The use of skin lightening products is increasing. Significant social and health concerns have been associated with the use of such products. Advertisers have been the target of much of the 'blame' for this increase in demand. In the current research, we explore the relative impact of advertising, social influences, and self-perceived (subjective) knowledge on 359 young adults from India who use or are familiar with skin lightening products. Our results indicate that social forces have a greater influence on the use of skin lightening products than do advertising and self-perceived knowledge forces. The partial mediation effects of attitudes towards skin lightening products and the moderating effects of need to belong and susceptibility to peer influences were also explored and found to be significant in some cases.
This research examines the influence of perceived benefits on consumer responses to in-game advertising (IGA), using a mixed-method approach. A 2 & times; 2 between-subjects experiment exposed participants to advertisements differing in congruity and interactivity. Results showed that both interactivity and congruity positively affect perceived benefits, helping reduce psychological reactivity and promoting more favorable attitudes toward IGA. The data also reveal a suggestive compensatory pattern of interactivity in a low-congruity situation, although it is not statistically significant. A complementary qualitative phase identified several categories of perceived benefits, including hedonic, cognitive, personal, and social. This research challenges the traditional view that congruity and interactivity must work together, highlighting instead the central role of perceived benefits in mitigating intrusiveness and improving the effectiveness of advertisements in games. This study contributes to literature by providing a more detailed understanding of how to design advertising strategies aligned with players' motivations, so that ads enhance rather than disrupt the gaming experience.
Does repeating a brand placement within a television program strengthen attitudes; or wear thin? Two experiments with a full-length sitcom tested how repetition frequency (0-4 exposures) affects brand attitudes. One study varied subtle visual appearances; another varied spoken mentions. A comparison of pre-post measures showed striking asymmetry: Additional visual exposures improved attitudes without wear-out, an effect that persisted even without recall. In contrast, repeated verbal mentions produced no attitude change. This divergence aligns with Russell's () framework: weakly plot-connected visual placements operate through low-attention fluency routes, while audio placements require plot-integral usage to drive positive elaboration. The strategic implication is that for placements with low plot connection, practitioners can confidently increase subtle visual placement frequency, whereas repeated audio mentions warrant caution. As streaming drives repeated exposures and ad-avoidance makes placements more relevant, understanding when repetition helps, versus when it fails, matters for both theory and practice.
Despite the prevalence of speed-watching in digital media consumption, its impact on brand placement effectiveness remains empirically underexplored. Integrating information processing and media literacy theories, this study examines how accelerated playback speeds influence brand responses among TikTok's youth demographic. Using a mixed-method design combining experimental and survey data, we identify an inverted U-shaped relationship between playback speed (both objective and perceived) and brand attitude, which is mediated by users' perceived video informativeness. Furthermore, speed-watching frequency serves as a critical boundary condition: frequent speed-watchers exhibit a higher tolerance for accelerated pacing, effectively shifting the curve's inflection point toward higher speeds. These findings extend brand placement literature by identifying speed-watching as an influential factor and offer strategic implications for advertisers optimizing placement design in high-velocity media environments.
As streaming platforms introduce ad-supported paid subscriptions, they risk undermining user expectations of ad-free experiences. This research examines how justification framing, defined as providing explanations for the inclusion of ads, affects consumer responses. Across three experimental studies, we find that providing a justification increases perceived fairness and subscription intentions, with no significant differences observed across the levels of justification depth examined, and similar effects emerging across different types of justifications. Even minimal justifications improve user acceptance, suggesting that the presence of an explanation, rather than its elaboration, plays a central role. These findings contribute to the advertising and digital marketing literature by highlighting the importance of fairness cues in experiential disruptions within paid subscription models. They also offer practical guidance for platforms navigating communication around ad integration.
