Understanding the mental representations created by comparative advertising

Despite theories suggesting that the cognitive impact of comparative advert isements differs from that of noncomparative ads, little progress has been made toward empirically understanding the types of mental representations e ngendered by these forms of advertising. The current research provides evid ence pertinent to this issue across three experiments. As anticipated, comp arative ads are more likely to cause mental impressions about the advertise d brand relative to competitors than are noncomparative ads. The results al so indicate that differentiative comparative ads generate disassociative ra ther than the associative mental impressions previously thought to characte rize the processing of such ads. In addition, the findings demonstrate that both relative and nonrelative impressions may be formed following exposure to comparative ads. Implications are drawn for interpreting the findings o f prior investigations, as well as for undertaking future research on compa rative advertising.