The current practices in food advertising

A content analysis and a quasi-experiment were performed to examine the current practices in food advertising, and the usage and the effectiveness of different advertising claims across two food categories (hedonic vs functional). The content analysis revealed that taste and specific nutrition claims are the two dominating types of advertising claims in recent food advertisements. Also, a greater proportion of advertisements for functional (vs hedonic) foods appeared to use such nutrition/health claims as general health and contains nutrient claims, whereas a greater proportion of advertisements for hedonic (vs functional) foods used taste claims. However, these current practices of food advertising were called into question by the results of the quasi-experiment, which showed that the nutrition/health claims were more effective when promoting hedonic (vs functional) foods, whereas taste claims were more effective when promoting functional (vs hedonic) foods in generating favourable attitudes and purchase intention. Implications, limitations and future research directions are discussed.     

Are nutrient-content claims always effective?

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which recently prevalent nutrientcontent claims in food advertising are effective and how the level of effectiveness might differ between food products perceived as healthy and unhealthy. Guided by the match-up hypothesis and its theoretical underpinnings, a set of 2 (nutrient-content vs taste claim) × 2 (healthy vs unhealthy food) experiments investigated the impact of nutrient-content claims compared to the impact of taste claims on two different food product types. The authors found that (a) respondents evaluated food ads with nutrient-content claims as healthier than food ads with taste claims regardless of product type, but (b) the respondents showed better advertising evaluations on nutrient-content claims for foods perceived as healthy foods and on taste claims for foods perceived as unhealthy. Our findings provide implications and suggestions for improving food advertising and marketing strategies, and public health policy.     

Social relationships and social anxiety appeals in direct-to-consumer advertising

The use of social relationships as a promotional tool in direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising has received limited attention despite relational impacts on illnesses and empirical evidence supporting social relationships’ positive influence with some patients. This content analysis provides insights into social relationship appeals’ use in DTC magazine ads for each drug-class category. Further, the current study introduces the concept of social anxiety appeals into the DTC advertising literature, which had previously focused more on fear appeals, such as the fear of pain. Social relationships appeared in 42.5% of the 421 DTC ads included in the sample. Social anxiety appeals appeared in 28.5% of ads with social relationships. Types of social relationships depicted (nonromantic, romantic, non-human pets or cartoon characters, and family) vary across drug-class categories. The current study affirms that DTC advertisers frequently appeal to the theoretical importance of relationships as an aid to improved health. It also raises ethical issues when neither the implied improvements in relationships nor decreased social anxiety are direct consequences of prescribed use of the advertised pharmaceutical.     

Effects of Consumer Weight Level and Advertising Appeals on Consumer Attitude Toward Food and Advertisements

This study examines the link between consumer weight level, food type, and consumer attitude toward both food and food advertisements. Further, this research explores how food advertisements containing emotional or informational claims influence the attitudes of overweight and normal-weight consumers. Two experiments were conducted to study the interaction between weight levels, food types (meat vs. vegetables), and advertising appeals (emotional vs. informational). The results showed mixed support for the six hypotheses. The findings indicate that consumer weight level interacts with food types, and emotional/information appeals affecting food evaluation and attitudes toward food advertisements. Managerial implications for food manufacturers and advertisers are discussed.     

Evolution in the usage of localized appeals in Japanese and American print advertising

Based on global consumer culture theory, this empirical investigation examines how the usage of local appeals in Japanese and American advertising content has shifted over a period of nearly three decades. It replicates and improves upon Mueller’s investigation (Journal of Advertising Research, 1987, 27(3)). Content analysis determined the existence or absence of five traditionally Japanese appeals vs five traditionally Western appeals in 2005 issues of women’s, general interest, business and sports magazines published in each country. A total of 899 US ads and 853 Japanese ads were collected. Japanese advertisers appear to have turned to a rather more direct and persuasive selling approach, but continue to maintain a tradition of Japanese subtlety. American ads have shifted from a hard-hitting and aggressive strategy to a more benefit-orientated strategy with a distinctly softer touch. Appeals employed, however, were found to vary with the product category promoted. Overall, findings suggest that while Japanese advertising may have become somewhat more ‘American’, American advertising appears to have become significantly more ‘Japanese’. Possible future convergence between Eastern and Western advertising has implications for international marketers as they craft messages to appeal to these audiences.     

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.     

Food advertising targeting children in India: Analysis and implications

In spite of advertising being severely critiqued for planting erroneous behavioral patterns in young children, there is limited research on advertising aimed at children in the Indian context. This study explores issues like gender representations, stereotypical portrayals, deployment of various appeals, persuasion tactics, and Indian advertising policies in the food commercials targeting Indian children. Hypotheses were developed based on socio-economic and cultural aspects specific to Indian ethos. Content analysis was carried out on commercials appearing on five major children's television channels in India. Results indicate that ads depict boys significantly more than girls, and demonstrate mother as the primary approver for choice of food. Additionally, results reveal that ads use familial settings more than other contexts. Emotional appeal is found to be more prevalent. However, unlike hypothesized, ads were not found to use scholastic or fantasy cues more than athletic or non-fantasy cues. The findings are examined through an ethical lens, and implications for various stakeholders are presented. The study provides advertising policy makers and executioners insights into ethically congruent communication strategies to be used for advertising to children.     

