Image Advertisements’ Influence on Adolescents’ Perceptions of the Desirability of Beer and Cigarettes

The authors examine whether attitude toward the ad (A_ad) and attitude toward the brand (A_b) mediate the effects of visual, image-oriented content in advertisements on perceptions of the desirability of beer and cigarettes, as well as of soft drinks. Adolescents (n = 384) rated either image advertisements with visuals for cigarettes, beer, and soft drinks or comparable tombstone advertisements that had no photographs or drawings. Advertisements with image-oriented visuals were found to directly produce more positive A_ad, A_b, and attitude toward the product category (A_pc) evaluations than did the tombstone versions. The authors then used structural equation modeling to examine the relationship among A_ad, A_b, and A_pc. The results were generally supportive of the proposed mediating model. Also, little support was found for the assumption of some advocacy groups and policymakers that to be well received by adolescents, cigarette advertisements require human models. The authors discuss implications of findings for advertising research and public policy.