Memory for Sexual and Nonsexual Television Commercials as a Function of Viewing Context and Viewer Gender

Abstract

The present study investigated memory for sexual and nonsexual commercials as a function of programme-commercial congruity and programme-induced level of involvement. Participants were allocated to one of four conditions: sexual programme with sexual or nonsexual commercials and nonsexual programme with sexual or nonsexual commercials. Recall and involvement levels were tested with a series of memory tests and programme ratings. It was predicted that sexual advertisements would be recalled and recognised better overall, that the sexual programme context would impair memory for commercials, and that level of involvement with the programme would inversely correlate with recall and recognition of the commercials and their content. Recall of sexual advertisements was found to be better than for nonsexual advertisements, and subjective ratings of programme involvement were higher for the sexual programme. Neither the perceived involvement level nor programme type affected memory for the commercials overall, but men were shown to remember sexual advertisements better than nonsexual advertisements-particularly when the sexual advertisements were embedded in a sexual programme. Women were equally good at remembering sexual and nonsexual advertisements. Implications of the current results and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Advertisement–programme congruence in memory of sexual fragrance advertisements

“…Bushman and Bonacci's () findings were challenged by Fried and Johanson (), on the grounds that they did not adequately control for potential confounding factors in the programme content, such as the programme nature and humour. Fried and Johanson () found that sexual programmes did not reduce viewers' memory for the advertisements when the programme nature and humour were controlled, as also shown by later studies (see King et al, ; Leka et al, ).…”

“…Although earlier research provided evidence for the effectiveness of programme–advertisement congruence on advertisement recall (Leka et al, ), the majority of our recent studies have failed to find such an effect (Furnham & Hiranandani, ; Furnham & Mainaud, ; King et al, ; Leka et al, ). The lack of a programme–advertisement congruence effect on advertisement recall may be explained by the difference in proximity between the sexual scenes in the programme and the advertisements.…”

“…Because participant gender was previously found to be a potential moderating variable (Leka et al, ), it was added as a blocking variable in the ANOVAs. Two 2 × 2 × 2 ANOVAs were conducted on the effect of programme content (sexual or nonsexual), advertisement content (sexual or nonsexual), and gender (male or female) on (a) advertisement free recall scores and (b) advertisement cued recall scores.…”

“…The majority of studies on the effect of sexual content in advertisements suggests that sexual advertisements are more memorable than their neutral counterparts (e.g., King et al, ; Leka, McClelland, & Furnham, ; Toverljani, McClelland, & Furnham, ). The positive effect of sexual content in advertising has also been supported by behavioural measures of buying intention (Reichert et al, ), as well as an increase in physiological measures such as skin conductance level (Belch, Holgerson, Belch, & Koppman, ) and heart rate (Sparks & Lang, ).…”

“…The lack of a programme–advertisement congruence effect on advertisement recall may be explained by the difference in proximity between the sexual scenes in the programme and the advertisements. In previous studies, the programmes used were longer in duration, ranging from 26 (King et al, ) to 32 min (Leka et al, ). During the course of the programme, the intensity of sexual content will typically fluctuate (e.g., a sexual scene may be followed by a neutral family barbecue scene).…”