Recall of television commercials as a function of viewing context: The impact of program-commercial congruity on commercial messages

The effect of the congruity between the involvement types of advertising co mmercial and a television program on the effectiveness of the commercial wa s studied. Participants (N = 103) viewed either a cognitive or an affective commercial for a product, which was embedded in either a cognitive or an a ffective television program. The results showed that the effects of the con gruence influence the impact on memory. Free recall and cued recall were si gnificantly influenced by the program-commercial congruity. Free recall and cued recall were significantly higher for the cognitively involving commer cial in the cognitively involving program context than in the affectively i nvolving program context. Similarly, free recall and cued recall were signi ficantly higher for the affectively involving commercial in the affectively involving program context than in the cognitively involving program contex t.