The impact of children's affective reactions elicited by commercials on attitudes toward the advertisement and the brand
Abstract
This research investigates the impact of children's affective reactions elicited by TV ads on two essential indicators of advertising effectiveness: the attitude toward the ad (Aad) and post exposure brand attitude (Abp). Working with children as subjects, minimizing forced exposure and using a real program in which real commercials were embedded, were the authors' methodological choices. This offered a setting as naturalistic as possible to assess the impact of verbal as well as non-verbal affective reactions, the latter being measured through facial expressions. It was clearly found that the evaluative judgments of the ad elements of execution — but not of the ad arguments — are instrumental in shaping children's Aad and Abp. Verbal affective reactions, especially the positive ones, are important predictors of Aad and Abp. The link between Aad and Abp is significant both for known and unknown brands. The contribution of facial expressions is limited. Aad does not mediate the impact of affective reactions on Abp. Finally, limitations of this study are pinpointed and issues for further research are offered.