Advertising's misinformation effect

This research explores whether post-experience advertising alters informati on learned in a consumer's direct experience. An advertising misinformation effect was obtained for colour memory of a previously seen candy bar wrapp er upon both visual and verbal misinformation. However, the misleading visu al information produced more 'remember' judgements than misleading verbal i nformation. This advertising misinformation effect did not dissipate when t he source was discredited. We found that such memory changes can be directl y linked to consumer subjective judgements and choices when the misleading information is particularly salient. Not only do these findings constitute a novel generalizability of the misinformation effect, they also have impli cations for social policy research on deceptive advertising. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.