Publications

Publication details [#63334]

Hancock, Jeffrey T. and Sunny Jung Kim. 2017. How Advertorials Deactivate Advertising Schema: MTurk-Based Experiments to Examine Persuasion Tactics and Outcomes in Health Advertisements. Communication Research 44 (7) : 1019–1045.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Place, Publisher
SAGE Publications

Annotation

Advertorials—advertisements camouflaged as editorial material—are a penetrative advertising strategy. Presentational features of advertorials, like a small or omitted advertisement label and useful information proposed in an editorial format prior to fostering a product, are likely to give impressions to readers that the reading material is a useful resource rather than advertising material. This paper explored the cognitive and persuasive impact of health product–linked advertorials based on a schema-laden information processing model framework. Study 1 (n = 337) found that advertorials were less likely to prompt advertising schema, especially consumer awareness of persuasive intent. Study 2 (n = 336) found that the structure proposing useful information before advertising a related product lowered consumer skepticism. Overall, readers displayed more positive attitudes toward advertorials than they did toward traditional advertisements due to reduced awareness of persuasive intent (Study 1) and advertorials’ structure (Study 2), which, in turn, raised willingness to purchase advertised products.