TELEVISION PROGRAMMING AND ITS INFLUENCE ON VIEWERS PERCEPTIONS OF COMMERCIALS - THE ROLE OF PROGRAM AROUSAL AND PLEASANTNESS

The authors report the findings of an experiment that investigated the influence of television programs on viewers' perceptions of televisio n commercials. Specifically, program arousal and program pleasantness were examined as potentially important determinants of viewers' emotio nal responses to advertising. The experiment used a two (levels of pro gram arousal) by two (levels of program pleasantness) design to assess the effects of the independent variables on viewers' perceptions of c ommercial pleasantness for a pod of four commercials. As hypothesized, an assimilation effect occurred in the high arousal condition and a c ontrast effect occurred in the low arousal condition. Implications of these results for researchers and practitioners are discussed.