The effectiveness of advertising among media multitaskers: The effects of argument strength and endorser attractiveness

In recent years, the phenomenon of media multitasking—using more than one medium at a time—has grown remarkably. However, we do not know much about how media multitasking affects the public’s responses to advertising. The purpose of this study is to investigate how people respond to endorser attractiveness and argument strength variables in advertising when attending to multiple media simultaneously. In particular, this study examines how people—varying in the extent to which they chronically engage in media multitasking—attend to substantive issues (i.e., argument strength) and peripheral information (i.e., endorser attractiveness) in advertisements when exposed to a media multitasking environment. In this experiment, I first measure the level of media multitasking and then manipulate the quality of argument strength and endorser attractiveness, then measure cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses, along with content comprehension level. The analyses reveal that participants’ level of media multitasking is positively correlated with free recall for product category and the critical brand. In addition, participants with higher media multitasking propensity have better overall and affective attitudes toward the brand following exposure to ads with weak arguments, while participants with lower media multitasking propensity have better overall and affective attitudes following exposure to ads with strong arguments.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Advertising

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Ryu, Sann

Contributors dc:contributor

• Vargas, Patrick T.

• Media Multitaskers
• Media Multitasking
• Advertising
• Information Processing
• Consumer Behavior
• Consumer Perception

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2014 Sann Ryu

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/49602

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F49602