Nature Imagery in Non-Green Advertising: The Effects of Emotion,Autobiographical Memory,and Consumer's Green Traits

Images of pristine nature constitute frequent elements of visual advertising design. Research on the effectiveness of such imagery has been scarce, however. Which psychological processes are involved? Do all individuals react equally to nature advertising imagery? Based on environmental psychology theory, the present research analyzes the effectiveness of the use of nature imagery in non-green advertising and the underlying processes involved. We conduct three experimental studies, two with student samples and one with a representative population sample, to test the effects of visual advertising stimuli featuring nature versus urban and indoor scenery. Findings contribute to research in two ways: First, emotional ad responses that are similar to the feelings experienced in nature as well as the retrieval of positive autobiographical memories are identified as intervening processes by which nature advertising imagery increases attitude toward the ad (Aad) and brand (Abr). Second, results indicate these processes are moderated by consumers’ green traits, with green consumers being more susceptible to the persuasive effects of nature advertising imagery even though advertisements were non-green. The processes are further moderated by the accessibility of memory of past nature experiences. These findings enrich our knowledge on the effects of specific visual appeals and provide practical implications for visual advertising effectiveness.     

The Gay Family in the Ad: Consumer Responses to Non-traditional Families in Marketing Communications

This paper investigates consumer responses to gay families portrayed in advertising, drawing on critical visual analysis, reader response analysis and queer theory. Twenty-five consumers were interviewed about a selection of family oriented ads. Several themes emerged from the interviews, including straightening up – reading apparently gay images as heterosexual, or straight, despite rather overt gay signals. This important interpretive phenomenon seems to "interfere" with processing of apparently gay imagery, revealing interesting interpretive strategies. Findings are discussed within the advertising as representation research tradition, and illuminate interpretive strategies that consumers use when confronted with culturally sensitive images in advertising.     

The effects of imagery-evoking radio advertising strategies on affective responses

A debate in the marketing literature concerning the relative effectiveness of various imagery-evoking strategies in influencing consumer responses to advertising has been unresolved. This study examined the effects of three imagery-evoking strategies commonly used in radio advertising—sound effects, vivid verbal messages, and instructions to imagine—in influencing mental imagery, ad-evoked feelings, and attitude toward the ad. The theoretical basis for the study is an imagery model based on propositional representations theory. Consistent with the implications of the theory, of the three strategies, sound effects had the greatest impact on imagery and affective responses. Compared with sound effects, a vivid verbal message had a slightly weaker influence. Instructions to imagine, however, had a very weak impact on imagery and no significant influence on affect. Finally, the results indicated that the three strategies interacted with one another. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Cross-cultural advertising communication: Visual imagery, brand familiarity, and brand recall

The focus of this paper is to address the issue of visual imagery in cross-cultural consumer research. The authors investigate the relationship between visual imagery, brand familiarity, and brand claim recall in two distinct cultural environments — the U.S. and Russia. The paper consists of two studies that explored imagery potency from the point of view of memory-evoking effects. The results suggest that image-intensive tools generate different returns depending on the level of brand familiarity and cultural media. The research findings may be of interest to marketing scholars studying cross-cultural consumer behavior as well as to practitioners operating in international advertising and global brand building.     

Phenomenology of Aesthetic Organising--Ways Towards Aesthetically Responsive Organizations

Through explication of a visual research method, this paper theorizes how masculine identity interacts with consumption—of imagery, products, desires, and passions in advertising and consumer culture. We analyze the male body as a discursive “effect” created at the intersection of consumption and several marketing discourses such as advertising, market segmentation, and visual communication, balancing between brand strategy—what the marketer intends—and brand community—the free appropriation of meaning by the market. The paper’s contribution rests in extending previous work on male representation into historical, ontological, and photographic realms, providing a necessary complement between understanding advertising meaning as residing within managerial strategy or wholly subsumed by consumer response. We argue that greater awareness of the connections between the traditions and conventions of visual culture and their impact on the production and consumption of advertising images leads to enhanced ability to understand how advertising works as a representational system and signifying practice.     

