Title: Internet advertising of offensive products: the effects of cartoons on adult consumer attitudes

Authors: Pakakorn Rakrachakarn; George P. Moschis; Thittapong Daengrasmisopon

Addresses: Graduate School, Stamford International University, Bangkok, Thailand ' Center for Mature Consumer Studies, Georgia State University, University Plaza, Atlanta, Georgia 30302-3991, USA; College of Management, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand ' Graduate School, Stamford International University, Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract: During recent decades, internet advertising has been increasingly used for promoting various types of products. As offensive products generally yield more negative responses to the audience, this study was conducted to identify the effects of different advertising designs on adult consumer responses to offensive product advertisements on the internet. A 4 × 4 factorial design was used in the experiment where internet users reported their responses to different banner advertising designs (with and without cartoons) of offensive and non-offensive products. The findings indicate that for the main effects of online banner advertising designs, cartoon ads (ad with drawing) have a less favourable effect on attitude toward the brand when it is non-cartoon (real images), regardless of product type (offensive or non-offensive). Moreover, there is a no interaction effect between ad design and product types on consumer response, even though cartoon ads used in offensive product advertising yield less favourable attitude toward the product than non-cartoon ads.

Keywords: internet advertising; offensive products; offensive advertising; advertising design; cartoons.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMA.2020.107659

International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, 2020 Vol.14 No.2, pp.152 - 167

Received: 10 May 2018
Accepted: 20 Jun 2019
Published online: 04 Jun 2020 *

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