While influencer marketing has transformed brand-consumer engagement, it raises concerns about psychological well-being, particularly in the fashion sector. The rise of virtual influencers (VIs), computer-generated personas that mimic human influencers (HIs), prompts questions about their impact on consumers' mental health. This research examines how VI design features, including anthropomorphism and socialization intensity, affect emotional responses and impulsive buying. Across two experimental studies with young female consumers, findings show that low-anthropomorphic VIs elicit less appearance anxiety and body dissatisfaction than high-anthropomorphic VIs. These distress states trigger competing routes, including a direct compensatory route that increases impulsive buying and a reflective coping route through impression management that reduces such behavior. Furthermore, VIs with low socialization intensity produce less loneliness, reducing emotional attachment and subsequent impulsive buying. This research suggests that thoughtful VI design, specifically reducing human-likeness and moderating social cues, can protect consumer well-being and promote ethical, psychologically sustainable influencer marketing.
As short-form videos continue to gain popularity, more marketing and branding activities are being conducted on these platforms to engage consumers. This study aims to exaime the effects of short-form video content features and executional elements on consumer engagement behaviors, as well as the moderating effect of brand type (domestic vs. international, macro vs. micro). Based in the Chinese context, this research collected a dataset of 6,606 Douyin short videos through web scraping and manual coding and employed Negative Binomial regression for analysis. The research findings show that content features (informativeness, emotional intensity, interactivity) have different effects on likes, comments and shares. Subtitles negatively affect comments and shares, while vocal background music positively influences all three engagement behaviors. These effects vary by brand type. This study broadens the application of the Elaboration Likelihood Model from the standpoint of firm-generated content, and it provides practical guidance for designing attractive branded short-form videos.
This study examines digital video advertising, focusing on the impact of single versus multiple models on social media responses and the role of group diversity (age, gender, ethnicity) in international ads. Using theories of information utility, message repetition, and cue-diagnosticity, it analyzes 234 YouTube and Instagram campaigns with 38,774 consumer comments via machine learning-based facial recognition. Results show that social media ads with multiple models outperform single-model ones in driving responses, consistent with theoretical predictions. However, group diversity within ads shows no significant effect. The study offers theoretical, managerial, and methodological insights, highlighting future research opportunities on diversity in advertising.
While studies have examined corporate sociopolitical activism (CSA) from multiple perspectives, research has not yet examined how different CSA types shape consumer-level brand outcomes or when those effects strengthen or weaken. Addressing that gap, this research examines how CSA types expressed through brand communication influence consumer brand engagement (CBE) and consumer-based brand equity (CBBE), considering need for cognition (NFC) as a boundary condition. Building on three pretests, four quasi-experiments show that servant activism, which is high in moral intensity and low in business relatedness, generates the most favorable brand outcomes, whereas citizen activism also outperforms low-moral-intensity forms. Study 2 shows that CBE mediates the positive effect of servant activism on CBBE. Study 3 shows this indirect effect is stronger among high-NFC consumers. Across studies, moral intensity appears more influential than business relatedness under the conditions tested. These findings offer guidance for advertisers and marketers designing brand communication that builds engagement and equity without inviting skepticism.
Based on the lenses of the Models of Inferred Information and the Heuristic-Systematic Model of Information Processing, we examine the impact of green advertising message elements on perceived green deception and brand attitude. In Study 1, we manipulate message specificity (vague vs specific) and length (short vs long). Study 2 tests ads with or without nature imagery. In Study 3, we add a neutral image and explore the moderating role of environmental concern. Long specific messages lead to less perceptions of green deception than short and long vague and short specific messages. Imagery does not have an effect on perceived green deception. In case of short and vague argumentation, highly environmentally concerned individuals exposed to ads with non-nature image report more green deception. Lowly concerned consumers report more green deception when exposed to nature imagery. Perceived green deception has a consistent negative effect on brand attitude.
In the context of Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3), which focuses on promoting good health and well-being, the alarming rise in global obesity rates presents a significant public health challenge. Despite heightened awareness of health issues, unhealthy food brands consistently garner greater consumer engagement on social media than healthy brands. To explore this disparity, this study seeks to investigate the role of marketer-generated content (MGC) on social media engagement levels, for devising strategies to enhance the impact of healthy food messaging. By analysing 21,967 social media posts categorized through an automated machine learning (AutoML) model on Google Cloud Vertex AI, this study compares content types and engagement across Instagram and Twitter. Using MANCOVA and gradient boosting models (GBMs), it examines the interplay of platform, content, and brand type on consumer interactions. The findings highlight significant differences in content strategies, identifying approaches that yield higher engagement essential for health-focused brands.
