The Effects of Sexual Social Marketing Appeals on Cognitive Processing and Persuasion

Abstract

Increasingly, social marketers are using sexual information in public service announcements and collateral material for a wide range ofcauses. This study builds on previous research to explain how sexual appeals can affect cognitive processing and persuasion for "help-self' social marketing topics. It also goes beyond traditional single-message research designs by testing matched pairs of appeals (sexual/nonsexual) for 13 social marketing topics. The major finding was that sexual appeals were more persuasive overall than matched nonsexual appeals for social marketing topics. Sexual appeals also stimulated more favorable ad executionrelated thoughts but had a negative effect on cognitive elaboration (e.g., support and counterarguments). Respondents also reported that sexual appeals were more attention getting, likeable, dynamic, and somewhat more apt to increase their interest in the topic than were nonsexual appeals. These findings suggest that persuasion is largely the result ofperipheral processing and distraction from somewhat unpleasant messages when receivers are expected to counterargue the message or be resistant to change.

Consumer Responses to Explicit Sexual Stimuli in Advertising: Artistic vs Provocative Style

“…The main risk is that the sexual content in advertising, while capturing the consumer's attention, can distract him from other information that is more substantial and relevant as, for example, those related to the brand (MacInnis, Moorman & Jaworski, 1991;Cui & Yang, 2009). Doubtless the use of sexual content in advertising raises the level of attention (Belch, Holgerson, Belch & Koppman, 1981;Dudley, 1999;Reichert, Heckler & Jackson, 2001;Reichert, LaTour & Kim, 2007;Lombardot, 2007) and may help to make those messages more interesting and engaging. A few years ago, Bello, Pitts, and Etzel (1983) manipulated a famous Calvin Klein jeans commercial, in which a seductive Brooke Shields was portrayed, in order to show both the sexy version (original) and the non-sexy version of the ad.…”

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) In Print Advertisements: A Content Analysis of Advertisements Which Is Positioned In Special and General Interest Magazines

“…This information has been a guide for Homer and Kahle's research. Also some researchers were focused on the specific source feature (Reichert, Heckler and Jackson 2001). Reichert, Heckler and Jackson stated their hypothesis drawing on ELM for sexual attractiveness source and its effects.…”

“…Most of the studies that framed ELM were aimed to test how source, message and target variables affect attitudes in an advertisement message (Malaviya, Kisielius and Sternthal 1996;Stafford andDay 1995, Weinberger andGulas 1992;Reichert, Heckler and Jackson 2001;Homer and Kahle 1990;Forret and Turban 1996). Firstly, source factors are important for determining the degree of elaboration continuum.…”

The Role of Female Sexual Self-Schema in Reactions to Non-explicit Sexual Advertising Imagery

“…The mechanism behind advertising of this type is posited to involve peripheral cues rather than effortful elaboration (Reichert, Heckler, and Jackson 2001); in other words, sexual content increases persuasion by provoking a response and detracting resources from deeper cognitive elaboration of the ad stimuli. However, there is evidence of female respondents as having a lower elaboration threshold than men and thus being more sensitive to the extent to which information presented in an advertisement is relevant, or "fits" with, the promoted product or brand Maheswaran 1991, Meyers-Levy andSternthal 1991).…”