The Effects of Programme Context on Memory for Humorous Television Commercials

This study investigated the effects of programme context on memory for humorous television advertisements in South Korean participants. Humorous and nonhumorous Korean advertisements were embedded within two programme contexts: humorous and nonhumorous. When the programme ratings of humour, enjoyment and involvement were higher, unaided recall was poorer. In addition, unaided recall of the advertisements was better when they were embedded within a nonhumorous programme. However, there was no significant programme‐advertisement interaction effect. Overall, both free and cued recall were higher for humorous advertisements than for the nonhumorous advertisements. The findings are discussed in terms of cultural differences and changes in television programmes and advertising over time.Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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

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. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sex Really Does Sell: The Recall of Sexual and Non‐sexual Television Advertisements in Sexual and Non‐sexual Programmes

The present study examined memory for advertisements as a function of both advertisement content and the contextual programme content. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: in one condition, they watched a sexual programme and in the other a non‐sexual programme. Embedded within each programme were the same highly sexual and non‐sexual advertisements that had been matched in pairs for five products. Memory for the advertisements and involvement in the programmes was measured. It was found that on three indices (free recall, brand recognition and prompted recall), memory for the sexual advertisements was superior to that for non‐sexual advertisements. There was no effect of the programme content on advertisement recall and no relationship between programme involvement and advertisement recall. The results are discussed with reference to extant literature on memory for advertisements. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Children's memory for television advertising: effects of programme–advertisement congruency

The effects of the surrounding programme environment and level of involvement upon children's memory (year 6 primary school, mean age 11.1, SD = 0.4, 48 boys and 69 girls) for television advertisements was examined by manipulating the degree of congruency between the production genre of the programme and the advertisements embedded within it. In Experiment One (n = 56) the ad‐break comprised either all cartoons (n = 4) or all non‐cartoons (n = 4). In Experiment Two (n = 61) cartoon and non‐cartoon advertisements were equally represented in each ad‐break. After viewing, participants provided evaluative ratings of the programme and completed memory tests for advertisements, using prompted recall and brand‐recognition tasks. Memory performance overall was better for cartoon advertisements than for non‐cartoon advertisements, with the latter being poorly remembered when presented in the non‐cartoon programme. In Experiment Two, the programme had no effect on overall recall of advertising, but was related to brand recognition, which was better for advertisements placed in the cartoon programme. Free recall of non‐cartoon advertisements was best when placed in the cartoon programme, while free recall only of cartoon advertisements was best when placed in the non‐cartoon programme. The measures of audience involvement (programme ratings) did not show any significant correlation with memory for advertising. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of programme context on memory of humorous television commercials

This study examined the effects of programme context on the memory of humorous television advertisements among a youth sample aged 16 to 18 years. Additionally, the relationship between the enjoyment and involvement properties of the programme and memory for advertisements were investigated. An experimental design was developed to test the memory for a set of six humorous and a set of six non-humorous advertisements within two programme contexts—a news bulletin and a comedy show. Findings indicated that unaided recall for advertisements was affected by programme type with memory for advertising being better from news than from comedy. Further, memory for humorous advertisements was better than that for non-humorous advertisements. Audience involvement with, and enjoyment of, the surrounding programme were found to be associated with poorer memory for advertisement content. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Selective exposure to television programmes and advertising effectiveness

This study focused on the influence of selective exposure within an experiment designed to investigate context effects on advertising effectiveness. In a semi‐natural viewing environment, 86 participants chose one of four television programmes to view. The programmes belonged to diverse genres: news and current affairs, light entertainment, sport, and action‐adventure. Each programme was interrupted by two commercial breaks containing unfamiliar advertisements for familiar product types. Self‐rated involvement, entertainment, and enjoyment of programmes correlated positively with subsequent measures of memory for and responses to the advertisements. The results support the hypothesis that the operation of selective exposure within an experimental situation may result in positive relationships between predictor variables and measures of advertisement effectiveness. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Memory for television advertisements as a function of advertisement–programme congruity

An experiment tested memory for a beer advertisement (placed either at the beginning or the end of the centre advertisement break) within four programme contexts featuring beer drinking either before and after, before or after the centre break, or not at all. The relationship between subjective audience evaluation of the programme and memory for advertisements was also investigated. The sample consisted of students (N = 79) aged 17 to 26 years. Brand recognition of the beer advertisement was significantly related to programme content, showing memory for the advertisement being enhanced when relevant programme material followed the break. Congruent material shown before the centre break had the reverse effect of impairing memory for the advertisement. Increased levels of programme involvement were found to be associated with improved recall and recognition of embedded advertisements but higher rated ‘happiness’ of the programme was associated with poorer memory for advertisement content. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of fear‐inducing content on memory for advertisements and on retroactive and proactive interference of programme information

The current study focused on whether fear‐inducing content in television advertisements leads to better memory for the advertisement but also impairs memory for programme information that either precedes the advertisements (retroactive interference) or that follows the advertisements (proactive interference). Fifty‐four participants (48 female) aged 18 to 55 watched a programme that had an advertisement break in the centre. This consisted of 6 advertisements with either fear‐inducing or nonfear‐inducing content. Participants were tested on their recall and recognition of the advertisement information as well as their recall of the first half and second half of the programme. The results indicated that fear‐inducing advertisements were better recalled than those that elicited no fear, and there was also evidence of proactive interference from fear‐inducing advertisements on programme recall. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed.     

