Abstract: This paper aims to investigate the effect of matching social distance (proximal vs. distant) and the visual rhetoric style (literal vs. metaphorical) of the threatful outcome of texting while driving in persuading young drivers. To this end, this research conducts a series of 2 (social distance frame: close vs. distant) × 2 (visual rhetoric style: literal vs. metaphorical) online experiments on the perspective of construal level theory. This study identified that a fit between social distance and visual rhetoric style of the threat enhances the effect of a social marketing campaign targeting young adults. A message framed in terms of socially proximal entities shows a favorable impact on young drivers’ threat perception and behavioral intention when the visual rhetoric depicts the threats of texting while driving more concrete. On the other hand, more distant social entities in the message show a better impact when the threats are visualized in metaphor. This paper enhances the understanding of threat appeal message design by adding empirical evidence of matching visual rhetoric style and social distance. The findings provide theoretical and practical implications for social marketing campaigns, regarding the strategic tailoring of messages, particularly in PSAs that discourage texting while driving on young adults.
Topic: advertising research
Translating consumer neuroscience into advertising research and education
Abstract: Despite the increasing application of consumer neuroscience in advertising research in both academia and industry, many misconceptions about neuroscience research and data persist. One of the challenges for the consumer neuroscience researcher is dispelling these misconceptions for key stakeholders. In this panel, we will address some of these misconceptions with a focus on translating consumer neuroscience knowledge to new biopsychological researchers (i.e., faculty and students) and industry partners. This panel aspires to enhance the accessibility of consumer neuroscience research among advertising scholars in research, teaching, and service. Our expert panelists will discuss topics such as what neuroscience data actually tell us and how it can be used to complement self-report data, conducting web-based biometric research, managing expectations of industry partners, navigating timelines necessary to collect neuroscience data while adhering to important deadlines (such as tenure), and the increasing ease of use and decreasing expense of these measures that will allow more advertising researchers to employ such innovative research approaches.
Journal of Advertising Research Best Academic Paper Award
Eun Sook Kwon, (Grady PhD, Rochester Institute of Technology), Karen Whitehill King (University of Georgia), Greg Nyilasy (Grady PhD, University of Melbourne) and Leonard N. Reid (University of Georgia), (2019). Impact of Media Context on Advertising Memory: A Meta-Analysis of Advertising Effectiveness. Journal of Advertising Research, 59 (1) 99-128.
Abstract: Media professionals and scholars have examined the influence of media context on advertising effectiveness for more than 50 years, but clarity regarding media-context effects remains lacking, amid an abundance of mixed results. This study used meta-analysis to investigate the relationship between media context and advertising memory in quantitative studies up to 2013. Effect sizes were significant by media-context factors, advertising memory measures, and study characteristics, although these were correlated weakly or moderately. The findings strongly reinforce the decision rule that media professionals should consider media context when making media decisions.