Advertising standardisation in culturally similar markets

A framework for standardisation of ad content based on cultural and socio-economic similarity among countries is proposed. Advertising standardisation is investigated in the Arab world, a culturally similar setting with socio-economic differences among nations, by carrying out a content analysis of 949 ads from Egypt, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. Extant research suggests that, when advertising in culturally similar markets, advertisers use standardised advertising. We investigate two types of ad content – culturally normative and product-related – and show that culturally normative ad content, such as the depiction of women consistent with societal norms, is predominantly culture driven, and standardisation is appropriate, regardless of socio-economic differences. On the other hand, product-related content such as information content, the use of hedonic vs utilitarian appeals, and the provision of price information are influenced by both cultural and socio-economic factors. Hence, standardisation is not appropriate for productrelated ad content when socio-economic differences exist among culturally similar markets. Thus, conditions under which standardisation of the two types of ad content is appropriate are identified. Implications and suggestions for future research are also offered.     

Advertising the U.S. National Organic Standard: A Well-Intentioned Cue Lost in the Shuffle?

The 2002 implementation of the National Organic standard and development of the USDA organic seal gave food advertisers a new tool with which to communicate food characteristics to consumers. Based principally on farm and manufacturing practices, the standard offers consumers an expansion of their food choices. Parents of young children have been shown to have particular interest in organic food. Using parent-targeted magazine-based food ads, this paper explores how organic has been promoted, how its advertising strategy compares to that for conventional foods, and whether organic food has been appropriately differentiated from conventional foods such that the USDA organic seal carries a significant and unique meaning to both consumers and the food industry. The content analysis shows that the period following the implementation of the National Organic Program exhibits a general upward trend in usage of health-related cues but minimal increase in use of terms associated with the “organic” ideal. A direct comparison of organic and non-organic food ads shows that there has been little leakage of terminology related to “organic” into mainstream food advertising strategy. Most importantly, we find that “organic” is intermixed with health cues, contributing to the often-found consumer perception that “organic” means “healthier,” and suggesting that the goals of the NOP to offer consumers a clear definition and a way to reduce confusion have not been met in advertising strategy.     

Advertising persuasion in China: Using Mandarin or Cantonese?

Advertising persuasion may differ based on different languages and/or dialects. Using Chinese samples, this study experimentally tests how a spokesperson's accents (standard Mandarin accent and local Cantonese accent) influence advertising persuasion across different product involvements (high- or low-involvement products) and different advertising appeals (rational or emotional ads). The results show that ads promoting high (low)-involvement products will produce higher persuasion when the ads use Mandarin (Cantonese) rather than Cantonese (Mandarin). In addition, ads with rational (emotional) appeals will result in higher persuasion when presented in Mandarin (Cantonese) rather than Cantonese (Mandarin). The findings contribute to a better understanding of an ad's persuasion with respect to a spokesperson's accents, and offer managerial implications for marketers doing advertising in a multilingual environment such as China.     

Maximizing User Interactivity through Banner Ad Design

This research developed criteria for an online banner ad design to maximize user interactivity. The ad's design criteria were based on studies on interactivity, animation, persuasiveness of emotional and rational appeals in ads, animation, ad placement, size, and metrics. The ad was deployed and measured for effectiveness by using behavioral response metrics: click-through rates and mouse rollovers. Findings show that the ad designed according to the criteria garnered more user interaction than the other ads deployed during the same time. This has value for advertisers that need to evaluate online banner advertising design and need to make informed decisions on advertising strategy and campaigns.     

Effects of Ethnic Identity on Perceived Advertisers’ Motives in Values Advocacy Advertising

The current study examined Asian American consumers’ responses to values advocacy advertising through the interaction of levels of ethnic identification (weak or strong Asian ethnic identification) and culturally embedded ads (low and high in Asian/White culturally embedded ads) in evaluating altruistic motives of advertisers and purchase intention through an experimental design. The findings suggest that low Asian ethnic identifiers may identify with the advertiser employing Asian spokespersons with Asian cultural cues and in turn, perceive that the advertisers advocate social causes with altruistic motives. However, they did not feel congruent with the advertisers utilizing values advocacy ads with low Asian cultural cues (only featuring Asian spokespersons) more than with low/high White cultural cues (featuring White spokespersons with and without White cultural cues).The findings were discussed based on ethnic schema and attribution theory. Further, the present study discusses how Asian American consumers view ads through their different lenses toward meanings of race and culture based on their different levels of ethnic identification.     

