantic activities. However, noteworthy differences also exist. For example, blacks are more often portrayed in leisure activities while whites are portrayed at work. Femininity is a more dominant theme in black than in white representations, while masculinity themes are more dominant in ads with white representations.

Pretesting TV commercials: Methods, Measures, and changing agency roles

Abstract Research directors with the largest 200 agencies and advertising executives with the largest 200 advertisers were surveyed to examine their views on the current state of TV commercial pretesting. One-hundred and one agency researchers and 89 ad executives returned completed questionnaires (adjusted response rates of 52% and 49.7%), which asked them 23 closed-ended questions about (1) the methods and measures used to pretest TV commercial executions; (2) the perceived role of the agency versus the client in the selection of pretest methods; and (3) perceived changes in the role of the agency research department in TV commercial pretest research. Of those responding, 18 percent of the agency researchers and 19 percent of the advertising executives indicated that their agencies do not pretest TV commercials for assigned brands. Based on the responses of the 83 agency researchers and 72 advertising executives whose agencies pretest commercial executions, the findings suggest that the role of the agen...

Agency Creatives like TV Advertising Best

Although agency creatives see TV as the medium of choice for national ads, newspapers are effective when conveying complex messages, providing a quality environment and moving people to action.