Effects of absurdity in advertising: The moderating role of product category attitude and the mediating role of cognitive responses

For this paper, the presence or absence of an absurd image was manipulated in a simulated print advertisement for a fictitious brand of wine cooler. C onsumers' prior attitude toward wine coolers was hypothesized to moderate t he effectiveness of absurdity in advertising. Consumers' cognitive response s were hypothesized to mediate the impact of absurdity and prior product ca tegory attitude on consumers' persuasion as measured by consumers' attitude to the ad and brand. The results supported the moderating role of prior pr oduct category attitude and a distraction hypothesis explanation of this ef fect. For subjects with negative prior attitude toward wine coolers, those viewing the absurd ad had a more positive attitude to the ad and brand than those viewing the non-absurd ad. However, for subjects with positive prior attitude toward wine coolers, those viewing the absurd ad did not differ i n their ad or brand attitude than those viewing the non-absurd ad. The resu lts also supported the mediating role of cognitive responses of these effec ts. Finally, absurdity was found to impact brand name recall in a manner th at paralleled the results for the persuasion measures.