Effects of Product–Program Congruity and Viewer Involvement on Memory for Televised Advertisements1

This study examined the effects of program context on the memory of congruent or incongruent television (TV) advertisements on a youth sample (N= 123) aged 16 to 19 years. An experimental design was developed to test memory for a set of 6 car advertisements and 6 food advertisements within 2 program contexts: a car program and a food program. Memory for car advertisements was significantly better than memory for food advertisements in the free‐recall condition, but the opposite was true in the cued‐recall condition. Free recall of car advertisements in the food program was significantly better than of food advertisements in the food program. Levels of involvement were found to be unrelated to recall and recognition of advertisements.     

The Effect of Sexual Programme Content on the Recall of Foreign Sexual and Non‐sexual Advertisements

This study explored the effect of programme content (sexual and non‐sexual) on the recall of sexual and non‐sexual advertisements. Seventy‐eight participants were allocated randomly to four different groups and viewed either a sexual or non‐sexual programme with either sexual or non‐sexual advertisements placed within. Free recall and cued recall of the advertisements were assessed. The sexual content of programmes impaired advertisement recall, for both free recall and cued recall. Furthermore, advertisements that were of a sexual nature were remembered better than neutral advertisements. There was also an interaction between advertisement type and gender; women remembered more sexual than non‐sexual advertisements, but this was not the case for men. Finally, there was an interaction between programme type and gender, with a marked tendency for men to recall fewer advertisements embedded in the sexual programme than women. Limitations and implications of this research are discussed.Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Advertisement–programme congruence in memory of sexual fragrance advertisements

The current study explored the effect of sexual content in advertisements and the programme–advertisement congruence on the memory of sexual and nonsexual advertisements. Seventy participants (41 females and 29 males) were randomly allocated to one of four conditions. They viewed either The Bachelorette (sexual programme) or I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! (nonsexual programme) with sexual or nonsexual fragrance advertisements placed within the programme. The order of the advertisements was counterbalanced across participants to control for order effects. Free and cued recall of the advertisements were assessed. As predicted, there was a main effect of advertisement type, with the sexual advertisements better recalled than the nonsexual advertisements. Contrary to our prediction, the sexual content of the programme did not have an effect on advertisement recall. There was an interaction between the advertisement type and programme type; sexual advertisements were remembered better when embedded within a sexual programme. Limitations of this study are considered.     

Does sex sell? The effect of sexual programme content on the recall of sexual and non-sexual advertisements

This study looked at the recall of sexual and non‐sexual television advertisements embedded within programmes, with or without, sexual content. It was predicted that there would be a detrimental effect of sexual programme content, and a beneficial effect of sexual advertisement content on ability to recall advertisements. Further, when programme and advertisement content were congruous (i.e. both sexual), this also would hinder recall. Participants aged between 18 and 31 were placed in one of four conditions and were shown either ‘Sex and the City’ (sexual programme) or ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ (non‐sexual programme) with sexual or non‐sexual advertisements embedded in each. Participants were then asked to recall advertisement details from the advertisements. The results indicated that there was a main effect of programme type, demonstrating that sexual programme content hindered recall of advertisements. However, there was no main effect of the type of advertisements seen (sexual or non‐sexual) on recall, nor was there a negative effect on recall when programme and advertisement content were congruous. An interaction between advertisements and sex of participants showed that males recalled sexual advertisements better and females recalled non‐sexual advertisements better. Limitations of the study are considered. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

I Saw It on the Radio: The Allocation of Attention to High-Imagery Radio Advertisements

This study was conducted to explore how the level of imagery in a radio advertisement affects the allocation of cognitive resources to encoding the message into memory. A within-subjects experiment was conducted in which participants listened to 24, 60-second radio advertisements that had been coded as either high- or low-imagery messages. Secondary-task reaction time was obtained during exposure to half of the advertisements, within each level of imagery. Self-reported involvement with the message was also obtained after exposure to each advertisement. Secondary-task reaction time was faster during exposure to the high-imagery advertisements. Self-reported involvement was greater for high-imagery advertisements, compared to low-imagery advertisements. Results of this study indicate that people allocate more controlled cognitive resources to encoding high-imagery radio advertisements than may be required by the message.     

