Explaining Consumer Responses to Ethnic and Religious Minorities in Advertising: The Case of Israel and Germany

Abstract

With global geopolitical changes, marketers have increasingly employed advertisements featuring ethnic and religious minority endorsers. Researchers have examined the effects of this practice, where endorsers' ethnicity and religious associations are interlinked. The present research disentangles the potential effects of these two factors and tests their underlying mechanism. Study 1 (N ¼ 336) shows that the endorser's belongingness to a religious minority group negatively affects attitudinal and behavioral consumer responses. Furthermore, the results indicate that sociomoral disgust mediates the effects of religion on consumer responses. Study 2 (N ¼ 306) supports a moderated mediation model where religious and ethnic identity moderates the indirect effect of ads featuring a religious minority endorser. Additionally, weaker effects for consumers' ethnic identity moderating the indirect effect of ads featuring ethnic minority endorsers were found. The results indicate a strong category dominance of religion for the evaluation of ethnic and religious minority endorsers. The findings theoretically contribute to our understanding of the diverse effects of featuring religious and ethnic minority endorsers in advertisements. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Inauthentic inclusion: Exploring how intention to use AI‐generated diverse models can backfire

“…We present a table to help conceptualize the knowledge gap that we address with this research (see Appendix ). Specifically, we show that a range of articles focus on the effects of AI‐generated models (i.e., Franke et al, 2023; Lou et al, 2023; Mende et al, 2023; Sands, Campbell, et al, 2022; Thomas & Fowler, 2021), while others focus on diversity representation in advertising (Campbell et al, 2024; Eisend et al, 2023; Rößner & Eisend, 2023; Rößner et al, 2021; Tsai, 2011). However, to the best of our knowledge, very few studies have addressed in combination both AI‐generated models and diversity representation.…”

“…De Meulenaer et al, 2018) or self‐congruity—a match between the self and the individuals depicted in the advertisement (Sirgy et al, 2008). This is well documented in marketing and advertising research in relation to a range of diversity attributes, including gender (Middleton & Turnbull, 2021), ethnicity (Rößner et al, 2017), sexual orientation (Chinchanachokchai et al, 2023; Eisend & Hermann, 2019), body weight (Scaraboto & Fischer, 2013) and age (Eisend, 2022), and to a lesser extent disability (Mason & Pavia, 2006), and religion (Rößner et al, 2021). These positive effects also carry over to online and social media advertising (Li, 2022; Yang et al, 2021).…”

The influence of companies' moral associations on the product consumption experience: The role of moral disgust

“…Accordingly, disgust generated by moral judgment may also influence consumption experience. Emotions stirred up by moral judgments may shape the product experience even when they are not directly tied to product qualities (Rößner et al, 2021). The negative sentiment evoked by moral judgments and the subsequent moral disgust can affect evaluations of consumption experience (Anderson & Barrett, 2016; Mattila et al, 2014; Tal & Wansink, 2013).…”