Marketing hedonics: Toward a psychoanalysis of advertising response

The author advances a psychoanalytic theory of advertising response to theorize the intersection of brand positioning, the semiotics of gender, and consumer desire in advertising discourse. Researchers traditionally focus on the iconic representation of desire in advertising imagery. However, by drawing upon Lacan's theory of scopophelia, the author focuses on the dialectical implication of the spectator/consumer's psychic drives in the visual semiotics of advertising discourse. The consumer identifies with the brand discourse primarily by means of projective identification with the voyeuristic gaze of the camera referenced in the image, and only secondarily because of perceived parallels between consumer lifestyle and the content of the advertisement. By way of illustration, the author analyzes the positioning of consumer desire in homoerotic advertising for Calvin Klein and Dolce & Gabbana, which draws upon resistance discourses in contemporary art to hold the consumer in a passion play of alternative sexualities and subject positions. Though these campaigns deconstruct the conventional binary opposition of male voyeur/female object of the gaze, they have contributed to the broad popularity of these brands because the brand discourse – logo, product placement, and rhetoric – restores a conventional logic to these advertisements that would have been censored from the worlds of popular culture and fine art.     

Aspects of visual metaphor: an operational typology of visual rhetoric for research in advertising

Metaphor is routinely expressed through pictures in contemporary advertising. Earlier work on visual rhetoric in advertising sought direct analogues for the tropes and schemes specific to verbal rhetoric. More recently, theory has developed out of characteristics particular to pictures, culminating in a typology of visual rhetoric by Phillips and McQuarrie. Subsequent work by ?orm and Steen considers processing stages in metaphorical interpretation. Phillips and McQuarrie's typology is adapted and expanded here in order to better describe the variation found in ads that utilize visual metaphor and its allies, thus identifying a range of examples that confound the original. A new processing model that directly addresses visual features described in the expanded typology is outlined, which builds on ideas from ?orm and Steen, but represents a distinct framework. Additional variables are identified that advertising researchers should either investigate or control in experimental studies of visual metaphor.     

The influence of visually dynamic imagery on purchase intentions: The roles of arousal and lay rationalism

The presence of motion is increasingly common in online advertising. Despite the increase in spending on digital advertisements and decades of academic research on dynamic imagery in advertising, our understanding of this phenomenon remains limited. The dynamic default hypothesis posits that animated imagery should generate more arousal than comparable static imagery. However, research on advertisements containing dynamic imagery reveal inconsistencies in their ability to stimulate arousal. A potential explanation for these inconsistent findings lies in the behavioral urgency hypothesis, which postulates that not all motion is weighted equally in terms of its ability to generate arousal. We conduct three experiments to test this proposition. Interestingly, our findings show that imagery appearing to loom closer to consumers stimulates greater levels of arousal than either static or imagery appearing to recede away from consumers. Additionally, our work identifies moderating effects of lay rationalism which can work to strengthen or attenuate these effects. Together, this work provides a more comprehensive explanation for the varied findings in the literature.     

Measures of aesthetic dimensions and reactions in advertising

Advertising increasingly uses discrepant imagery featuring unsettling portrayals rather than traditional imagery featuring aspirational models, products, and settings. Thus, the need for more valid and reliable measures has limited much research investigating advertising aesthetics to conceptual or qualitative approaches. To meet this need, the current research applies art and aesthetic theory in developing scales that measure aesthetic dimensions and reactions of advertising visuals. First, it develops and validates measures for the aesthetic dimensions of ideal beauty and the antithetical aesthetic as well as aesthetic reactions of transgression and artistic quality. Then, it demonstrates predictive validity by testing each dimension's influence on aesthetic reactions, attention, and attitudes toward the ad and brand.     

