Premium
Model's Race: A Peripheral Cue in Advertising Messages?
Author(s) -
Whittler Tommy E.,
Spira Joan Scattone
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of consumer psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.433
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1532-7663
pISSN - 1057-7408
DOI - 10.1016/s1057-7408(16)30081-x
Subject(s) - race (biology) , white (mutation) , psychology , product (mathematics) , categorization , advertising , elaboration likelihood model , social psychology , black male , computer science , mathematics , sociology , gender studies , artificial intelligence , business , biochemistry , chemistry , geometry , persuasion , gene
Based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model and Social Categorization Theory, an experiment examined minority viewers' use of racial cues on exposure to product advertising. A total of 160 Black adults from a southeastern city rated a garment bag advertisement that featured either a White or a Black model and contained either strong or weak message arguments. Consistent with both theoretical notions, product and advertising evaluations were more favorable given a Black than a White model, but only for Black participants who identify strongly with Black culture. Blacks who identify weakly with Black culture evaluated the product and advertisement similarly given a White or a Black model. The results also showed that the Black model's race motivated Blacks, particularly those with strong racial attitudes, to process the message in a biased manner. In particular, the Black (versus White) model's race positively influenced the Black participants' thoughts about the product, which in turn yielded more favorable product evaluations. The findings suggest that Blacks appear to engage in biased processing (and not simple cue processing) when exposed to Black models in advertising messages.