Pamela M. Homer

Physical Attractiveness of the Celebrity Endorser: A Social Adaptation Perspective

Three factors were manipulated in an advertisement for disposable razors: celebrity-source physical attractiveness, celebrity-source likability, and participant product involvement. Attitudes and purchase intentions changed due to celebrity-source attractiveness, and the results were interpreted as supporting social adaptation theory.

Alternative measurement approaches to consumer values: The List of Values (LOV) and Values and Life Style (VALS).

This article compares and contrasts two methods of measuring consumer values: the List of Values (LOV) and Values and Life Style (VALS). LOV apparently has some advantages: it is in the public domain and it relates more closely to consumer behavior.

Source Expertise, Time of Source Identification, and Involvement in Persuasion: An Elaborative Processing Perspective

Abstract The interactive role of source expertise, time of source identification, and involvement was examined in an experiment on advertising effectiveness. In general, findings support an elaborative processing explanation. A three-way interaction among the manipulated variables emerged in the study, which utilized print advertisement stimuli. The findings also suggest that the source expertise information was processed more as a central persuasion cue than as peripheral information. Managerial implications are offered.

RELATIONSHIPS AMONG AD-INDUCED AFFECT, BELIEFS, AND ATTITUDES: Another Look

In spite of a wealth of empirical attention directed at understanding the structural relationships among affect, cognition, and attitude, the tasks and settings in many of these studies may have inflated the relative impact of cognition in the persuasion process. The studies reported here use an affectively driven advertising context (i.e., television commercials void of product-relevant information cues) to demonstrate (1) that positive and negative forms of affect operate differently, and (2) that their direct and indirect effects on attitude are influenced by brand familiarity. Cognition played a less dominant role in the attitude formation process for an unknown brand compared to situations in which consumers held preexisting impressions (i.e., for well-known brands). A means-end model approach is used to link concrete and abstract forms of cognition (i.e., brand beliefs) and attitude.

Ad Size as an Indicator of Perceived Advertising Costs and Effort: The Effects on Memory and Perceptions

Abstract In support of past research, ad size was found to lead to enhanced memory; but the existence of an “interference effect” (i.e., when increased attention aimed at the relatively large ad interferes with processing of surrounding ads) was not confirmed. Replicating Kirmani (1990), analyses suggest that consumers use ad size as an indicator of advertising costs and effort and that consumers make quality-related inferences based on their perceptions of advertising costs when quality-related information is not explicitly conveyed in an ad. Evidence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between perceived advertising costs and brand perceptions was found for quality perceptions. That is, perceptions are positively related to perceived advertising costs except at excessive levels when consumers may feel advertising is manipulative. The data also support the notion that perceived advertising effort mediated this relationship. The nature of these relationships between perceived advertising costs and consume...

A Social Adaptation Explanation of the Effects of Surrealism on Advertising

Abstract Surrealistic ads are common in the print media, but empirical investigations of their persuasive impact are lacking. Findings of a study manipulating surrealism and priming (i.e., leading subjects to expect forthcoming messages with product-relevant information) supports the social adaptation theory and further investigation of this phenomenon.