The Power of Feelings in Understanding Advertising Effects

Abstract

This research investigates the role of feelings in understanding advertising effects. We conducted two studies to examine (1) whether feelings occur as a result of viewing television commercials, (2) the relative importance of feelings and judgments of the ad's characteristics on several advertising outcomes, and (3) the variation in the importance of feelings given different ad characteristics. We found that (1) negative and positive feelings co-occur; (2) both are important predictors of the ad's effectiveness; (3) feelings contribute uniquely to attitude toward the ad, beliefs about the brand's attributes, and attitude toward the brand; and (4) the relative importance of feelings and judgments of the ad's characteristics varies based on the extent to which the ad is transformational and informational.