The title 'The hidden power of humorous ads' suggests that humorous ads exert influence on people without them realizing it. This is not tosay that humorous ads contain messages that people cannot consciously perceive, nor that they are unaware of the goal of humorous ads to exert influence. Humorous ads are no hidden persuaders; they are overt attempts to change our attitudes and behavior. What is meant by “hidden power” is that people are often unaware of the ways in which advertisements change their preferences and behavioral responses toward brands. Many of us are familiar with the experience of being able to retrieve the storyline of an extremely funny ad, but being unable to recollect which brand was promoted in it. People are often inclined to think that when they forgot the relevant parts of an ad, it has not succeeded to persuade them. Also, many people think that they are able to keep track and correct for the influence that advertising has on their daily purchase decisions. Until now, the assumption that advertisements are only successful when consumers explicitly recall and accept their main message hasalso been prevalent in the scientific enquiry of humorous advertising. Given that consumers often forget or reject advertising messages, it is not surprising that the common conclusion from this research is that humorous ads do not succeed in influencing purchase decisions. Yet, the past decades have seen increasing attention to the possibility that the influence of advertising on consumption behavior may be driven by implicit processes. The present dissertation provides evidence that repeated exposures to humorous ads shape our perceptions of brands in a more implicit way than previously assumed. Moreover, it shows that the formation of these preferences affects overt consumer behavior. (Author/publisher)
Abstract