Purpose To be successful, brands should incorporate diversity in their advertising strategy. One way is to demonstrate their support for the LGBTQI community in mainstream media. This study aims to examine situational factors that affect the responses to gay presenters in mainstream media. Design/methodology/approach Two experimental studies were conducted in a 2 (luxury vs value brand) × 2 (gay vs heterosexual presenters) between-subjects design. Study 1 explores the interaction effects, whereas Study 2 introduces perceived congruence between the presenters and the product as a mediator. Findings The results show that using gay presenters in luxury brand ads leads to a more positive attitude toward the advertisement and higher product evaluation than using heterosexual presenters, whereas using heterosexual presenters to represent a value brand leads to a higher attitude and product evaluation than using gay presenters. Practical implications Nowadays, there is a greater need for inclusiveness and diversity in advertising. Brands need to pay attention to various underrepresented groups and adapt their strategy accordingly. This study shows that in appropriate situations, gay presenters can improve the image of a brand among heterosexual as well as gay consumers. Originality/value Expanding the match-up hypothesis theory, this work shows that a match can include not just an individual endorser but also the social category the endorser represents and stereotypical beliefs associated with that group.

This special section marks the end of the 50th year of publications for the Journal of Advertising (JA) and the beginning of what we hope will be a "reimagined" future for advertising research. When reaching major milestone anniversaries, one is motivated to look back to the past or forward to the future (or both). When JA was first published in 1972, advertising was confined to mass mediated communication and its boundaries were drawn by four classes of mass media (newspapers, magazines, television, and radio) (Richards and Curran 2002). Today, advertising is more broadly defined, unfettered from any particular media or technology (Dahlen and Rosengren 2016), and digital technology companies, such as Google and Meta, have emerged as the biggest advertising companies (Helberger et al. 2020). Despite the enormous changes over the past five decades, the topics and research questions examined by advertising researchers in 1972 remain important and prevalent in today’s advertising scholarship, and we believe many of these will still be important in the future. However, recent years have seen tremendous changes in advertising. Technological innovations such as data-driven computational advertising, machine-learning algorithms, and artificial intelligence (AI) have altered the nature of advertising messages, processes, and outcomes. Transformations in the communication and media industries, along with the development of user-generated and user-shared content, have become dominant forces in the advertising industry, creating challenges to traditional definitions and boundaries of the field (Dahlen and Rosengren 2016; Huh and Malthouse 2020; Li 2019). In addition, dynamic social and cultural shifts in society have been propelling rapid transformations that can open new avenues for advertising research and theory (McDonald, Laverie, and Manis 2021). Therefore, to commemorate the 50th anniversary, this special section has chosen to try to look to the future, asking contributors to indicate a topic they think will be important and to propose new theories or ideas that can be fruitful in studying and explaining advertising in the years ahead. A total of 30 papers were submitted in response to this call and from these, five articles were selected to be included in this special section.

The rise of mobile usage, as well as increasing amount of information, contributes to the individual’s inattention to ads and multitasking behavior. In many situations, multitasking has taken attention away from advertising messages, leading to a decrease in message effectiveness. Nonetheless, previous research has shown a potential benefit of multitasking on memory because, in some situations, multitasking could reduce mind wandering, which is a hidden distraction in ad processing. This research compares how different types of secondary tasks (cognitive vs. perceptual) affect ad memory. The results showed that a low perceptual load secondary task increased memory about ad content while decreasing mind wandering. However, cognitive load secondary tasks did not interfere with the cognitive processing more than the control condition.

People frequently do not pay full attention to advertising messages to which they are exposed. While external distraction such as active avoidance (e.g., multitasking while ads play) or background noise have been identified as causes, in many situations, consumers may also be distracted by an internal cause- mind wandering. While external distractions are thought to lead to worse ad outcomes, this research examines the potential benefits of multiple tasks (multitasking) in the context of mind wandering and how they affect memory for ad content. Through a series of three experiments, we show that even when no external alternative activity is occurring, memory for ad content may still be negatively impact by the increased presence of mind wandering. However, multitasking with a low-level perceptual task can actually increase memory about ads while decreasing mind wandering.

This chapter discusses the use of theory in advertising research. It reviews the role of theory in variable fields, and discusses the elements that make advertising distinct from other, related subjects. Repetition, skepticism, message coordination, and ad clutter are variables that are relatively unique to advertising and can help to guide theory testing and development, as well as leading researchers to explore new questions and outcomes.

Experiments are conducted to help establish cause-and-effect relationships, and they can be powerful tools for doing so. We review fundamental concepts for conducting experimental advertising research. Good experimental research involves careful consideration of independent and dependent variables, and what they are supposed to represent. To this end, we review threats to construct validity as well as offer some suggestions on how to think about external and ecological validity in ad research. We review three quasi-experimental research designs and three simple, randomized experimental designs, along with more complex factorial design experiments. Finally, we discuss ethical considerations and the crucial role researchers play in maintaining research integrity.

Accumulating evidence suggests that consumer behaviors are often strongly influenced by subtle environmental cues rather than being based on conscious information processing. One of the ways in which context affects consumer choice is through the activation of brand usage thoughts through exposure to consumption environment cues (e.g., time of the day, location). By pairing new and familiar brands with novel consumption scenarios, this study explored the potential to directly affect brand–context linkages by means of advertising. Results suggest that repeated exposure to advertising can significantly promote development of novel brand–context associations, even if the two are initially perceived as unusual.

Being an editor of the Journal of Advertising (JA) provides a unique perspective into the publishing process and the field of advertising. In this article I have tried to offer a glimpse of what I learned from this experience. It reveals what I learned (mostly from mistakes I made) about the review process. It also provides some thoughts about how to be a good reviewer. The second part of the article takes a broader view of how the field of advertising research has developed, what might be missing, and how we can expand its development in the future.

A viral advertising message has two different sources: the advertiser as the message creator and a sender as the message distributor. This study examined the influence of sender trust and advertiser trust on four stages of viral advertising effects. Results from a field experiment demonstrated that sender trust and advertiser trust have differential influences on effect stages. Significant interaction effects show that if a viral ad is sent by a trusted sender, the influence of advertiser trust becomes non-significant or reduced, suggesting that a viral ad from a trusted sender can overcome the handicap a less trusted advertiser might have.

This study examined the role of parental mediation in tweens' online information disclosing behaviors. In particular, the influence of parental mediation on 2 types of personally identifiable information disclosure (voluntary disclosure in general online activities and disclosure upon marketers' request) was examined. A survey conducted with 381 parent-tween dyads in Korea revealed that, while parental mediation was not directly associated with tweens' information disclosing behaviors, parent-tween disagreement on restrictive mediation was: tweens' inaccurate perception of what parents do to limit their access to commercial Web sites seems to be positively related to tweens' information disclosure on the Web.

Many critics have raised concerns about online advertising directed to children. This study investigated the role of several antecedent variables that may impact children's attitudinal and behavioural responses to online advertising. Specifically, online ad scepticism, family communication patterns, time spent on the internet, and perceived internet competency were examined as factors that may impact children's online advertising attitudes and behaviours. A survey conducted with a dyad sample of 381 parents-preteens in South Korea revealed that children with high scepticism towards online advertising, who spent less time using the internet and who perceived lower levels of confidence about their internet skills were more likely to have a negative attitude towards online advertising and less likely to disclose personal information to online marketers. However, the relationship between family communication and children's responses to online advertising found in this study was inconsistent with the previous empirical findings. Implications of findings are discussed and directions for future research suggested.