Effects of Interest,Thematic Congruence,and Typicality on Memory for Television,Radio, and Press Advertisements of New Products

Little is known about how the content of advertisements is remembered. We studied how product interest, thematic congruence between advertisement and programme, and the typicality of the elements of an advertisement affect memory for new product ads in television, radio, and printed media. Participants were exposed to a single type of media with two embedded ads. After a filler task, they completed a true/false recognition task. In television and radio, accuracy was higher for the interesting product ads. In three experiments, we found no effect of thematic congruence, and the standard effect of typicality. In printed media, where participants are free to read the ads or not, the differences in hits and false alarms in typicality were due to a change in the response criterion and not to an effect on memory. We conclude that different results can be obtained depending on the exposure to different media. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does humor in radio advertising affect recognition of novel product brand names?

The authors proposed that item selection during shopping is based on brand name recognition rather than recall. College students rated advertisements and news stories of a simulated radio program for level of amusement (orienting activity) before participating in a surprise recognition test. Humor level of the advertisements was varied systematically, and content was controlled. According to signal detection analysis, humor did not affect the strength of recognition memory for brand names (nonsense units). However, brand names and product types were significantly more likely to be associated when appearing in humorous advertisements than in nonhumorous advertisements. The results are compared with prior findings concerning humor and recall.     

The contradictory effects of nostalgic advertisements on nostalgia for products and on remembering advertisements1

Our purpose was to investigate the relationships between the names of items that easily evoke nostalgic feelings and nostalgic advertisements from the perspective of nostalgia for the names of these items and from the perspective of source monitoring. We measured the effect of nostalgia on source monitoring and whether the names of items evoked nostalgic feelings when they were presented alone. We found that, from the perspective of the nostalgic feelings, we directly demonstrated that the names of articles that easily evoke nostalgic feelings are more likely to evoke nostalgia when they are presented with nostalgic advertisements than when they are presented with non‐nostalgic advertisements. From the perspective of source monitoring, we revealed that nostalgic advertisements are more forgettable than non‐nostalgic advertisements when they present the names of articles that easily evoke nostalgic feelings.     

Selling Sex to Radio Program Directors: A Content Analysis of Radio & Records Magazine

This study was designed to examine whether radio format and musical artists' gender predict sexual content in trade advertisements geared toward radio program directors. Advertisements were coded from one of the leading music trade magazines, Radio & Records magazine, between 2002 and 2003. Results indicated that overall women artists used sexual content in trade advertisements more often and to a greater degree than did men. In some cases, advertisements in radio formats with younger demographic markets, such as pop or hip-hop, also used higher levels of sexual content. It is concluded that the organizational context of the commercial music industry helps to perpetuate status differences between women and men artists, which may then bring about a cognitive bias in the field that promotes women artists' over reliance on using sexual content in trade advertisements.     

The effect of concordance in the treatment of clients with dental anxiety.

This study followed from an earlier case study in which an agoraphobic client was treated daily for a period of four weeks by in vivo exposure. Ratings of his perceived anxiety responses in the behavioural, cognitive, and physiological systems were monitored throughout treatment. Concordance between these ratings was associated with positive outcome. This study was an attempt to replicate some of these findings. A group programme involving four sessions in which clients were taught anxiety management skills, exposed in imagination to situations relating, to dentistry, and given homework assignments was carried out with clients presenting with disproportionate dental anxiety. The subjects were obtained by means of local newspaper and radio advertisements and randomly assigned to a massed or spaced treatment condition. It was predicted that the massed condition involving shorter intersession intervals would be superior at producing habituation and concordance than the spaced condition. The results failed to show differences between the massed and spaced treatment condition with regard to concordance and outcome. However, it was confirmed, once more, that concordance between the three modes of anxiety responding was positively related to outcome.     

Attention and Memory for Newspaper Advertisements: Effects of Ad–Editorial Congruency and Location

Previous research suggests that the same ad can have different effects depending upon the media context in which the ad appears. This experiment investigated how the semantic relation between the content of advertisements and editorial texts, and the ad location on newspaper pages affect attention and memory for advertisements. We recorded participants' eye movements while they read newspaper articles to rate how interesting the texts were. Recognition for ads, logos, and editorial headlines was measured on the following day. Results revealed a discrepancy between attention and memory results, suggesting that incongruency increased attention to ads, whereas congruency improved recognition of ads. In addition, ads presented on the right attracted more attention and were recognized better than ads on the left. The results have implications for pretesting of advertisements, because attention and memory for ads were associated with higher preference for brands, and purchase intention was enhanced for the brands that were recognized. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.