Anthropomorphizing religious advertising: The moderating role of political ideology

We examine the anthropomorphism of brands as either a servant or a partner in religious advertising. Across five studies, we demonstrate that the impact of such anthropomorphism depends on consumers' political ideology. When exposed to religious advertisements (vs. nonreligious advertisements; Studies 1B and 1C), politically conservative consumers are more favorable toward brand-as-a-servant anthropomorphism (Study 1), which arises from greater state-based compassion (Study 2). However, this conditional preference for servant anthropomorphism only occurs for less religious consumers (Study 3). This study informs marketers regarding optimizing the effectiveness of using anthropomorphic brand images in religious advertising predicated on political ideology-based segmentation strategies. The key takeaway is that portraying a brand as a servant is more appealing for conservative consumers who are less religious.