跨文化背景下商业广告设计的视觉元素关注度研究——以餐饮类平面广告为例

本文以餐饮类平面广告为实验材料,研究了中国和美国被试者对平面广告中的图形、色彩、文字、编排及构图等视觉元素的关注度。本研究从文化认知理论出发,以文化认知差异为前提,探寻了东西方族群对商业广告中出现的视觉信息的不同处理方式。以商业广告中视觉设计的原则为标准,解构了平面广告设计中的视觉构成元素并进行一一比较,得出商业平面广告设计中中美两国被试者的视觉元素关注度差异。最终获取了各种视觉元素的评估结果和相对权重,形成了商业图形广告设计元素关注度的先后顺序。这一实验结果对跨文化认知心理理论在跨国广告设计中的应用有借鉴和启发作用,可以为跨国公司和设计师提供技术指导,设计出更符合消费者需求的商业广告。     

Consumer Responses to Homosexual Imagery in Advertising: A Meta-Analysis

Rising support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, paired with the considerable buying power of this group, has triggered increasing interest from marketers in the gay and lesbian market. Many companies have developed advertising with homosexual imagery to better target this group as well as the mainstream market. The findings on the persuasive effects of homosexual imagery are mixed and do not provide insights on whether and when homosexual imagery in advertising supports persuasion. To resolve the inconsistencies in findings of prior research, this article presents a meta-analysis on the effects of homosexual imagery. The integrated effect size suggests that the net persuasive effect between homosexual and heterosexual imagery does not differ. We find, however, that homosexual consumers show negative responses to heterosexual imagery. Furthermore, the moderator analysis suggests that incongruence between imagery, consumer characteristics, cultural values, explicitness of imagery, endorser gender, and product type results in unfavorable responses to homosexual advertising imagery. These findings provide guidelines for future research and implications for advertisers who intend to address consumers of various sexual orientations.     

Mental Imagery and Sound Effects in Radio Commercials

Abstract

Advertising researchers have not investigated the impact of the imagery-evoking sound effects included in radio commercials on learning, feelings, and attitude formation. Results of the current study indicate that the inclusion of sound effects can increase imagery activity and that there is a relationship between degree of imaging and feelings. Further, it is found that imagery evoking sound effects can result in more favorable attitude toward the commercial and in improved recall and recognition of ad claims. Implications for theory and advertising practice are discussed.     

Women “in motion”: the kinaesthetic viewing experience in Chinese viral advertising films

ABSTRACT

Visual imagery provides aesthetic experiences for viewers, and viral advertising films address viewers’ experience of movement which has not been analysed. Developing visual analyses, this study uses phenomenological approaches and the concept of kinaesthetic empathy, defined as the ability of viewers to react to movements, also in film. It considers Chinese Wei movies (“microfilms” or viral advertising films) with reference to examples by Audi and Swarovski as representatives of China's post-socialist marketing culture. Women in these films are presented as “in motion,” yet still are often delimited by traditional gender stereotypes. These films are potentially ambivalent ideological carriers that encourage women to reinvent themselves through consumption within traditional gender roles but may also suggest the pursuit of different experiences as movement is abstract, transitory and cannot be commodified.     

Perspectives on Advertising From the Geographical Literature: A Critical Review

In recent years, geographers have been devoting increasing attention to the field of advertising, and in particular to advertising imagery. The authors of this article offer a critical review of articles with substantial advertising content that have appeared in geography journals, and assess their relevance to advertising practitioners, scholars and students. These writings are reviewed under three headings: considerations of place and space; issues related to gender and race, and aspects of international advertising. Although many geographers are critical of advertising, there is nevertheless much in their work to interest an advertising readership.     

Stories as Artworks: Giving Form to Felt Dignity in Connections at Work

Controversial taboo appeals as an executional cue in viral advertising have commonly been used by advertisers. In this context, the study investigates the role of medium context on the effectiveness of controversial taboo ads. By implementing a tightly controlled experiment which deals with controversial taboo ads embedded in a press article and in a viral context, the study finds that the viral medium context does not lead to a more positive attitude toward the embedded brand or to more positive purchase intentions. In addition, a viral medium context triggers ‘unintended consequences’ that lead consumers to undermine the level of tabooness of the viral advertising and subjective norms. To increase the external validity of the research, the results were replicated for two kinds of controversial taboo appeals; one related to sexuality, and the other to death. The results provide useful implications for theory and practice. Extending viral advertising research, a different angle on controversial viral advertising has been taken, shifting from an advertiser and brand focus, to a societal and social one. The work leads to a better understanding of the ethics of controversial viral advertising, and demonstrates its role in the trivialization of taboo behaviors and imagery. The results confirm the need for more regulation of online buzz communication and encourage regulatory bodies to extend policies of viral advertising regulation.     

