When thinking is beneficial and when it is not: The effects of thin and round advertising models

This study addresses the advertising effectiveness of round and thin models. Integrating previous findings and theories, the authors predict and find that impulsive and reflective product evaluations as responses to thin and round advertisement models diverge. Specifically, four experiments indicate that impulsive product evaluations follow a priming logic, such that the beauty of the model spills over directly onto product evaluations; thin models thus produce more favorable implicit responses than do round models. For reflective product evaluations however, this pattern appears reversed. Moreover, these explicit product evaluations are mediated by campaign liking.