The impact of program affective valence and level of cognitive appraisal on advertisement processing and effectiveness

This dissertation investigates the impact of program-elicited affective valence formed at different levels of cognitive appraisal on the processing and effectiveness of embedded advertisements. Cognitive appraisal refers to the process of evaluating and comparing a stimulus to memories and experiences in order to determine the impact of that stimulus on one's well-being. Previous research has demonstrated that appraisals of stimuli may be automatic and instantaneous (i.e. perceptual appraisal) under some circumstances, or deliberate and elaborative (i.e. conceptual appraisal) in others. Given this, it suggested that to understand the impact of a program context on an advertisement, both level of cognitive appraisal and affective valence must be considered. It is hypothesized that positive affective states elicited by the program enhance advertisement effectiveness only when these states are formed at low levels of appraisal. When positive affective states are formed at high levels of cognitive appraisal, advertisement effectiveness may be decreased. It is further hypothesized that negative affective states invoked by a program reduce advertisement effectiveness only when the affective reaction is formed at high levels of cognitive appraisal. When negative affective states are formed at low levels of cognitive appraisal, advertisement effectiveness is not expected to be lowered.;The results indicate that as the level of cognitive appraisal increases, less ad processing occurs and lower ad evaluations result. However, the facilitating effect of perceptual programs over conceptual programs varies depending on the program's affective valence. Program-elicited affective valence has no impact on ad evaluations or processing in the case of perceptual programs. On the other hand, the target ad is less effective in the negative-conceptual program compared to the positive-conceptual program. Thought-responses indicate that different processing mechanisms may be operating in the different program contexts. Additionally, the facilitating effect of perceptual programs over later advertisements in the pod does not seem to be diminished. However, the debilitating effect of conceptual programs on later ads in the pod is diminished. The results of the current study suggest that previous research indicating a facilitating effect of positive program contexts and a debilitating effect of negative program contexts is vastly oversimplified. The implications of this research for managers are discussed.