The Sniffing Effect: Olfactory Sensitivity and Olfactory Imagery in Advertising

The authors examine the influence of olfactory sensitivity on the effectiveness of olfactory imagery in advertising. Findings reveal that the use of olfactory imagery can negatively impact ratings for ads, the product advertised, and likelihood to buy, especially for individuals sensitive to smell. The authors demonstrate that the act of sniffing can reverse the negative effects of olfactory imagery in olfactory sensitive individuals. An event-related potential (ERP) study provides evidence of emotions triggered during sniffing and forming olfactory imagery, explaining the underlying mechanism behind the observed behavioral and perceptual effects. Results show that olfactory imagery has an impact on the evaluation of ads, with a possible negative impact for sensitive individuals. Furthermore, the article demonstrates that these effects can be reversed by introducing sniffing cues in the ad. Thus, the use of a multimethod approach, combining behavioral and neuroscience experiments, provides insight into the effectiveness of advertising strategies in consideration of individual differences in consumer olfactory sensitivity. This article provides support for advertisers to consider incorporating sniffing cues (to trigger positive scent-associated emotions) in the construction of scent-relevant ads to enhance positive ratings of ads.     

How do 3-dimensional images promote products on the Internet?

The study investigates 3D virtual advertising as it affects the online shopping environment. It examines the vividness of mental imagery as a mediator, and consumers' need for touch and product type as moderators of the effects. An experiment conducted with 207 study participants and two product types, a watch and a jacket, indicates overall that 3D advertising outperforms 2D advertising in effectiveness. The vividness of mental imagery appears to directly influence attitudes and intentions by mediating the effects of 2D versus 3D. As expected, the 3D and 2D formats consistently differed more in their effects for geometric products than for material products. Consumers' NFT affected only intentions to revisit, interacting with product type and site type. For the watch product, 3D advertising is more persuasive for both high and low NFT consumers. Comparatively, for the jacket product, 3D strongly impacts low-NFT consumers only, but has no significant difference for high-NFT study participants.     

Marketing images of gender: A visual analysis

An interpretive method drawing from social psychology, feminist theory and art criticism is developed to analyze contemporary images of gender. Utilizing and expanding upon visual research techniques, a selection of ads from contemporary fashion magazines and catalogs was assembled to illustrate particular themes suggested by research on the representation of gender in advertising. The body‐and what it expresses‐is a site of central concern, and discussion focuses on how female and male bodies are represented in advertising. The conventions of art history, when framed within a social science perspective, offer unique contributions to the study of advertising and gender, well suited for researchers interested in the culture of consumption.     

Ooh,that's sour: An investigation of the role of sour taste and color saturation in consumer temptation avoidance

This paper draws on the theory of embodied cognition to argue that sensory imagery and consumer recall of past experiences of sour tastes inspire sour taste perceptions that trigger facial muscle activation, which in turn leads to temptation avoidance. Across four experiments, we show that physical action need not be performed to elicit temptation avoidance. Moreover, our findings show that the effects of visual gustatory imagery are more pronounced when presented against a visual red background low on color saturation. Interestingly, they are not significant in the presence of a high color saturation background. We also discuss the implications of these findings for sensory marketing, alternative consumer strategies to avoid temptation, and visual brand management in the consumer experience economy.     

Women and Advertising

The most vocal critics of advertising are the better-educated, more sophisticated consumers who are, in fact, the best customers for many products and services. They particularly resent condescension and sex-object imagery. There is much suggestive evidence that advertising which consumers find irritating erodes the quality and credibility of brand images. There is also evidence that advertising which they like has a positive effect on brand images. The problem seems to stem from a narrow definition of ‘advertising effectiveness’ and institutionalized advertising research procedures. This paper suggests that the solution lies in expanding our definition of effectiveness to include emotional response. It also suggests that we may be rescued by the explosion of change in media technology. As the media context changes, the dimension of liking could be a crucial criterion of advertising effectiveness.