The Impact of Package Color and the Nutrition Content Labels on the Perception of Food Healthiness and Purchase Intention

Considering the difference between hedonic and utilitarian products, this article presents how the choice of color in food packaging, along with the nutrition content claim (NCC) labeling, can influence the consumer’s perception of food healthiness and purchase intention. The responses of 120 non-color-blind and non-obese college students from two within-subject experiments were analyzed by adopting a mixed model for repeated measurement. The results suggest that utilitarian, but not hedonic, food products in blue-colored packages were perceived to be healthier than those in red-colored packages. The perception of food healthiness, which was sensitive to the package color, also influenced the purchase intention of packaged foods. Moreover, when the NCC label was presented, food in a blue package with health claims in the NCC (e.g., “light” label) was perceived healthier than food in a red package with regular labels. This article also discusses the managerial implications of the findings for packaging and advertising professionals.     

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.     

Advertisers' Responses to Requests for Substantiation of Product Claims: Differences by Product Category,Type of Claim and Advertising Medium

A sample of major advertisers of durable and nondurable consumer products were asked to provide substantiation of scientific and puffery product claims made in television and magazine advertising. The companies were asked to respond directly to an interested consumer and the responses were evaluated on an “average man” basis. The results indicated that many advertisers cannot or will not successfully substantiate their product claims despite the efforts of the Federal Trade Commission's advertising substantiation program. One proposed remedy is to require advertisers to substantiate claims directly to consumers, on request.     

Estimating the Half-life of Advertisements

The effectiveness of an advertisement wears out over time; eventually, it becomes totally ineffective. The author proposes a concept for measuring the lifetime of an advertisement and derives closed-form expressions for it under certain conditions. In addition, the author distinguishes the proposed concept, the half-life of an advertisement, from the prevalent notion of the duration of advertising effects. More importantly, the information on the half-life of ads is actionable from a managerial standpoint, whereas that on the duration of advertising effect is hypothetical. To enable advertisers to estimate the half-life of their ads, the author describes an estimation approach and illustrates its use by applying it to the advertising of the Dockers® brand of Levi Strauss and Company. Substantively, the lifetime of advertisements for the Dockers® brand is about three months. Thus, advertisers are well-advised to periodically estimate the half-life of their ads, so that they can plan the timing to replace worn out advertisements.     

Advertising in times of war: Themes in Argentine print advertising during the Malvinas/Falklands War

In the plethora of literature that investigates how the advertising industry reacts to changes in society, very few studies are concerned with regions outside of North America and Europe. For this study, we were interested in testing whether the conclusions of North American research in marketing communications would transfer to an understudied market. The ever-changing Argentine economy is a fertile ground to analyze changes in advertising strategies and tactics during times of turmoil. Thus, this study considered changes in appeals and strategies in print advertisements across two eras for the Latin American country: prewar (1981) and war (1982). With the advancement of the war efforts, results indicated that there were changes in (1) the tactical intent of the ads, (2) the nature of the advertiser, and (3) the products advertised. Additionally, our study shows that discursive strategies employed by advertisers were consistent with those emphasized by other media, such as television and print journalism.     

Global adspend trends

This study examines the creative, placement and budget strategy of internet advertising by Eastern and Western multinationals in China. A content analysis of 47,131 online ads indicates that both Eastern and Western companies dominantly use individualist appeals for internet advertising in China, a collectivist country. However, Eastern multinationals also rely on emotional appeals, whereas Western companies generally adopt rational appeals. This study offers several theoretical and managerial implications, including that multinationals appear to recognise the changing culture of internet users and especially the younger generation, as well as some future research directions for internet advertising.     

Cultural Meaning,Advertising, and National Culture: A Four-Country Study

Cultural meaning transfer theory and GLOBE dimensions were employed in this comparative study to examine the extent to which cultural meaning presented in advertisements reflected national cultures of the target countries. Content analysis was applied to advertisements from four countries to investigate whether the use of advertising appeals presented in these advertisements mirrored variations in cultures as described by GLOBE Society Values. Results revealed that, in line with the hypotheses, there were similarities and differences in the use of appeals, and only some of them mirrored the cultural variations. GLOBE Society Values were more likely to predict the use of appeals than GLOBE Society Practices, but not for all appeals. Advertisers can draw on national cultures for cultural meanings to be used in advertisements only to a limited extent. It may be that advertisements mold rather than mirror societal values, or that only certain cultural traits are important for advertisers.     

Ethical Judgments of Sexual Appeals in Print Advertising

Abstract

This study explores consumers' ethical judgments about the use of sexual appeals in print advertising. It specifically focuses upon responses on the Reidenbach-Robin multidimensional ethics scale, ad attitude, brand attitude, and purchase intentions. The findings indicate that, regardless of the respondent's gender, the use of a strong overt sexual appeal in a print advertisement was not well received. Consequently, advertisers need to rethink the use of strong overt sexual appeals, especially given the controversial issues surrounding such advertising stimuli and their popular use to break through media clutter.